United States to Open Probe of Chicago Police Department

USA authorities will look at the department’s use of force, including deadly force, among other issues, she said at a news briefing to announce the civil probe.

Assistant US Attorney Lynn McCarthy showed a dashcam video during a Monday press conference, showing a Chicago police officer shooting and killing Ronald Johnson in October 2014.

This comes almost two weeks after a white Chicago police officer was charged with the first-degree murder of a black teenager armed with a knife that occurred previous year.

“Officer Daphne Sebastian: “…heard multiple gunshots and (Laquan) fell to the ground continued moving…(I) did not know who fired shots”. The video does not include sound, which authorities have not explained.

A video the city released Monday shows officers dragging Coleman from a police lockup after he was repeatedly shocked with a stun gun at a South Side police station. The city’s early efforts to suppress the footage coincided with Emanuel’s re-election campaign, when the mayor was seeking African-American votes in a tight race.

Prayer huddle at the Laquan McDonald presser Mayor Emanuel and Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy will hold a press availability regarding the Laquan McDonald case.

But despite the changes Emanuel has implemented, protesters’ calls for him to resign – something he said he won’t do – have grown louder.

Police officials said at the time that Hernandez opened fire after Johnson pointed a weapon at him.

“Our goal in this investigation … is not to focus on individuals but to improve systems”, the United States’ top law enforcement official said.

“All three of them – the police, City Hall and the prosecutor’s office – are suspect”, Jackson said. We can not let anything like it ever happen again. The person said an announcement is expected this week.

“It’s in our long-term interest”, Emanuel added of the federal civil rights investigation.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch, right, and U.S. Attorney in Chicago Zachary Fardon, left, speaks during a conference at the Justice Department in Washington, Monday, Dec. 7, 2015, about an investigation into the patterns and practices of the Chicago Police Department after recent protests over a video showing a white Chicago police officer shooting a black teenager 16 times. Holmes and her attorney have seen the video and are pushing for its release.

Emanuel introduced a newly appointed leader of the city’s Independent Police Review Authority, which investigates police shootings. Coleman clashed violently with police officers at the hospital where he was taken for treatment, trying to seize an officer’s Taser, it said. That further angered activists and protesters, who were already accusing the city of a cover-up.

The U.S. Justice Department said Monday that it will launch a wide-ranging investigation into the patterns and practices of the Chicago Police Department.

– The Justice Department and Missoula, County, Montana, officials reached an agreement previous year after a federal probe highlighted allegations of gender bias against victims of sexual assault.

The Justice Department spelled out several specific lines of inquiry, including whether there are racial, ethnic and other disparities in the use of force by police.

Emanuel acknowledged “the checkered history of misconduct in the Chicago Police Department” in an opinion column published in the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune.

Chicago’s police force is one of the nation’s largest, with more than 12,000 officers. “We’re not going to forget about that”.

The University of Chicago said last month that an analysis by its civil rights and police accountability clinic found that of 56,000 complaints against Chicago police, only a fraction led to disciplinary action. Burge was convicted of lying about the torture and served 4½ years in prison.

Like the Laquan McDonald police shooting video, the dashcam from the Johnson foot chase does not contain audio. The mayor’s office announced late Sunday that the former head of that agency, Scott Ando, had resigned effective immediately.