Several black IL lawmakers are asking the U.S. Department of Justice to expand its investigation of the Chicago Police Department to include the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and the civilian agency that investigates officer misconduct.
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U.S. authorities will look at the department’s use of force, including deadly force, among other issues, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said at a news briefing.
In October 2014, 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times by Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke.
The announcement comes almost two weeks after the city released the explosive video of a white Chicago police officer shooting a black teenager 16 times, killing him.
Emanuel’s comments came at a news conference hours after the Department of Justice announced a civil rights investigation into racial disparities and the use of force by Chicago police.
In March, the department released a scathing report of the Ferguson police force in the state of Missouri that found widespread discrimination against the black communities among law enforcement officials.
The video was held from the public for more than a year because releasing it risked prejudicing a federal and state’s attorney investigation, Emanuel explained amid the backlash.
Emanuel, who is under pressure from critics over the McDonald case and initially disagreed with calls for a federal civil rights investigation, said on Monday that Lynch would have the city’s “complete cooperation”.
Anita Alvarez, the county state’s attorney, cited “the totality of the evidence” when announcing Monday that she would not charge Officer George Hernandez in the death of 25-year-old Ronald Johnson III.
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.
Johnson’s mother Dorothy Holmes, who has fought to have the video released, told reporters she hopes someday Alvarez will “feel the pain I feel”.
Newly released video that shows Chicago police dragging a man who later died in custody has prompted the embattled department to reopen an investigation into the three-year-old incident.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the police department are under intense scrutiny over their handling of McDonald’s 2014 death. The video was also slowed down to show what McCarthy said was a gun in Johnson’s hand.
Asked for his thoughts on Alvarez’s decision against bringing criminal charges against Hernandez in Johnson’s death, Emanuel said that she “walked through the entire case why she made her decision”.
The footage appears to contradict police reports that McDonald, who they say was holding a four-inch knife, had swung at them in an “aggressive, exaggerated manner”.
“I think Attorney General Loretta Lynch makes a really interesting point that has been borne out by data released recently by the Chicago Police Department”, he says. It showed Mr. McDonald seeming to try to jog or walk past officers, then veering at an angle away from them before being shot, again and again, even as he lay on the pavement.
The investigation will be led by the Justice Department’s civil rights division.
He says he welcomes the Dept of Justice federal probe into the patterns and practices of by CPD and what he says are repeated cover ups of brutality and politically motivated actions by higher ups in the city including Mayor Emanuel.
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The investigation will search for patterns of unconstitutional policing practices throughout the police force. “We can not trust them”. Percy Coleman said he and a neighbor had to stand in front of his son and police to keep officers from shooting him. The mayor announced that he fired McCarthy and was setting up an independent panel that would review police training. The federal government has the option of suing a police department that is unwilling to make changes.
