Hearing for Chicago officer following indictment

The Justice Department said it plans to investigation allegations of misconduct concerning the Chicago Police Department’s policies in the wake of the fallout from the video’s release, and protesters have called for Mayor Rahm Emanuel and State Attorney Anita Alvarez to be taken from office as well.

The group, known as the Gathering Point Community Council, is demanding community involvement in the selection of a new police superintendent. “They go way back”, said Emanuel.

Emanuel fired police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and vowed extensive reforms. 13 months later, a judge ordered the city of Chicago to release the police dash cam video of police officer Jason Van Dyke shooting McDonald 16 times.

Standing outside Chicago Police Headquarters on Thursday, Wooten and other retired officers also offered ideas for better training police to work with minority communities, and repairing what they say is a broken system.

The chant of “16 shots” could clearly be heard among students at Urban Prep after a visit and address from Emanuel, who later said he understands the outrage and the need for getting to the root of the problems within the police department.

Federal officials met Wednesday with Police Department leaders as part of what they described as completing “two days of introductory meetings”.

Among the many questions federal investigators will answer in a final report: Is there racial bias in the use of force by officers? “We’re going to be very thorough, fair and as expeditious as we can be”, said Gupta, who added the Department of Justice will bring in lawyers, paralegals, statisticians and consultants to examine “hundreds of thousands” of documents.

Members of the Department of Justice are expected at City Hall Thursday morning. Contrary to the Fraternal Order of Police account of what had transpired-that McDonald charged police officers who feared for their lives-the video showed that Laquan was walking away from the police when Van Dyke singularly shot the Black boy 16 times. 18, 2015, hearing in a Cook County criminal court follows Van Dyke’s indictment by a grand jury earlier this week.

Emanuel initially characterized calls for a civil rights investigation as “misguided”, on top of the federal probe already being conducted into the McDonald case, but later pledged the city’s full cooperation.