Former Chicago Police Superintendent Heaps More Scorn On DOJ Report
(CBS) – Former Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy is offering additional criticism about the federal report released last week that slams the Chicago Police Department for pervasive civil-rights violations.
Where to begin?
"It speaks in broad-brush terms. It really lacks specificity," McCarthy tells CBS 2's Mai Martinez.
The career law-enforcement official says he's disappointed he wasn't interviewed by the U.S. Department of Justice for their report. U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said McCarthy was "not available" to talk with the feds as they were conducting their investigation in CPD.
"Absolutely, patently false," McCarthy says.
McCarthy also says the federal report did not analyze crime data. He says that's important because under his watch the murder rate dipped to what he says were 1965 levels.
"They only made fleeting references to crime data, and I think that's on purpose because of the explosion of crime in the city since they came here," he says.
If crime did decrease under McCarthy, was it at the expense of the civil rights of minorities, as the feds say?
McCarthy says the data he saw as superintendent doesn't back up the DOJ's claims that minorities were disproportionately targeted by Chicago police.
"It shows very clearly that our stops comport almost exactly with where, when and who civilian victims of crime were reporting," he says.
McCarthy adds: "Just to put it in perspective, us stopping 32 percent white folks in Englewood, which is 97 percent African-American and our most violent community, is not going to reduce crime there."
As for suggestions of police cover-ups in high-profile cases like the Laquan McDonald shooting, which spurred the DOJ investigation, McCarthy pointed toward the city's corporation counsel.
"It was the corporation counsel of the city of Chicago who a made a deal with the attorneys for the family of Laquan McDonald. Gave them $5 million without filing a lawsuit as long as they don't release the video," he says.
Did the report get anything right? Yes, McCarthy says. You can never go wrong recommending better training and supervision or policy review, he says.