Chicago mayor wants to change how police use force

Quintonio LeGrier, 19, threatened his father with a bat before he was shot and killed by a Chicago police officer.

“Our goal is to change the way officers think when they approach a critical incident by establishing time and distance to allow for more prudent thinking and physical space to promote a safer environment”, Escalante said.

The fatal shootings were the first by CPD officers since Officer Jason Van Dyke fatally shot McDonald.

“There’s a difference between whether someone can use a gun and when they should use a gun”. Emanuel said the problems are “four or five decades in the making” and the changes will take time.

The ensuing turmoil led Emanuel to fire the police superintendent and create a task force to review police accountability. This fall, three years after a federal investigation determined that mentally ill people were regularly subjected to excessive force by Portland police officers, the department had yet to fully undergo the changes ordered by the DOJ.

Emanuel cautioned, however, that these reforms alone would not fix the broken relationship between the city’s residents and a police force with a long history of abusive behavior. Amid growing protests over that case and other officer-involved shootings, the city’s police commissioner resigned.

Activists are demanding that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel resign, as The Two-Way previously reported.

In all, 1400 Tasers will be made available to officers – a stark increase from the previous 700, BBC reports.

Emanuel announced at a press conference earlier this month the termination of Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, saying that the public’s trust in the Department has “been shaken and eroded”.

Gary Klugiewicz, a retired Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office captain who specializes in de-escalation training, says while there are many “perfect storms” out there, officers can always use more tips on how to quell a situation. “Just because you train and can use force, doesn’t mean you should”, Emanuel said. The Cleveland Police Department has also been heavily criticized for the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice last November.

And yet, in the face of police violence against Black people, looking at the prescriptions for change in Chicago and Cleveland leaves us wanting so much more. He says “the mayor’s office obviously does not direct investigations, nor are any employees involved in those investigations”.

The lawsuit alleges that police did not render aid to Quintonio after shooting him; that video showing a portion of the events that occurred has been confiscated by the city; and that the elder LeGrier was detained at the police station for several hours after his son was shot.

LeGrier’s neighbor, Bettie Jones, was also shot and killed during the incident. Jones was struck by the gunfire during a domestic disturbance call in the Austin neighborhood Saturday.

LeGrier, an engineering student at Northern Illinois University, got into an argument with his father, Antonio LeGrier, at the home, family and friends told reporters Sunday.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, under pressure following a series of fatal police shootings, is expected on Wednesday to unveil new strategies that will include equipping all officers with Tasers by June of next year.

Currently, about 20% of officers who respond to calls for service have access to Tasers, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.

The release last month of a video of the shooting, which shows Van Dyke shooting McDonald 16 times, set off a wave of protests and calls for Emanuel’s resignation.