Chicago police recommend firing 7 cops in McDonald case

Two of the 10 officers cited in the I.G. reports have since retired. The video showed that McDonald was armed with a knife but was not moving toward the responding officers when he was shot.

According to the Chicago Sun Times, Johnson spared an eighth officer, who is female, because he disagreed with the city Inspector General’s recommendation for her to be fired as well.

Technically speaking, the seven officers in question are accused of “making a false report” about the circumstances of McDonald’s death, but given the video of the incident and the autopsy, a less generous description would probably involve the words lying and cover up.

As long as those officers remained on the job, there could be no progress in the effort to pursue truth, reconciliation and, eventually, trust, between law enforcement and our communities.

The decision now heads to the city’s Police Board for a final determination, the department said. Each officer will have their right to due process. However, a portion of the shooting was captured on video, which differed greatly from the accounts of the officers on the scene.

But Angelo says officers’ interpretation of what unfolded may have been accurate from their perspective.

“That’s what humans go through”, he said.

He also stripped the officers of their police powers.

In the wake of national outrage over the case, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired the former superintendent of police and hired Eddie Johnson in March. “He gets the crisis that we are in and how to solve it”, said Jedidiah Brown, a leader of a group called Chicago Life.

“I don’t see how they can change back to the way things were before”, he said.

Officer Jason Van Dyke was suspended without pay and charged with murder.

I applaud Superintendent Johnson for taking swift and decisive action, pursuant to the Inspector General’s report and the recommendations of IPRA Director Sharon Fairley, to remove from the CPD the officers involved in covering up the horrific murder of Laquan McDonald.

Separately, a special prosecutor is investigating whether the officers lied to justify the shooting death of McDonald and will decide whether to bring criminal charges. The video shows the officer continued to fire after McDonald, 17, fell to the ground. McDonald swung the knife at the officers in an “aggressive manner” when he was 12 to 15 feet away, Walsh told investigators.

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Multiple officers wrote that, even after McDonald had been shot, he still posed a threat.