“They face the effects in terms of psychological and physical trauma, and we want to stand here on behalf of our patients”, he said.
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Protesters walked down the Magnificent Mile, stopping at intersections and disrupting motorists.
“This speech probably made things worse for him with every constituency except for his lap dog City Council”, tweeted Mariame Kaba, founder and director of Project NIA, which works to end youth incarceration.
The public pressure Emanuel feels to resign may be informed by Chicago’s mayoral history.
But mending relationships takes time, and as the protests on the streets of Emanuel’s beloved city make clear, the time for honest action from Chicago’s mayor might have already passed in the eyes of those who matter. On the same day the grisly video was released, the county prosecutor charged the officer in question, Jason Van Dyke, who is white, with the murder of McDonald.
Police tactics and racism have been the subject of an intense national debate since protests erupted in Ferguson, Missouri in summer 2014 over the shooting death of another black teen, 18-year-old Michael Brown.
Last week, Earnest said that “by commenting on this at great length, I think would be viewed by some as improperly interfering with an ongoing independent criminal investigation”. It was only through an independent lawsuit brought by a journalist after his Freedom of Information Act request was denied by the city that the footage was revealed, leading to charges being filed against Van Dyke.
But police brutality opponents say the measures follow years of inaction under Mayor Emanuel’s administration.
She said the black community “has been awakened”, and Emanuel can expect a tougher re-election if he tries again.
“What I felt while watching it and after watching it”, he said, “is that we had a mayor that was elected to govern the city, yet he was surprised by how the city operated”.
The demonstration later shut down State Street as protesters marched through one of the city’s major shopping districts. And I’m committed to making the changes the city desperately needs.
The skeletons are slowly crawling out of the Chicago Police Department’s closet.
But she won’t be back there for another two weeks, she said.
Protesters spent Wednesday marching and demanding his resignation. The two demonstrators were later released.
But David Beltran, a Chicago musician, jumped in with the idea to turn the fake Facebook event – something Brown admits she creates quite often – into an actual planned protest.
In a special address to the City Council, the mayor said “I’m sorry” and promised “complete and total reform of the system”.
“Specifically, we will examine a number of issues related to the Chicago Police Department’s use of force, including its use of deadly force, racial, ethnic and other disparities in its use of force”, US Attorney General Loretta Lynch told the press.
Others expressed skepticism about Emanuel’s newly created policing task force.
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Under these circumstances Emanuel is carefully weighing what evidence of police misconduct they can keep hidden and what should be volunteered to the public to mitigate the political impact.
