US to open probe of Chicago Police Department

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, would not elaborate on the investigation.

They’re upset it took 13 months to charge Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke with first degree murder in this case, and say they’ve lost trust in Alvarez and the police department.

It shows McDonald jogging down a street and then veering away from Van Dyke and another officer who emerge from a police SUV drawing their guns.

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

This video includes images from Getty Images.

APRIL 15: The Chicago City Council votes to approve the $5 million settlement. According to a Justice Department fact sheet, officials are now enforcing ten consent decrees, which are overseen by federal courts, and 16 out-of-court agreements. The calls for the mayor to resign – something he said he won’t do – have grown louder from protesters in the city, including more than 200 people who shouted that he step down during a Sunday afternoon march in downtown Chicago. That investigation commenced in December 2014, about seven weeks after Van Dyke shot McDonald to death, when Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez agreed to conduct a joint investigation of the case with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

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. Prosecutors say McDonald had PCP in his system at the time of his death. “Yet it has become clear that new leadership is required as we rededicate ourselves to dramatically improving our system of police accountability and rebuilding trust in that process”.

Emanuel initially said a federal civil rights investigation of Chicago police tactics would be “misguided”.

Last week, in a letter to Lynch, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan asked the Department of Justice for an investigation into the practices of the department.

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

The news of his resignation comes just hours after law enforcement officials shared that the Justice Department is planning to launch an investigation into practices of the Chicago Police Department. In March, the department released a scathing report of the Ferguson police force that found pervasive civil rights abuses. It opened an investigation of Baltimore police in May after demonstrations there turned violent in response to the death of a black man in police custody.

The investigation into the department’s policies and practices will likely focus on the use of deadly force by Chicago officers as well as training and community engagement. The IPRA “intakes all allegations of misconduct made against Chicago Police Department members”.

“Chicago is facing a defining moment on the issues of crime and policing and the even larger issues of truth and justice”, Emanuel wrote.

“VD believed O was attacking w/knife”, one report said. Burge was convicted of lying about the torture and served 4½ years in prison.

The Chicago Police Department’s interim superintendent is warning officers they face discipline if they don’t make sure both the video and the audio of their squad auto dashboard cameras are working.

Chicago’s police chief was sacked by mayor Rahm Emanuel last week over the incident, and the state’s attorney general has been petitioning the DOJ to look into the incident.

Johnson was shot in the back in October 2014, eight days before the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald on Oct. 20, 2014.