The announcements came a week after the officer, Jason Van Dyke, was charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Laquan McDonald, who was shot 16 times.
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Police released a video Tuesday showing the shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, who was killed by an officer in October 2014.
Rahm Emanuel sought for months to keep the public from seeing a video that shows a white police officer shooting a black teenager 16 times.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported today that after meeting yesterday with mayor Rahm Emanuel at city hall, Garry McCarthy was sent an overnight notice saying he was sacked.
Politicians, community leaders and key activists joined a Black Friday protest along Michigan Avenue to call for reform in the wake of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald’s fatal shooting. Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez brought charges only after a court ordered the release of the video, after an investigation taking more than 13 months. Why? The release set off several days of largely peaceful protests.
Mr. Van Dyke is the first Chicago police officer to be charged with first-degree murder in 35 years. More upsetting to the city, however, is that it is very likely there were more cases similar to this in the past not made public.
The city fought to hide the video, even after the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune and a freelance journalist all filed FOIA requests for its release. “I expect you do the same”. Herbert said Van Dyke will eventually be cleared.
Van Dyke then fired 16 rounds at McDonald in about 14 seconds and was reloading when another officer told him to hold his fire, prosecutors said at bond court.
Prosecutors charged Van Dyke with murder hours before the judge’s deadline to release the video.
The NAACP in New Jersey said McCarthy was more concerned about improving the safety of downtown Newark than of its neighborhoods. Phillip Rutherford, Dean’s uncle, told reporters that his nephew was never serious about an attack and had done something “silly” and “stupid” because he’d had too much time on his hands. Further examination has also revealed that, although McDonald carried a knife the day he was killed, “the three inch blade recovered from the scene had been folded into the handle”.
Third, we need a new police chief and a new police culture.
There appear to be no criminal proceedings against Van Dyke before last week, but a jury did award a Chicago man $350,000 after determining that Van Dyke used excessive force during a traffic stop.
Emanuel has argued he didn’t release the recording for fear of interfering with the investigation, though Judge Franklin Valderrama ruled there were no grounds for such a position.
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In the audio-free video, McDonald can be seen walking down the middle of a four-lane street. Under mounting pressure to fire his top cop, Emanuel announced on Monday that he’ll appoint a police accountability task force to assess the department’s policies-a tried and true stalling tactic. He is facing up to five years in prison.
