In Chicago, Protests And Calls For The Mayor To Resign

The Justice Department will begin a far-ranging investigation into the patterns and practices of the Chicago Police Department, part of the continuing fallout over a video released last month showing the police shooting of Laquan McDonald, Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced Monday.

About 80 people carrying banners and signs marched around Chicago’s City Hall this afternoon. That delay was blamed on Emanuel and the top local prosecutor, and has prompted more than two weeks of protests in the nation’s third-largest city. Many residents, already suspicious that the circumstances of the shooting had been covered up by police, grew even more skeptical when the city released other squad auto dashcam videos from the scene that, like the first, lacked audio.

“I hold Anita Alvarez accountable”, McDonald’s great uncle, Pastor Marvin Hunter, said surrounded by relatives during a Friday news conference at Grace Memorial Baptist Church.

They are expected to thank the public for demanding justice in the case and change in the culture of the Chicago Police Department.

On Monday, during a lengthy news conference in which she outlined why Hernandez was justified in shooting Johnson in the back, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez released the video. “I think we have a very inappropriate action by a police officer, and it’s despicable and it disturbs me that it was hidden for such a long period of time”, Carson told reporters.

The uncle of a black teenager killed by Chicago police in 2014 called on Friday for a federal summit on violence, poverty and police brutality, but stopped short of calling for the resignation of embattled Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

The city is fighting the release of that video, arguing that it could prejudice would-be jurors if the case goes to trial.

Alvarez also expressed last week that she was firm on her intention to stay in office, despite the growing cries for her to step down.

“Dreads doesn’t mean terrible”, said Hunter, referring to McDonald’s hair. Emanuel apologized in recent days that the incident occurred under his administration. Laquan was also 17 years old at the time of the shooting. More protests are planned.

In Chicago, police receive 40 percent of our city’s budget to remain operational.

FILE – In this October 20, 2014 frame from dash-cam video provided by the Chicago Police Department, Laquan McDonald, right, walks down the street moments before being shot by officer Jason Van Dyke in Chicago. He fired the police chief and named a new head of the agency that investigates police conduct.