Chicago aldermen hold hearing on police shooting of teen

Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez said she timed the rare murder charge against an on-duty police officer before the court-ordered release of the video to the public. 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. He described it as an off-the-record talk during which he said the union wanted to “help facilitate… the investigation”.

“I can understand and appreciate people’s frustration has come to a point and I believe that we will deal with it”, Emanuel said. Smith represents the 2 officers, Shannon Spalding & Daniel Echeverria, who allege they confronted repeated retaliation, after working undercover to investigate officers accused of shaking down drug dealers on the South Side.

While staff from the Justice’s Department’s civil rights division takes the leads the investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago will provide support. “We’re going to fully cooperate and it is in the self-interest as a city that they are here”.

The investigation, which is separate from an ongoing criminal investigation of the McDonald shooting, will focus in part on the agency’s use of force, including “racial, ethnic and other disparities”. Then, Chicago and the Justice Department will endeavor to hammer out a reform road map to bring about wholescale change that sticks.

Most of the time, cities enter agreements voluntarily, the DOJ said.

In charging the officer with six counts of first-degree murder, the indictment alleged that Van Dyke acted “without lawful justification” in shooting McDonald.

During a scheduled visit Wednesday to Chicago’s Urban Prep, an all-boys charter school, Mayor Rahm Emanuel was interrupted by student protesters chanting “16 shots”, reported the Chicago Sun-Times. Initially, the mayor was cool to the idea of the outside federal probe. Van Dyke had been placed on paid desk duty after the shooting past year.