One of the demonstrators outside of the council hall before Emanuel’s speech said the mayor must step aside. As I said the other day, I own it. I take responsibility for what happened because it happened on my watch.
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“The mayor says the city now needs to begin the process of healing and restoring trust and confidence in the police department….”
He said at a city council meeting he promises “complete and total” reform after the death of Laquan McDonald, 17.
Emanuel addressed the City Council at the same time a federal judge weighed whether to release yet another video purportedly showing the deadly shooting of a teenager at the hands of police.
Officer Jason Van Dyke has been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting.
Emanuel, whose voice cracked as he spoke about families who have lost children to the city’s violence, criticized the police department for being quick to shoot, saying the department’s “supervision and leadership” had failed.
Hundreds of protesters took to Chicago’s streets Wednesday, blocking traffic and reportedly attempting to storm business buildings while calling for Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s resignation. The incident was captured on dash-cam video, and protesters demanded that the footage be released.
“Historically Chicago does not have a good name with the treatment of the people, treatment of citizens”.
The new head of a body that investigates allegations of wrongdoing by Chicago police says she’s reopening the investigation of a black man who died in 2012 after officers used a stun gun on him and dragged him from a jail cell.
The mayor also discussed the city’s recent agreement to bring in the ACLU to conduct an independent civil rights review of the police department, separate from the Justice Department investigation in possible civil rights violations by the police department – an investigation that the mayor originally opposed as “misguided”.
We see how the mayor manipulated that to win elections.
“We will be a better city for it”, the mayor said Wednesday. Emanuel called for the resignation of Police Chief Superintendent Garry McCarthy last week. “We can put trust back in the community… if an officer does wrong they’re going to be disciplined for it, they can no longer hide under the code of [silence]”, Beale said. Police briefly detained two people during the protest near Dearborn and Washington as several other activists gathered around the vehicle chanting “Hell no, we won’t go”. It wasn’t until Monday that reporters first saw video of his death, with Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez saying the officer who killed Johnson won’t face charges.
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In the meantime, if Mayor Emanuel wants to find a police director capable and worthy of the vast challenge of running the Chicago PD, he will need to think outside the box.
