Investigate The Chicago Police Department

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton on Wednesday called for a federal investigation into the shooting death of a black teen by a white Chicago police officer – an incident that has entangled Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a one-time aide in Bill Clinton’s White House. “The voters spoke. I’ll be held accountable for the decisions and actions that I make”, he said.

“I’m comfortable with who I am and what I’ve done”, Emanuel said. That police video clearly shows the 17-year-old McDonald walking away from police not lurching towards officers as Chicago’s Police Department and its police union had maintained falsely since McDonald’s fatal shooting in October 2014. Critics are demanding to know why the city did not release the video early in the year, in what some are calling a cover-up that helped Emanuel win his re-election battle.

Speaking to Politico, Emanuel said that the decision had nothing to do with McCarthy’s performance – this despite the fact that, in his own words, “as I said yesterday and I’ve said over the two years, a lot of people over a year asked me, or two years, to fire the superintendent”.

At issue is a “pattern-or-practice” investigation, described by the department as a review with a mission to discover and “reform serious patterns and practices of excessive force, biased policing and other unconstitutional practices by law enforcement”. Members of the black and Latino caucuses on the City Council have called for the resignations of McCarthy and Alvarez but not of Emanuel, Simpson said. “I do believe we were misled”, he said.

“Now is the time for fresh eyes and new leadership”, Emanuel said.

Emanuel addressed the protesters’ demands for the first time at a forum sponsored by news organization Politico on Wednesday and said he wasn’t going anywhere.

The video shows McDonald, who was armed with a 3-inch folding knife, running down the middle of the street.

“We have oversight, through our independent police review authority, the police board, as well as our investigative internal affairs
bureau”, Ade said.

Just hours before the city was to release the video, Alvarez charged Van Dyke with first-degree murder.

Today, Madigan clarified her position and said the feds have not yet responded to her letter to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch for a civil rights investigation into the CPD. He said a federal investigation at this time would be “misguided”.

The creation of the task force was aimed to rebuild trust in the police department of one of the largest cities of the U.S., he added. “It was the police who maintained a code of silence despite at least seven other officers who witnessed the shooting at close range”.

Jesus “Chuy” Garcia has suggested he would have defeated Emanuel in a runoff election in April if the video had been released prior to the election. Emanuel and the prosecutor, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, battled for months in court to keep the dashboard camera video under wraps.