Black Aldermen Again Call For Ouster Of Police Supt. Garry McCarthy
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A day after the Emanuel administration released video of the fatal police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, the City Council Black Caucus renewed its demand that Police Supt. Garry McCarthy resign or be fired.
Ald. Howard Brookins (21st) said he planned to introduce a resolution to the City Council, calling for a vote of no confidence in McCarthy. The Black Caucus also called for McCarthy's ouster last month, after another violent weekend in Chicago, but Mayor Rahm Emanuel has stood by his handpicked police superintendent
The aldermen stopped short of criticizing the mayor himself for his handling of the case, including his opposition to the release of the video of Officer Jason Van Dyke fatally shooting McDonald until after a Cook County judge ordered the city to make it public.
Brookins said city attorneys led him and others to believe there was a significant reason to withhold the video while aldermen voted to approve a $5 million settlement with McDonald's family in April, even without the family having filed a lawsuit.
"We were misled. We were misled. We were misled in terms of whether or not this particular tape showed some gray area where it needed to be investigated for all this period of time," Brookins said. "It appears to everybody who has seen that tape – and I can fathom to say I speak for the entire caucus – that it did not and should not have taken a full year to determine what happened, when all the facts were known, and it was a clear video to show it."
A day before the City Council approved the settlement in April, Brookins demanded the video be made public, but the city continued fighting the release of the video until last week, when a Cook County judge ordered the city to release it.
Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th), who chairs the Black Caucus, said he does not regret voting to approve the $5 million settlement without having seen the video of the shooting, because he believes – having seen it now – a jury would have awarded McDonald's family even more in damages.
"If I was a juror, I would authorize much more than $5 million, so I think we were fiscally responsible in authorizing a $5 million payout. I don't back off on that," he said.
A spokesman for Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration took issue with the Black Caucus' claim, insisting the law department gave the City Council Finance Committee a detailed and accurate account of what happened when Laquan McDonald was killed.
Emanuel has been under fire for fighting to keep the tape out of the public eye before the April 7 mayoral runoff, and only reversing course after losing a court battle over the tape.
However, aldermen did not criticize the mayor directly for fighting the release of the video, speaking mostly in generalities that "everybody" should bear responsibility for the handling of the case.
Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th) said the McDonald case shows there must be changes at the Independent Police Review Authority, which investigates all police shootings.
"They are tasked with presenting policy for changes in the Police Department. What changes have they proposed?" she said.
Hairston also said an independent prosecutor should be brought in to handle the McDonald case, because she has no confidence in Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez.
Aldermen questioned why it took Alvarez more than a year to file charges against Van Dyke after McDonald was killed, even though the shooting was recorded by a police dashboard camera.
Alvarez has said it is not unusual for an investigation into a police shooting to take up to 20 months.
"Investigations of police shootings and misconduct are highly complex matters that carry with them very unique legal issues, that must be fully examined and taken into consideration," she said.
Alvarez said investigating a police shooting is "different than one gang member shooting another," in particular because investigators must determine how the officer was trained in the use of force, and what the department's rules and regulations are for using deadly force.
Sawyer said there is no legitimate reason why it took so long to charge Van Dyke when there was video evidence of the shooting.
"Black people are often ignored. When the media seeks to condemn people in the community for not working with law enforcement on murders, let this case be a part of your answer. When you wait almost 400 days for justice on something this clear, yet four hours to indict a young man – Malcolm London – on felony charges, is it any wonder that people don't have faith in this system?" Sawyer said.
Sawyer was referring to 22-year-old Malcolm London, a poet and community activist who was arrested during a protest march Tuesday night, and charged with aggravated battery of a peace officer, for allegedly punching a police officer in the face.
Brookins also blasted Alvarez for saying she decided weeks ago to indict Van Dyke, but held off on charging him because she wanted to wait for federal investigators to complete their probe of the case, so she and the feds could hold a joint announcement of their findings.
Alvarez said her announcement of charges against Van Dyke was moved up once a Cook County judge ordered the city to release video of the shooting.
"It is unfathomable that we would have a state's attorney, in Anita Alvarez, say that … she had come to this decision weeks ago, but the reason why she delayed it was because she wanted to have a press conference carefully timed with the U.S. attorney, and the FBI. That is unfathomable, and that is not equal justice under the law for the people who need the most protection," he said.
Aldermen said it's clear the system failed McDonald, and the investigation into the shooting lacked transparency.