Dean Angelo, president of a fraternal order of police chapter, said his members oppose the release because video clips have been edited down and do not present the full picture of what happened. The two men exchange words and then the officer quickly lunges for the man’s throat, before eventually forcing him to the ground.
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The video captured from a second-floor window shows police surrounding 39-year-old Michael Cote of MI after they responded to a call about a traffic accident in the Wicker Park neighborhood.
IPRA chief administrator Sharon Fairley added, “These past few months, as this city has struggled with so many questions about policing and about police accountability, it has been clear that we all agree that there’s a lack of trust and that increased transparency is essential to rebuilding that trust”.
These were officially released online along with videos and information involving 98 other serious police incidents – an unprecedented attempt at transparency to root out cop misconduct and restore public confidence. “The real test is, what does the new normal look like going forward?”
Another video shows a police officer opening fire as he is charged by a shirtless Ismael Jamison.
When the video which showed black teen Laquan McDonald shot 16 times by a white officer was finally released last winter, organizers held protests across the city calling for Emanuel to resign.
The Justice Department also launched an investigation into the police department, the country’s second-biggest local law enforcement agency.
Officers initially said that McDonald had lunged at the with a knife, but footage of the killing, which was not released until November a year ago, appears to show the teen moving away from cops. Officers tried to get the men to surrender, but when the suspects tried to drive off and the vehicle hit an officer, police fired shots, according to the police report. Some of the 101 cases have multiple audio, video and document files that have been made public. But a handful of others contain stark images of the kind of violent – and sometimes deadly – encounters that critics of the Chicago Police Department say are all too common. The officer who shot him, Jason Van Dyke, was charged with first-degree murder just hours before the video was released, and a Cook County judge said Thursday he would appoint a special prosecutor to handle the case. Both people are now suing the Chicago Police Department.
“The release and availability of this evidence illustrates the challenges our officers face every day when they put their lives on the line to protect the city of Chicago”, Eddie Johnson, the police superintendent, said in a statement Friday. In interviews, Task Force chairwoman Lori Lightfoot has lauded the efforts of IPRA Director Sharon Fairley, who took over the agency after Emanuel fired her predecessor previous year amid the outcry that followed the release of the McDonald video.
Video of the incident shows an officer slamming Simmons into a squad auto and striking Smith in the head with a baton.
The database includes more than 300 videos from body cameras, dashboard cameras, and bystander videos, plus audio recordings from 911 calls and police radio transmissions.
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“We are experiencing a sea change, and lots of credit should go around for that”, Futterman said.
