Screengrab/Chicago Police DepartmentA screen grab of dash cam video from the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald, in which an officer fired on the teenager 16 times in October 2014.Dashcam footage from the incident shows police shooting McDonald, who was black, 16 times as he walked away from police officers on a Chicago road, including multiple times after he had fallen to the ground.
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U.S. authorities will look at the department’s use of force, including deadly force, among other issues, Lynch said at a news briefing to announce the civil probe. Lynch explained the goal of the investigation is to determine whether the department “has engaged in a pattern or practice of violation of the Constitution or federal law” with regard to its use of force and its procedures for holding officers accountable.
Lynch said lawyers from the Justice Department’s civil rights division will lead the federal probe into the Chicago police force, which will be wider than a parallel U.S. investigation into the fatal shooting of McDonald.
The State’s Attorney’s Office gave a power point presentation and showed the dashboard camera video of a white police officer shooting and killing Ronald Johnson, 25, the second such video to be released in two weeks.
Why again, as in the McDonald case, did the police dashcam video have no audio? Hours later, Chicago police release the video, sparking several days of protests. Some chanted for Alvarez and Mayor Rahm Emanuel to step down.
But IPRA can only make recommendations for officer discipline, with the final determination made by the police superintendent of the police board.
The FBI, DOJ and the Independent Police Review Authority are all now reviewing the McDonald case, including claims that police tampered with surveillance video from a nearby Burger King restaurant that captured the shooting.
On Sunday, the head of the Independent Police Review Authority, Scott Ando, resigned from his position with the agency, which is charged with investigating allegations of police misconduct.
Officer Jason Van Dyke responds to a call about a teenager breaking into cars and stealing radios.
Among the general questions the investigation will seek to answer: Are abuses widespread or are they isolated to a few rogue officers?
Among the most notorious cases of wrongdoing, dozens of men, mostly African-American, said they were subjected to torture from a Chicago police squad headed by former commander Jon Burge during the 1970s, ’80s and early ’90s, and many spent years in prison.
“When you have a bunch of police officers now covering up, every case they’ve worked on before that, during that time and since is now suspect”, Milan said.
The University of Chicago said last month that an analysis by its civil rights and police accountability clinic found of 56,000 complaints against Chicago police – but only a fraction led to disciplinary action.
In theory, but she has failed at that, so now that job should go to United States Attorney Loretta E. Lynch, who has already launched an investigation into the Chicago Police Department.
While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. In five of the 10 police departments for which sufficient data was provided, use of force by officers increased during and after the agreements.
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Michael Oppenheimer, an attorney for Johnson’s family, called Alvarez’ explanation a “joke”, and protesters took to the streets Monday evening. Assistant State’s Attorney Lynn McCarthy told a news conference Monday that Johnson did not obey several orders from police officers to drop his weapon. Van Dyke also referred to a Chicago Police Department bulletin warning officers of a knife capable of firing a bullet. Baltimore police are also under federal scrutiny.
