US Justice Department to examine Chicago Police Department’s use of force

“The Police Department planted that gun because there’s no way anything would have stayed in Ronald Johnson’s hand after he was shot”, the attorney said. “And when suspicion and hostility is allowed to fester, it can erupt into unrest”.

Sharon Fairley called on City Hall’s Inspector General Joseph Ferguson to investigate questions surrounding Officer Jason Van Dyke’s fatal shooting of McDonald, 17, on October 20, 2014.

Authorization for the Justice Department to conduct such investigations came under a 1994 civil rights law passed after a black motorist, Rodney King, was videotaped being beaten by police in Los Angeles.

After the explosive video was released, Van Dyke was charged with murder, Chicago police Supt.

Emanuel, who initially said a federal civil rights investigation would be “misguided” but later reversed course, said the city needs comprehensive solutions in the wake of the video showing McDonald’s death.

Here, though, a convoluted police disciplinary system – the Independent Police Review Authority recommends punishments, and then the police superintendent files charges with the Police Board, which makes the final decisions while the police superintendent has no say in the matter – continues to protect officers who break Rule 14 from getting fired. The previous head resigned Sunday. “Today, I am announcing that the Department of Justice has opened an investigation into whether the Chicago Police Department has engaged in a pattern or practice of violations of the Constitution or federal law”.

Participants included Johnson’s mother, Dorothy Holmes.

The dashcam footage was released at a news conference and Assistant U.S. Attorney Lynn McCarthy attempted to show exactly how the shooting occurred from her perspective.

Yet the report states, “The recovered in-car camera video from beats 845R and 813R was viewed and found to be consistent with the accounts of all of the witnesses”. The city released several police reports this past weekend, and there were five officers that kind of all gave the same narrative about how Laquan McDonald was attacking officers, and that when he was shot and down on the ground, how he was still trying to get up and trying to attack officers. Reports stated while Johnson was fleeing the scene, he pointed a gun at Hernandez.

Prosecutors also showed reporters an image with a red circle around Johnson’s hand, saying that forensic experts clarified images of a weapon.

Alvarez focused on one still frame of the video, in which she said it appears Johnson is holding a gun, although Johnson’s family’s lawyer Michael Oppenheimer maintained that there is no gun visible in the video.

“We’re in different times right now when we’re talking about transparency and what the public wants to see”, Alvarez said after showing the video.

The mayor said in a statement, “First and foremost, we need answers as to what happened in the Laquan McDonald case, which is why the United States attorney should swiftly conclude his year-long investigation and shed light on what happened that night, and the actions of everyone involved”. “Time and time again we look at these videos, and there is not any audio”.

The incident took place in December 2012, and the man shown in the video, Philip Coleman, later died at a hospital after suffering an adverse reaction to an antipsychotic drug.

The video of McDonald’s shooting is certainly upsetting, but the outrage it has sparked also reflects the knowledge that without that video, McDonald’s murder would have been just one more police crime papered over by an “accountability” system that embodies the code of silence.

Even worse, the cover-up seems to be still in effect today as Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other officials scramble to cover their tracks. Garry McCarthy was forced to resign and the U.S. Department of Justice announced an investigation into the Chicago Police Department’s “patterns and practices”. “But when community members feel that they are not receiving that kind of policing”. The Independent Police Review Authority is investigating the shooting, she said.