Responding to mistrust, feds investigating Chicago police

Chicago officials say the treatment of a detainee in police custody is under investigation as they release video showing an officer dragging the man through a hallway.

“Our goal in this investigation…is not to focus on individuals but to improve systems”, the nation’s top law enforcement official said.

“We need the United States on board and we have to find a solution”, EU Climate Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete told reporters on the sidelines of the conference.

“The mayor is challenged not by a poll, but the job of addressing a broken system,”said Emanuel campaign spokesman Peter Giangreco”.

Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, pictured May 20 2012, was sacked by the city’s mayor on December 1, 2015 as video was released of a police officer shooting a black teenager 16 times as he walked awayMcDonald’s death occurred just months later, on October 20, 2014, but did not come to national attention for more than a year, and then only after a court ordered the release of the dashcam video that captured the shooting.

APRIL 15: The Chicago City Council votes to approve the $5 million settlement.

The spotlight on the case shone bright enough to illuminate another case – that of Ronald Johnson, who was killed by police eight days before McDonald’s death. The video shows officers entering Coleman’s cell.

Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, criticized for not filing charges earlier in the McDonald case, says she will speak Monday morning about the killing of another young black man by city police.

The announcement comes on the same day the Justice Department launched a civil rights investigation into the police department’s overall use of deadly force and the handling of alleged misconduct. “And when suspicion and hostility is allowed to fester, it can erupt into unrest”. Recent data collected by the Chicago-based Invisible Institute showed that almost 96 percent of civilian complaints against the city’s police force were not sustained, and roughly 99 percent were not sustained when the complainant was black, though race was not identified in many cases. But the manner in which the Coleman footage was released – at the end of a busy news day, and with detailed statements from Emanuel and John J. Escalante, the interim police superintendent – suggested that city leaders recognized the potential for intense scrutiny at a time when many protesters have accused the Chicago police of systemic mistreatment of black people.

The authority’s new chief will be Sharon Fairley, a former federal prosecutor who also worked with Chicago’s Office of Inspector General.

The largest police agency that the department has imposed reforms on is the Puerto Rico state police department, which has 15,000 officers.

Amid the criticism, Emanuel’s office has announced a series of measures, including expanding the police body camera program and establishing a task force to review police discipline procedures.

Her explanation? The joint criminal investigation with the FBI into these “highly complex matters” with “unique legal issues” took a long time.

Investigators will interview Chicago residents and defense attorneys, among others, and go through police records and even ride along with officers on neighborhood patrols.

The historical relationship between the Chicago police and the community. Many cities have fallen under the federal microscope during his administration. Vanita Gupta leads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, and she’s on the phone. In a statement Sunday, Emanuel spokesman Adam Collins echoed the mayor’s comment about welcoming a federal investigation. Immediately after, some of the officers restrain him.

– The Justice Department and Missoula, County, Montana, officials reached an agreement a year ago after a federal probe highlighted allegations of gender bias against victims of sexual assault.

– A 2011 report on New Orleans found minorities were subjected to excessive force, illegal stops and pat-down searches.

Attorney General Lynch said Homan Square is not now being specifically investigated by the Department of Justice, but they are paying attention to it.