Despite the firing of Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, a tearful apology from Mayor Rahm Emanuel and a looming federal investigation into the Police Department, protesters have shown little signs of giving in.
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Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is a world-class political operative, but the brass-knuckled approach that made him effective as an aide to presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama – and delivered Nancy Pelosi the House speaker’s gavel in 2007 – hasn’t served him well as a big-city executive.
“While the independent investigation is ongoing we will be doing our own review of our policies and practices surrounding the response to mental health crises”, acting police Superintendent John Escalante said in a statement.
Another told CNN the angst between Chicago residents and police is not new. As the mayor said today, respect must be earned and is a two-way street. Several groups rallied in the city’s main shopping district on Black Friday angry at how the city had handled the McDonald case.
Joseph Moore, 58, of Chicago, said his son, Jamaal Moore, 23, was killed in a 2012 police shooting. And, after all, a focus on Emanuel could distract from the broader goals of finding out what happened and reforming the Chicago Police Department.
Alvarez acknowledged that the dash-cam video of Johnson’s shooting was of poor quality, but she said she believes it shows Johnson holding an object in his hand. “We’re going to get this done now”, Livingston said.
For years, watchdogs, lawyers and journalists have documented instances of police misconduct, including violent episodes caught on video and then subjected to the same silent treatment that almost buried the death of black teenager Laquan McDonald, who was shot to death by a white Chicago police officer in October 2014. Activists and local elected officials have called for the Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez to step down.
Addressing the police force, Emanuel said, “We can not ask citizens in crime-ravaged neighborhoods to break the code of silence if we continue to let a code of silence exist in our own police department”. “We just witnessed the mayor basically put a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound”, Bishop James Dukes, pastor of Liberation Christian Center in Englewood, told CBS Chicago.
At 2 p.m., a press conference is set to be held outside Chicago Police Headquarters with former employees from the Independent Police Review Authority who say they were fired for not justifying police shootings.
They had barely begun marching down Dearborn Street when young demonstrator Lamon Reccord, noted in part for staring down police officers tasked with supervising marches, began running down the street with several officers chasing him. A video of the event released last month shows McDonald moving away from police as they fatally shoot him 16 times in the middle of the road.
“And if we’re going to fix it, I want you to understand that it’s my responsibility”. Police say it was the gun recovered near his body. “This is not a racial issue, it’s a democracy issue”, she said Thursday.
Clad in white coats, Chicago medical students and physicians joined the call for Mayor Rahm Emanuel to resign Thursday as they staged a 16-minute die-in in front of City Hall.
Protester Angelina Espindola was not interested in Emanuel’s apology.
One state lawmaker – a Democrat – introduced legislation that would allow for the recall of a Chicago mayor.
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Emanuel and the new head of the agency that investigates police shootings said they want the city’s inspector general to launch an investigation into the McDonald shooting.
