– In East Haven, Connecticut, federal investigators determined Latinos were subjected to more traffic stops, harsher treatment and more retaliation over discrimination complaints, a 2011 Justice Department report said.
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“Our goal in this investigation, as in all of our pattern-or-practice investigations, is not to focus on individuals, but to improve systems”, Ms. Lynch said. “And when suspicion and hostility is allowed to fester, it can erupt into unrest”.
Anybody who has seen the videotape of Laquan McDonald being shot and killed can see that current practices of the Chicago Police Department need review both internally and externally.
Police say they’ll release the footage later this week. Since Emanuel was President Obama’s first Chief of Staff, it could be viewed as a major political embarrassment for the mayor’s police department to be investigated by the administration he once served.
Meanwhile, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, who brought charges against Van Dyke one year after McDonald’s shooting, announced on Monday that charges would not be brought against the police officer who fatally shot another Chicago resident just eight days before McDonald’s shooting.
An attorney for Johnson’s family says a federal civil rights lawsuit in ongoing. The mayor appointed Fairley to the post after Scott Ando resigned as IPRA’s leader Sunday evening.
Chicago police released hundreds of pages Friday in the McDonald case that show police officers reported a very different version of the encounter than the video shows, portraying McDonald as being more menacing than he appears in dashcam footage. Nevertheless Alvarez told reporters Monday that an enhanced photo still taken from the video is in fact clear enough to show Johnson was holding a gun. Two of those bullets hit Johnson, one behind the knee and the fatal shot that entered his armpit and exited out of his eye socket. Prosecutors said Monday that a loaded weapon was found in his hand after he was killed. Johnson had previously resisted arrest during the chase and was heading into a park where members of the public could have been and toward a police vehicle with officers inside, Alvarez said.
Alvarez said the weapon recovered from Johnson was linked to a 2013 unsolved shooting.
“I’ve pretty much opened the door for you to see our entire analysis”, she said at the press conference.
Last week, Action Now and partner organizations delivered over 35,000 petition signatures to the State’s Attorney’s office calling on Alvarez to resign. They played 911 calls, audio of police dispatch traffic, animation of the incident and the release of police dashboard video and an enhanced image of a gun made by a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) crime lab.
Alvarez announced Hernandez will not face criminal charges in Johnson’s death almost two weeks after she charged Van Dyke with first-degree murder in the McDonald case. The city’s early efforts to suppress the footage coincided with Emanuel’s re-election campaign, when the mayor was seeking African-American votes in a tight race.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, Monday, Dec. 7, 2015.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Thursday the city will release video showing the death of Ronald Johnson, 25, more than a year ago, according to CNN affiliate WLS-TV.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan requested the federal probe to determine whether police target minorities in Chicago.
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Discovery of a secret “black site” where police took suspects for aggressive (if not flat-out violent) interrogations of suspects before officially arresting them. “We must find a way to build trust between the people of Chicago and its law enforcement agencies”.
