Post by SirSaxa on Dec 1, 2015 12:22:49 GMT -5
Responsible move by Chicago Mayor Emanuel to fire the police chief. The lies and cover-ups undermine police credibility and effectiveness. Cameras - security, dashboard, cellphones - are slowly forcing change. The public, and honest, hardworking cops and prosecutors deserve no less.
CHICAGO — Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired Chicago’s police superintendent on Tuesday, after the city’s police department came under fire for resisting, for more than a year, release of a video showing an officer shooting a teenager 16 times.....
But the biggest blow to the department came with the recent release of dashboard camera video of the Oct. 14, 2014, shooting of Laquan McDonald, 17, by Officer Jason Van Dyke. The department had refused for over a year to make the video public, and it has led to protests against police use of force. The department also released video showing other officers apparently trying to cover up the shooting, destroying surveillance camera video of the incident.
www.nytimes.com/2015/12/02/us/chicago-police-rahm-emanuel-laquan-mcdonald.html?action=Click&contentCollection=BreakingNews&contentID=55253821&pgtype=Homepage
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But if the accusations made in the OpEd below are true, Mr. Emanuel should step aside as well.
www.nytimes.com/2015/11/30/opinion/cover-up-in-chicago.html?action=click&contentCollection=U.S.&module=RelatedCoverage®ion=Marginalia&pgtype=article
Excerpt
The video of a police shooting like this in Chicago could have buried Mr. Emanuel’s chances for re-election. And it would likely have ended the career of the police superintendent, Garry F. McCarthy.
And so the wheels of justice virtually ground to a halt. Mayor Emanuel refused to make the dash-cam video public, going to court to prevent its release. The city argued that releasing the video would taint the investigation of the case, but even the attorney general of Illinois urged the city to make it available.
Then the city waited until April 15 — one week after Mr. Emanuel was re-elected — to get final approval of a pre-emptive $5 million settlement with Mr. McDonald’s family, a settlement that had been substantially agreed upon weeks earlier. Still, the city’s lawyers made sure to include a clause that kept the dash-cam video confidential.
Around the time the freelance journalist Brandon Smith filed suit for release of the dash-cam video, on Aug. 5, 2015, the Chicago Police Department told him that it had already received, and rejected, 14 other Freedom of Information Act requests for the evidence. The city spent thousands of dollars in legal expenses to keep the video under wraps. And it would probably have continued to do so, had Judge Franklin Valderrama of the Cook County Circuit Court not ordered its release.
CHICAGO — Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired Chicago’s police superintendent on Tuesday, after the city’s police department came under fire for resisting, for more than a year, release of a video showing an officer shooting a teenager 16 times.....
But the biggest blow to the department came with the recent release of dashboard camera video of the Oct. 14, 2014, shooting of Laquan McDonald, 17, by Officer Jason Van Dyke. The department had refused for over a year to make the video public, and it has led to protests against police use of force. The department also released video showing other officers apparently trying to cover up the shooting, destroying surveillance camera video of the incident.
www.nytimes.com/2015/12/02/us/chicago-police-rahm-emanuel-laquan-mcdonald.html?action=Click&contentCollection=BreakingNews&contentID=55253821&pgtype=Homepage
-----------
But if the accusations made in the OpEd below are true, Mr. Emanuel should step aside as well.
www.nytimes.com/2015/11/30/opinion/cover-up-in-chicago.html?action=click&contentCollection=U.S.&module=RelatedCoverage®ion=Marginalia&pgtype=article
Excerpt
The video of a police shooting like this in Chicago could have buried Mr. Emanuel’s chances for re-election. And it would likely have ended the career of the police superintendent, Garry F. McCarthy.
And so the wheels of justice virtually ground to a halt. Mayor Emanuel refused to make the dash-cam video public, going to court to prevent its release. The city argued that releasing the video would taint the investigation of the case, but even the attorney general of Illinois urged the city to make it available.
Then the city waited until April 15 — one week after Mr. Emanuel was re-elected — to get final approval of a pre-emptive $5 million settlement with Mr. McDonald’s family, a settlement that had been substantially agreed upon weeks earlier. Still, the city’s lawyers made sure to include a clause that kept the dash-cam video confidential.
Around the time the freelance journalist Brandon Smith filed suit for release of the dash-cam video, on Aug. 5, 2015, the Chicago Police Department told him that it had already received, and rejected, 14 other Freedom of Information Act requests for the evidence. The city spent thousands of dollars in legal expenses to keep the video under wraps. And it would probably have continued to do so, had Judge Franklin Valderrama of the Cook County Circuit Court not ordered its release.
