After Garry McCarthy: Chicago’s next top cop

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has made an example of his city’s top cop, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy-by firing him.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel ousted Chicago’s police superintendent Tuesday, after the city’s police department came under fire over an officer shooting a teenager 16 times, and for resisting, for more than a year, to release a video of the fatal shooting.

“He has become an issue rather than dealing with an issue”, Mr. Emanuel said, according to the New York Times. The task force will review accountability, oversight and training within the Chicago Police Department, the Chicago Tribune reported on Monday, citing the mayor’s office.

“I’m responsible”, he said, acknowledging what he said was a history of abuse of force by the Chicago police.

First Deputy Supt. John Escalante will be the acting superintendent. Van Dyke was released from jail Monday after paying the required $150,000 of his $1.5 million bail.

“The shooting of Laquan McDonald requires more than just words”, Emanuel said.

It’s been quite a tough year for Emanuel: an unexpected runoff with Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, Chicago’s fiscal crisis, a massive tax hike proposal and the Barbara Byrd-Bennett scandal. Now, there is a focused effort on who is policing the police. The shooting happened in October 2014, but dashcam video was not made public until last week.

Last week, the city released a video from a patrol car’s dashboard camera after facing criticism for holding the video for 13 months.

On Tuesday, Emanuel suggested that McCarthy went from being a key player in the story of Chicago law enforcement to being the story itself. Others demanded to know what responsibility the mayor bore for not reforming the department earlier, or asked whether he would step down.

Protesters had been calling for McCarthy’s dismissal in response to the handling of McDonald’s death.

Federal authorities have had an open criminal investigation into the shooting since April, and the US Department of Justice might still investigate the police force, as it did in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore following deaths involving officers and unarmed black men.

Police have said McDonald was carrying a knife, and an autopsy revealed that he had the hallucinogenic drug PCP in his system. “I’ll let you make that judgment”, the famously prickly Emanuel shrugged. “It was an evolution of conversations that got him to that point”, said a mayoral confidante, who asked to remain anonymous.