Five people were arrested Monday night in a demonstration near the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, protesting the handling of a police shooting that killed a teenage boy in Chicago. The mayor’s office and the Chicago Police Department were accused of suppressing the public release of police squad vehicle video that painted a different picture of the McDonald shooting than leaders initially described.
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“We can’t look at our police officers as if they are the problem, because they’re not the only issue”. Others at the protest are heard calling an arresting officer a “pig” and demanding his badge number.
Ald. Will Burns (4th), who said his dad was a police officer, recognized the risk of police work, but also talked of duty.
As they prepared to hold a public hearing to talk about the department’s policies and practices, which have been called into question following the fatal police shooting of Laquan McDonald Aldermen were putting a spotlight on the Chicago Police Department on Tuesday. McDonald was carrying a 3-inch blade, and was walking away from Van Dyke when the officer opened fire on Pulaski Road on Chicago’s Southwest Side, according to prosecutors.
Critics have alleged a cover-up in the case, since it took more than a year since McDonald was killed to bring criminal charges.
Police tactics and racism have been the subject of an intense national debate since sometimes violent protests erupted in Ferguson, Missouri in summer 2014 over the shooting death of another black teen, 18-year-old Michael Brown.
We hope Justice will also investigate whether Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and city officials prevented the release of a videotape of the shooting for political reasons.
That task force was announced the same day McCarthy was sacked.
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But Cannon said the inconsistencies in Rickey Williams’ account of the 2011 incident “taxes the gullibility of the credulous”, the Chicago Tribune reported.
