Hillary Clinton Calls For Federal Investigation of Chicago Police Following

Emanuel’s administration has been fighting the release of police video showing the shooting of Ronald Johnson, a 25-year old killed in October 2014.

In the past, the annual average was fewer than five officers charged.

Amid an outcry after the city waited more than a year to release dash-cam footage of Officer Van Dyke shooting McDonald 16 times, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced this week that he was setting up a special task force to examine, among other things, the city’s video-release policy.

Oppenheimer says the release of McDonald’s video has a “great impact” on his case, and he hopes now “the cover-ups may slowly start to end”. Oppenheimer said Alvarez’s sudden announcement of an investigation is “disingenuous”. “As a result of this action, an officer discharged his weapon striking the offender”, according to the police’s initial release.

Lisa Mearkle, a police officer in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania, was charged with third-degree murder, voluntary and involuntary manslaughter after shooting an unarmed man twice in the back as he laid face-down in the snow. The family has filed lawsuits against the city.

He walked out of jail days later after paying a US$1.5-million bail, despite his facing first-degree murder charges for killing Laquan McDonald in another case of an alleged police cover-up.

“You have unions that, whenever there’s a police shooting, they give you a story that makes the public think in every case of a policeman shooting someone that a male black subject was running down the street holding his trousers and he turned around and aimed a gun at a policeman”, said retired sergeant Michael Davis.

Meanwhile, Emanuel’s announcement came following Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s expression of support for a DOJ investigation into the Chicago police, via a campaign representative speaking to the Chicago Tribune.

On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez revealed for the first time that the office is investigating possible criminal charges in Johnson’s case. It is a small step in terms of justice for Dorothy Holmes and her family and her son. Boykin said the city needs a real independent police review board that includes citizens. “The police department planted that gun because there’s no way anything would have stayed in Ronald Johnson’s hand after he was shot”, said Oppenheimer.

Emanuel on Tuesday fired his police superintendent, Garry McCarthy, saying public confidence in police leadership had been “shaken and eroded”, making it untenable for McCarthy to continue to serve as the city’s top cop because of the controversy surrounding the McDonald case.

After hearing arguments from city lawyers over the McDonald video, a Cook County judge sided with a freelance journalist who earlier this year filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the video. McCarthy said audio was missing from the McDonald video because of technical difficulties.

While the Johnson family’s civil suit is pending against the police, Oppenheimer says the city has not offered a settlement.