Family of teen shot by Chicago officer expected to speak

Hunter said the family wishes to host a summit in Lawndale, and called on President Barack Obama to legitimize the summit – and Chicago’s policing problems – by sending a representative to the neighborhood.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel listens to remarks at a news conference in Chicago, Illinois, United States, December 7, 2015.

Video showing the shooting of 17-year-old McDonald, which eventually led to a first degree murder charge against Officer Jason Van Dyke, was withheld from the public and only released after a court order.

Marvin Hunter, pastor of a west side Baptist church and Laquan McDonald’s great uncle, did echo calls by protesters that Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez should step down. The four African American ministers – all of whom supported Emanuel’s re-election – are now circulating petitions asking for a vote of no confidence in the mayor.

A week in which 23 aldermen signed a resolution demanding public hearings into why City Hall delayed for months the video evidence of a police officer shooting a 17-year-old.

They are expected to thank the public for demanding justice in the case and change in the culture of the Chicago Police Department.

The Justice Department will begin a far-ranging investigation into the patterns and practices of the Chicago Police Department, part of the continuing fallout over a video released last month showing the police shooting of Laquan McDonald, Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced Monday.

The story of Laquan McDonald is still ongoing. Protests and calls for the resignation of top city officials, including Mayor Rahm Emanuel, have erupted since then.

An attorney for the family of a black teenager killed by a Chicago police officer says they agreed not to release video of the shooting unless the officer wasn’t charged.

The group also wants a Justice Department investigation of the police department to be expanded to include the mayor’s office and Cook County State’s Attorney’s office. Emanuel’s lawyers fought to keep it secret and brokered a $5 million settlement with McDonald’s family that included a no-release clause.

“When he saw you he greeted you with a hug”, Hunter said.

The idea behind IPRA when it was set up in 2007 was for the agency to be wholly independent of police and the mayor’s office as a way to weed out bad officers, but that never actually happened, Davis’ lawyer, Torreya Hamilton, said Thursday. “I don’t know what they knew or when they knew it”, said Michael Robbins, attorney for the McDonald family.

The mayor talked about many Chicagoans’ lack of trust in police officers, and returned to his oft-discussed argument that there are too many guns on Chicago streets. Alvarez blamed the delay on the complexities of investigating a police shooting.

In an address to the City Council this week, a sometimes emotional and sometimes tough-talking Emanuel apologized for any mishandling of the McDonald case and repeatedly pledged to improve how IPRA deals with the issue of police misconduct.

A few days later, Emanuel announced that he had demanded and received the resignation of Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, created a new task force for police accountability and expanded the use of body cameras.