The Chicago Tribune is reporting (http://trib.in/1XW2I4I ) that Turner’s legislation has support from co-sponsor Rep. David McSweeney, a Republican from Barrington Hills.
Advertisement
Recent deaths of black men at the hands of mostly white police officers have led to an outcry in the United States and prompted a debate about the use of excessive police force.
Lynch said building trust is one of the goals of opening the investigation.
Johnson was shot to death while running from police, allegedly ignoring police orders to freeze and drop the 9 mm handgun he was carrying.
Justice Department officials say they use such patterns-and-practices investigations to identify systemic failings in troubled police departments and to improve trust between police and the communities they serve. He is reportedly carrying a knife when Van Dyke exits the patrol vehicle and opens fire.
The formal announcement of the investigation by Attorney General Loretta Lynch is imminent, a Justice Department official knowledgeable with the decision told USA TODAY on Sunday.
The investigation will look for evidence of unconstitutional policing practices within one of the nation’s largest police forces.
The disturbing footage allegedly depicted Van Dyke opening fire on McDonald as the 17-year-old walked away from officers, and continuing to fire after McDonald fell to the ground. The Justice Department recently started similar inquiries into police operations in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore, Maryland, both scenes of fatal police shootings of black men.
The Justice Department will investigate patterns of racial disparity in the use of force by Chicago police officers, the USA attorney general has announced.
The Justice Department is expected to announce the launch of a wide-ranging civil rights investigation into the Chicago Police Department, which has been under a national spotlight for its handling of the Laquan McDonald case, in which a white police officer fatally shot the teen 16 times.
February 27: Lawyers for McDonald’s family approach City Hall about a possible settlement without filing a lawsuit, according to Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
The mayor’s office says Emanuel, interim Chicago Police Superintendent John Escalante and acting Independent Police Review Authority chief Sharon Fairley will speak to reporters Monday afternoon.
The Chicago City Council settled with the McDonald family for $5m (£3.3m), and officials in the city fought in court for months for the video to be kept under wraps.
The Chicago Police Department and the mayor’s office said they had not been notified by the Justice Department about the forthcoming probe as of Sunday evening. She’s a former federal prosecutor and was with Chicago’s Office of Inspector General.
On Friday, Chicago released hundreds of pages that show police officers initially reported a very different version of the encounter with McDonald than the video shows. Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez said Monday that there will be no charges against the officer responsible for Johnson’s death. Emanuel’s administration released the video only after a judge ordered the city to make it public.
The shooting happened in October 2014 as officers were responding to reports that someone had broken into several vehicles.
Advertisement
He said last week on CNN that the video shows that Johnson was not carrying a weapon, “nor did he ever turn and point anything”.
