Chicago mayor fires police superintendent in wake of video release

Protests followed the charging and arrest of Van Dyke and the release of the video on November 24. Activists contend city and police department officials dragged their feet on the investigation and video release and perhaps even sought to cover up what happened.

With it comes the departure of Emanuel’s only police superintendent since he took office in May 2011.

In the letter to U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch, Madigan asks for the Justice Department’s civil rights division to review the the departments use of forces, the adequacy of the department’s investigation of officers use of force and misconduct, and whether there exists a pattern or practice of discriminatory policing by the department. “It requires that we act, that we take more concrete steps to prevent such abuses in the future, secure the safety and the rights of all Chicagoans and build stronger bonds of trust between our police and the communities they’re sworn to serve”.

Adding to the anger: Video of the shooting was kept from the public for 400 days.

“This is not the end of the problem, but it is the beginning to the solution of the problem”, Emanuel said of Tuesday’s moves.

Mayor Emanuel said an answer to those and other questions will have to come from an on-going federal investigation.

While Superintendent Garry McCarthy had a “strong” record that “he can be proud of”, Emanuel said the police chief had become a distraction and could no longer effectively implement necessary changes.

Van Dyke shot McDonald along a stretch of Pulaski Road near 41st Street in October 2014.

“The public trust in the leadership of the department has been shaken and eroded”, Mayor Rahm Emanuel told reporters, branding the deadly shooting “horrifying”.

Nothing about how Rahm Emanuel and the City of Chicago have handled the murder of Laquan McDonald has been responsible – quite the opposite in fact. The city had refused to release the video until ordered to do so by a judge.

The white officer, Jason Van Dyke, was charged a week ago with first-degree murder in thekilling of Laquan McDonald, who was shot 16 times.

One of those dominos may fall soon: Anita Alvarez, the state’s attorney of Cook County, from whom congressman Luis Gutierrez withdrew his support Tuesday afternoon. And it highlighted the intensifying public and political pressure Emanuel faces over the shooting of the teenager, Laquan McDonald, the integrity of the department’s handling of his death, and the city’s resistance to releasing the video. “The buck stops with the mayor, and he should resign”.

Many think there was a cover-up in the McDonald case.

In Chicago, the silent video shows McDonald walking down the middle of a four-lane street.

It appears as if the mayor is attempting to distance himself from the man he hand-picked to lead Chicago’s police force. “We also stand in solidarity with the scores of people from all walks of life who are calling for significant reform in the Chicago Police Department”.