CHICAGO – Mayor Rahm Emanuel ousted Chicago’s police superintendent on Tuesday, responding to an uproar over a white officer shooting a black teenager 16 times and anger at the Police Department for resisting, for more than a year, release of a video of the fatal shooting.
Advertisement
The Chicago Urban League also called for the division to investigate the department, specifically calling for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the October 2014 shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.
In May, the city formally apologized for 20 years of torture led by a white former police commander, mainly against black men. And it would likely have ended the career of the police superintendent, Garry F. McCarthy … There is a history of it. We have worked hard to address these concerns over the past four-and-a-half years through intensive training, new policies governing the use of force. But we must get to that confidence and trust to build what I think is necessary, as I said, towards a solution.
The mayor praised McCarthy’s leadership of the force but called it an “undeniable fact” that the public’s trust in the police had eroded.
In the wake of a scandal, Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel is cleaning house, but critics want him to go all the way to the top. A judge sided with the journalist, and the footage was released last week. “At this point and this juncture for the city, given what we’re working on, he has become an issue rather than someone dealing with the issue”. Van Dyke opens fire on McDonald who is spun completely around from the force of at least one shot before he falls and lies motionless in the middle of the street. The footage was not made public until last week, after a court order.
McDonald was holding a knife but was several feet away from Van Dyke and was not approaching him when the gunfire began.
When asked by reporters why he was firing McCarthy, Emanuel said that he had become “a distraction”.
Emanuel, who also announced a newly created task force on police accountability, said Chief of Detectives John Escalante will oversee the police department until a permanent replacement is named.
November 30: Chicago resident Jabari R. Dean is charged in a federal complaint with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce. The officer fired off 16 rounds in a short amount of time, saying he feared for his life. At 10 a.m. on Monday mourning (sic) I am going to the campus quad of the University of Chicago.
Advertisement
“I’m grateful for his service to the city”, he said, adding that the superintendent had modernized the department and delivered results.
