Emanuel also apologized to lawmakers for last year’s shooting of a black teen, Laquan McDonald, by a white Chicago police officer. Recently released video of the incident shows a group of officers shooting Coleman with a Taser before dragging his body down a hallway while handcuffed.
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The embattled mayor said Chicago was at a “defining moment” and needed to go through a “painful but honest reckoning” not just in McDonald’s case, but “over decades” of increasing public distrust of the city’s police department.
The Mayor addressed the aldermen with hopes that his apology is the first step in a long process of healing for the community.
Amid protests all across Chicago today demanding the resignation of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, two IL state Democrats are already pushing a bill to have him recalled. The mayor said he asked him, “Do you think the police would ever treat you the way they treat me?” A Guardian investigation exposed in February that Chicago police have the equivalent of a domestic black site where they allegedly torture detainees who they often hold illegally and keep from legal counsel.
The furor grew even more after the city released reports over the weekend in which accounts offered by police on the scene appeared to contradict what the graphic video footage shows. The DOJ did find racist police practices in the department, though, and forced it into a series of corrective measures.
There was a small bit of pushing and shoving with officers on Wednesday afternoon as the protesters tried to get to one of downtown’s main streets, but eventually police let them through.
Protests began this morning outside council chambers where the mayor apologized for the Laquan McDonald shooting because it happened on his watch.
There also has been renewed focus on 17-year-old Cedrick LaMont Chatman, whose 2013 death near a bus stop was captured by four video cameras. The mayor has denied the claim and acknowledged Wednesday that he should have pressed for prosecutors to wrap up their investigation sooner so the video could be made public.
“You don’t earn trust back with one speech”, Axelrod said.
It contributed to Garry McCarthy losing his job as Chicago’s police superintendent and spurred calls for Emanuel to resign.
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Emanuel addressed the City Council at the same time a federal judge weighed whether to release yet another video purportedly showing the deadly shooting of a teenager at the hands of police. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced Monday that the Department of Justice would conduct an investigation into the city’s police department.
