The mayor called for a special City Council meeting starting at 9 a.m. (10 a.m. ET) Wednesday to deliver “a message… regarding the Chicago Police Department”, according to a letter dated Monday to City Clerk Susana Mendoza. “And if we’re going to fix it, I want you to understand it’s my responsibility with you”, he added. McDonald had been killed in October 2014 after being shot 16 times by Officer Jason Van Dyke while moving away from police officers, the majority of shots fired as he lay motionless on the ground.
Officials have said he died later at a hospital after a reaction to an anti-psychotic drug.
Two weeks after a judge ordered the release of the Laquan McDonald murder, the CPD has released two other controversial videos that were concealed for years to protect police officers and Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The problems do not exist apart from us – from a press too often satisfied to publish the police blotter, from a passive City Council, from a citizenry conditioned to tolerate the intolerable.
What’s more – despite his speech Wednesday- it appears resigning could indeed be what Emanuel will be forced to do in order to restore Chicagoans’ faith in their government.
They marched from the Chicago Federal Building to City Hall, passing downtown stores.
“I expect a turbulent period”, Axelrod said, noting that the Justice Department investigation into Chicago’s police renders the situation less of an issue for the White House. The videos are being released following the Department of Justice’s upcoming probe of the CPD.
Emanuel and the new head of the agency that investigates police shootings said they want the city’s inspector general to launch an investigation into the McDonald shooting. They included everything Chicago’s task force has agreed consider: “independent oversight of police misconduct”; best practices for identifying officers with repeated complaints; and “best practices for release of videos of police-involved incidents”.
The delay in releasing the video of McDonald’s shooting and the 400 days that Alvarez took to file charges against the officer who shot him have been some of the main factors that have put the city in turmoil, ABC News reports.
Emanuel said his decision to let McCarthy go was an example of his accountability as mayor, but exempted himself from his own call for “fresh eyes and new leadership”. Rahm said some good things today but hes going to sweep it under the rug unless we keep the pressure up.
State Representative Mary Flowers says the recall bill probably couldn’t apply to Emanuel, since it hasn’t been passed and he’s already elected.
Emanuel gave a speech Wednesday apologizing for McDonald’s death and promising to make it right, after which protesters filled the streets of the city.
The next day Emanuel clarified his comments about the investigation: “We have a long road ahead of us as a city, and I welcome people from many views to help us do exactly what we need to do”. “This is not a racial issue, it’s a democracy issue”, she said Thursday. “And that needs to change”, Emanuel told a City Council meeting.
Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, in a brief phone interview with Reuters, said the mayor was facing a “sea of distrust” with his constituents, in large part because of his handling of the McDonald shooting.
The video quickly drew national outrage, leading to the firing of the police superintendent and calls for Emanuel’sresignation since the shooting happened over a year ago but charges are only now being brought against an officer.
Monica Eng, a reporter at member station WBEZ, reports that it’s been a peaceful protest, with one tense moment at City Hall when police and protesters faced off at the doors.
It was announced Monday and will look to determine whether there are patterns of racial disparity in the police department’s use of force.