{"id":14246,"date":"2015-12-02T09:03:45","date_gmt":"2015-12-02T17:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/chicago-mayor-fires-police-chief-in-wake-of-video-release\/"},"modified":"2015-12-02T09:03:45","modified_gmt":"2015-12-02T17:03:45","slug":"chicago-mayor-fires-police-chief-in-wake-of-video-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/chicago-mayor-fires-police-chief-in-wake-of-video-release\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago mayor fires police chief in wake of video release"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO<\/strong> \u2014 Rahm Emanuel sought for months to keep the public from seeing a video that shows a white police officer shooting a black teenager 16 times.<\/p>\n

Now, a week after the video\u2019s release, the Chicago mayor has fired the police superintendent, created a task force for police accountability and expanded the use of body cameras.<\/p>\n

But Emanuel\u2019s effort to keep the video secret and his long wait to take action at the police department has stirred deep skepticism among those protesting the teen\u2019s death. Many activists are especially incensed by the fact that the video first surfaced during a re-election campaign, when the mayor was seeking African-American votes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our community, everyone is saying it (the video) was not released because of the election,\u201d said Corey Brooks, a prominent black minister.<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s quest for a second term sustained a setback after he failed to win the February election. He desperately needed black support to prevail in an April runoff.<\/p>\n

But Emanuel had angered black voters with his decision to close dozens of schools. And many African-Americans complained that the city was not doing enough to police the predominantly black West and South Sides.<\/p>\n

Had it emerged earlier, the video \u201ccould have buried\u201d Emanuel\u2019s chances for re-election, Columbia Law School professor Bernard E. Harcourt wrote in a New York Times op-ed piece published Monday.<\/p>\n

The mayor defended the decision to withhold the video from the public until the investigation was finished and the officer charged with murder. He said the move had nothing to do with his 2015 campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t compromise an ongoing investigation,\u201d he said Tuesday. \u201cYet it\u2019s clear you all want and the public deserves that information. They\u2019re two conflicting principles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked by a reporter if Emanuel thought he would become a distraction himself and would consider resigning, the mayor responded, \u201cYou\u2019ll make that judgment. I think I\u2019m doing my job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emanuel announced the dismissal of Superintendent Garry McCarthy, whose departure on Tuesday came just a week after the video was released.<\/p>\n

The mayor praised McCarthy\u2019s leadership but called it an \u201cundeniable fact\u201d that the public\u2019s trust in the police had eroded.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow is the time for fresh eyes and new leadership,\u201d Emanuel said.<\/p>\n

Protesters have been calling for McCarthy\u2019s dismissal in response to the handling of the death of Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old who was killed in October 2014.<\/p>\n

Some aldermen, particularly members of the city council\u2019s black caucus, have also been seeking McCarthy\u2019s resignation, citing the city\u2019s crime rate and questions about the department\u2019s transparency.<\/p>\n

The city released video of the shooting only after a judge ordered it to be made public. On the same day, officer Jason Van Dyke was charged.<\/p>\n

The mayor also announced the creation of a task force on police accountability that will help develop an early warning system allowing the department to intervene with problem officers racking up complaints from the public.<\/p>\n

Van Dyke was the subject of 18 civilian complaints over 14 years, including allegations that he used racial epithets and excessive force. Complaints against police are not uncommon, but the number filed against Van Dyke was high compared with other officers.<\/p>\n

Emanuel\u2019s office announced Sunday that the police department would expand its use of officer body cameras from a single district to roughly a third of Chicago.<\/p>\n

Chief of Detectives John Escalante will oversee the department until a permanent replacement is named, Emanuel said.<\/p>\n

Emanuel introduced McCarthy as his pick to lead the department in May 2011, replacing former FBI agent Jody Weis, who was unpopular with many rank-and-file officers who claimed Weis did not stand behind them.<\/p>\n

The mayor credited McCarthy with modernizing the police force, getting illegal guns off the streets and pushing a community policing strategy that the mayor said had reduced overall crime rates to a record low.<\/p>\n

In particular, McCarthy was a constant preacher on the need for tougher punishments for gun offenses. He hammered on the fact that many murder suspects had prior gun convictions, which McCarthy argued should have kept them off the streets.<\/p>\n

But the police chief came under pressure because of homicides that included high-profile cases such as the slaying of Hadiya Pendleton.<\/p>\n

Pendleton, an honor student, became a national symbol of gun violence when she was gunned down in 2013 as she talked with friends just a mile from President Barack Obama\u2019s South Side home. She died just days after returning from the president\u2019s inauguration.<\/p>\n

Through a spokesman, McCarthy declined to comment Tuesday to The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

The silent Chicago video shows McDonald walking down the middle of a four-lane street. He appears to veer away from two officers as they emerge from a vehicle, drawing their guns. Van Dyke opens fire from close range and continues firing after McDonald crumples to the ground.<\/p>\n

Police have said McDonald was carrying a knife, and an autopsy revealed that he had the hallucinogenic drug PCP in his system. Cook County State\u2019s Attorney Anita Alvarez has said the 3-inch blade recovered from the scene had been folded into the handle.<\/p>\n

Defense attorney Dan Herbert has said the officer feared for his life, acted lawfully and that the video does not tell the whole story. Van Dyke was released from jail Monday after paying the required $150,000 of his $1.5 million bail.<\/p>\n

Also Tuesday, relatives of another person fatally shot last year by Chicago police stepped up their pleas to have the squad car video made public. Emanuel spokeswoman Kelley Quinn said the city was \u201clooking into\u201d releasing it.<\/p>\n

Police have said 25-year-old Ronald Johnson III was fatally shot by an officer on Oct. 12, 2014. At the time, authorities said he pointed a gun at police.<\/p>\n

His mother, Dorothy Holmes, has said he was running away from officers. She and attorney Michael Oppenheimer have seen a copy of the video because of lawsuits they have filed.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Caryn Rousseau, Jason Keyser and Sophia Tareen contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO \u2014 Rahm Emanuel sought for months to keep the public from seeing a video that shows a white police officer shooting a black teenager 16 times. Now, a week after the video\u2019s release, the Chicago mayor has fired the police superintendent, created a task force for police accountability and expanded the use of body […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-14246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14246"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=14246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}