The family of McDonald, a black teenager shot 16 times by a white Chicago police officer, stepped forward Friday, weeks after a video of the 2014 killing set off days of protests, calls for the mayor’s resignation and demands for an overhaul of the police department.
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The release of a police video of the shooting of the adolescent along with the submitting of a murder charge against Van Dyke on November 24 arrived more than a year after McDonald’s departure.
The family of Laquan McDonald wants Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez to resign and is calling for a White House summit on police brutality to be held in Chicago.
The delay in releasing the video, he said, “represents a failure of government and everybody loses in a situation like that”.
The Department of Justice announced this week that is has launched a civil rights investigation into the Chicago Police Department’s pattern and practices and will focus on the use of force and accountability within the police department. Instead, the messages “show the City Hall press office was made aware of the possibility of video of the Laquan McDonald shooting on December 8, 2014”, the station reports.
Hundreds of protesters marched through the streets of Chicago and staged “die-ins” on Thursday, calling for the resignation of Emanuel a day after he emotionally apologized for the police shooting of McDonald. The family has filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming that Johnson was not armed.
The city is fighting the release of that video, arguing that it could prejudice would-be jurors if the case goes to trial.
“He didn’t fit in his personality the profile that Jason Van Dyke had of him, and all black boys, in his mind”, Hunter said.
Alvarez also expressed last week that she was firm on her intention to stay in office, despite the growing cries for her to step down.
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The Department of Justice is investigating the circumstances of the shooting, as well as the police department as a whole. More protests are planned. AP material published by LongIsland.com, isdone so with explicit permission. “I think we have a very inappropriate action by a police officer, and it’s despicable and it disturbs me that it was hidden for such a long period of time”, Carson told reporters. The timing of that payment so shortly after Emanuel’s job was secure again has raised suspicions that City Hall knew more about the gap between police officials’ story and the video evidence during the campaign.
