“Today, I am announcing that the Department of Justice has opened an investigation into whether the Chicago Police Department has engaged in a pattern or practice of violations of the Constitution or federal law”. US Attorney General Loretta Lynch says the department is particularly interested in hearing from community groups and the rank-and-file of the Chicago Police Department.
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Eyewitness News has learned the Independent Police Review Authority is asking the Inspector General to look into official reports made by other officers.
Cook County Judge Franklin Valderrama ruled that the police department could not use an ongoing investigation as a reason to lawfully withhold the video because other law enforcement agencies, not the department itself, were conducting the investigation. Coleman clashed violently with police officers at the hospital where he was taken for treatment, trying to seize an officer’s Taser, it said. Some chanted for Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez and Mayor Rahm Emanuel to step down. And Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has specifically asked the Justice Department to look at excessive force and “the lack of accountability for such abuse”.
It’s rare for Alvarez to go to such lengths to explain why charges were not warranted, but she has come under heavy criticism in recent weeks for waiting more than a year to charge Van Dyke. Investigators also will scrutinize systems set up to ensure officers are held accountable and disciplined, as well as police training.
The incident in the video released Monday night took place in December of 2012, when the man, 38-year-old Phillip Coleman, was in custody for allegedly attacking his mother in their home and purportedly spitting on police officers when they arrived to arrest him, according to police reports.
A week after the runoff, the city of Chicago agreed to a $5 million settlement with McDonald’s family, which included a clause to keep video footage of the shooting confidential. A squad-car video of the shooting sparked days of protests, criticism of how Emanuel and other officials handled the incident, and calls for federal intervention.
“Johnson could have easily turned around and quickly fired at the officers pursuing him or even fired as he ran”, she said.
The Chicago Police Department is pleased with the decision, as it also believe the shooting was justified, stating in its initial release that “the offender [Johnson] pointed his weapon in the direction of the pursuing officers”. The city’s early efforts to suppress its release coincided with Emanuel’s re-election campaign, when the mayor was seeking African-American votes in a tight race.
On Monday, Emanuel talked up Fairley’s qualifications and said she would help “to reinvigorate an essential oversight body that we as a city rely on as it relates to oversight and accountability in the police department”.
Emanuel, who initially disagreed with calls for a federal civil rights investigation and is under pressure from critics over the McDonald case and, also said Lynch would have the city’s “complete cooperation”.
Alvarez focused on one still frame of the video, in which she said it appears Johnson is holding a gun, although Johnson’s family’s lawyer Michael Oppenheimer maintained that there is no gun visible in the video. After announcing McCarthy had stepped down, Emanuel told reporters the former police superintendent had “become an issue rather than dealing with the issue”.
Since the release of the video, Emanuel forced Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy to resign and formed a task force to examine the police department. “But when community members feel that they are not receiving that kind of policing”.
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The Justice Department has opened 23 investigations of police departments since the start of the Obama administration.
