The mayor said that either the actions of the officers involved or the policies of the department were at fault – and that he hadn’t received a good enough answer on either point from the former leadership of the Independent Police Review Authority.
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The US Department of Justice will investigate the Chicago Police Department following protests over the city’s handling of last year’s killing of a black teenager shot by a white police officer. One of the officers lowered his weapon to restrain Johnson in handcuffs. Alvarez alleged that Ronald Johnson III, who was shot in the back while running away from the police, was carrying a gun, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Alvarez said that based on a review of the evidence and the law, “the prosecution could not establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the actions of Officer Hernandez were not reasonable and permissible”. “Nothing is more important to me than the safety and well-being of our residents and ensuring that the men and women of our Police Department have the tools, resources and training they need to be effective crime fighters, stay safe, and build community trust”. Prosecutors have charged Van Dyke with first-degree murder.
Alvarez has been criticized for not filing charges long ago in the McDonald case, in which the video shows the teen veering away from officers when Van Dyke opens fire from close range.
Since then, the city’s police superintendent and the head of the Independent Police Review Authority have both stepped down.
The investigation comes amid rising tensions in the city following the release of a graphic police dashcam video of the October 20, 2014 incident that shows 17-year-old Laquan McDonald shot 16 times by a police officer.
Alvarez said Monday the officer will not face charges. 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”.
Johnson’s shooting death has been compared to that of Laquan McDonald, who was gunned down by an officer just eight days after Johnson.
On Monday, Alvarez’s news conference came about two hours after the U.S. Justice Department announced it would investigate the Chicago Police Department for patterns of racial disparity in the use of force in the aftermath of McDonald’s shooting.
Lynch said lawyers from the Justice Department’s civil rights division will lead the federal probe into the Chicago police force, which will be wider than a parallel U.S. investigation into the fatal shooting of McDonald. Other departments that have gone under the microscope include those in Cleveland; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Portland, Oregon; Newark, New Jersey; Seattle, New Orleans and Ferguson, Missouri, where the fatal police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown prompted months of protests.
Assistant State’s Attorney Lynn McCarthy told a news conference Monday that Johnson did not obey several orders from police officers to drop his weapon.
Monday’s demonstrations followed a hectic day as officials publicly released video of the shooting amid competing narratives between Alvarez and the Johnson family attorney, who filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit shortly after Johnson was killed.
Johnson was leaving a party near Washington Park on the city’s South Side when the auto he was a passenger in was shot at multiple times but an unknown gunman, Alvarez said.
The Justice Department has opened 23 investigations of police departments since the start of the Obama administration.
“All three of them – the police, City Hall and the prosecutor’s office – are suspect”, Jackson said.
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If unconstitutional practices are found, the Justice Department will seek court-enforced reforms of the police force, she said.
