Chicago mayor fires police chief in wake of video release

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

He said, “We have to ask two critical questions, one ‘Was the investigation conducted properly?’ and two ‘Did the police department act within its rules of conduct?'”

McCarthy deputy John Escalante will be acting superintendent until the police board finds a replacement, the mayor said.

The mayor also announced the formation of a police task force that will study ways to improve one of the nation’s largest police departments, and make recommendations to the City Council by May 2016.

McDonald’s death required “more than words”, the mayor said. The video was released last Tuesday after a judge ordered the city to do so.

“Changing the police chief, as we have in so many years in the past, doesn’t address the underlying problems”, including racism and a culture that tolerates misconduct, says Futterman, a University of Chicago law professor. Black leaders and editorial writers in the city had called for the superintendent’s firing.

Emanuel, McCarthy and Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, have faced stiff criticism for taking 13 months to release a video of the 2014 shooting and to charge Van Dyke.

“It’s not enough to fire the police chief”, Norman Solomon, who helped organize a petition carrying more than 10,000 signatures calling for Emanuel’s resignation, said in a statement.

The move comes after outrage that Officer Jason Van Dyke shot Laquan McDonald 16 times – mostly while the teen was on the ground.

However, the Emanuel administration has stood behind McCarthy since last week’s release of the police dashboard-camera video of the fatal shooting of McDonald.

Police brutality against minorities in the United States has been a major point of concern for long resulting in large-scale demonstrations across the country and the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement.

McDonald, who was carrying a knife, was allegedly shot 16 times by Van Dyke during the incident. She went on to insist that she would “offer no apologies” for the “meticulous” work she has put into building the strongest possible case against Officer Van Dyke.

After announcing that he was appointing a task force to look at police accountability, Rahm said that that “public trust” in the city’s police force has been “shaken” and “eroded” so he has asked Superintendent Garry McCarthy to resign.