CHICAGO -Republican presidential contender Ben Carson on Thursday called the Chicago police shooting of Laquan McDonald “despicable” but stopped short of saying Mayor Rahm Emanuel should resign. State lawmakers propose a “Recall Rahm” bill.
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Protesters also want a new policy instituted within CPD when it comes to police involved shootings.
“These people are marching because time and time again black people and people of color and poor people are being mistreated by this legal system here called the Chicago police”, Hunter said.
“We’re here today because there’s a problem in the city of Chicago when an officer who has sworn to serve and protect can gun down a citizen for no other reason than he was black”, added Hunter, who said McDonald was a “big boy, but he was a teddy bear”. Family members are also expected to demand more change from inside the Chicago Police Department and call for city, state and federal resources to be invested into the West Side community of Lawndale to benefit struggling residents.
Hunter says the teen always greeted friends and family with a hug and was a “jokester”.
Pastor Hunter said President Barack Obama, who was not asked to attend to summit, was once on the forefront of change: “his campaign was change”, he said. The county’s top public prosecutor announced charges against the officer just hours before the video was made public. Video of the shooting, which happened past year, was released November 24 following a court order.
McDonald family attorney Jeff Neslund warned the city in a letter to the Corporation Counsel’s office on March 6th of this year: “This case will undoubtedly bring a microscope of national attention to the shooting” and “the City’s pattern, practice and procedures”. He’s reported on the Chicago police department for years; he unearthed McDonald’s autopsy and has continued to pursue the story. But on December 11, one of their attorneys, Jeffrey Neslund, said the city understood that if Van Dyke was not charged that he and attorney Michael Robbins would release the video that they had obtained as part of their legal work for the family. Emanuel apologized in recent days that the incident occurred under his administration.
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Emauel has come under fire, with protesters demanding his resignation, over his handling of the McDonald case. He fired the police chief and named a new head of the police review agency that investigates police conduct.
