Justice Department to launch civil rights probe of practices of

The video shows the teen, Laquan McDonald, who was carrying a knife, made no menacing gestures or advances toward the police officers.

A spokesman for the Chicago Police Department said Sunday morning that he did not know anything about the possibility of a second, broader federal probe into the force. One officer said he believed McDonald was attacking the officers and “attempting to kill them” when Van Dyke opened fire. A law passed in 1994 gave the Justice Department the power to investigate and force systemic changes to local police departments – and to sue the departments if they do not comply.

The protesters walking in the business district known as The Loop are counting to 16 to signify the number of times that Officer Jason Van Dyke shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.

The “patterns and practices” investigation will focus on whether the department violates constitutional rights. The federal investigation is reportedly going to be announced early this week.

A Justice Department Civil Rights investigation of the police force would be separate from the federal investigation now under way in connection with the Jason Van Dyke shooting.

A patterns and practices investigation does not criminally charge individuals, but often results in a consent decree between the police department and Justice Department to agree to new practices and accountability measures.

After dashcam video of that incident was recently released, the police chief was sacked and protesters called for Chicago’s mayor to leave his post. Led by Reverend Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, they marched peacefully. But worse than that… the city and the [police] union did not tell the truth about what happened, they both said hours after the shooting that this young man lunged at police.

“Civil rights division lawyers are reviewing the many requests for an investigation, which is the department’s standard process, and the attorney general is briefed regularly on the review and expects to make a decision very soon”, a department official said. But Emanuel later reversed course and said he would welcome the Justice Department’s involvement – something that politicians including Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan have called for.

“It should be a detailed probe and should look into the specific civil rights complaints filed over the years by activists here on the ground”.

The statement says Sharon Fairly, general counsel and first deputy of the city’s Office of the Inspector General, will take over Ando’s role. Amid an outcry after the city waited more than a year to release dash-cam footage of Officer Van Dyke shooting McDonald 16 times, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced this week that he was setting up a special task force to examine, among other things, the citys video-release policy.

Protests erupted in the nation’s third-largest city soon after the video was released, culminating in the firing on Tuesday of Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy by Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

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.

Additionally, on Friday, the Chicago Tribune published police reports that contradicted what was shown in the video.

The department was harshly criticized when it reported that the audio was not functioning on the dashcam that recorded the fatal shooting of McDonald.