Grand jury indicts Chicago officer in teen’s death

The mayor said he supports the federal investigation into the Chicago Police Department’s use of force and will cooperate fully.

Embattled Mayor Rahm Emanuel faced more criticism Wednesday, this time from students at Urban Prep Charter Academy in Englewood. The DOJ will scrutinize Chicago police from top to bottom as agents try to determine if there’s something systemic in how the department works that leads to patterns of abuse that violated citizens’ rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.

There are reports tonight that the DOJ is close to a deal with the city of Ferguson, Missouri to reform its police department, a year and a half after the investigation launched there.

Over coming months, investigators will talk to everyone from beat cops to city leaders, which is likely to include Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Angelo described it as an informal, off-the-record talk, and said he conveyed that the union wanted to “help facilitate the moving parts of the investigation”.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is responding to Chicago police union claims that officer morale is the lowest it’s been in decades.

The family of a black teenager shot 16 times by a white Chicago police officer joined the call Friday December 11, for change in local leadership and policing in the city and nationwide, weeks after a video of the 2014 killing set off days of protests.

One reason a civil rights investigation takes so long compared with criminal investigations: It is vast.

Among the many questions federal investigators will answer in a final report: Is there racial bias in the use of force by officers?

“There’s a negotiation. The Department of justice does its review, and then they engage with the city on what they found, and the city can agree on the findings and proposed solutions”. Protesters have turned the shooting into a rallying cry, their chants of “16 shots and a cover-up” taking its place alongside the “I can’t breathe” refrain that followed the video that showed Eric Garner being taken down by a NY police officer in a fatal chokehold. But sometimes, the sides disagree on critical provisions and must fight it out in court.

Van Dyke’s attorney Daniel Herbert reportedly did not comment on the indictment.

On Tuesday, a grand jury returned an indictment on six murder charges and one count of official misconduct, according to court records.

The former White House aide tells reporters that his meeting is scheduled for Thursday, a day after federal officials were meeting with police department representatives in the civil rights investigation. “I hold Anita Alvarez accountable”, he said when asked about Emanuel’s role in the McDonald investigation.

Before securing bail, Van Dyke’s attorney reassured the judge that Van Dyke is not a flight risk, explaining that he has deep ties to the community, lives with his wife and two children in Chicago and does not possess a passport.