Community Leaders Call For Peace When Police Release Video Of Suspect's Death
(CBS) -- Community leaders are urging people to be peaceful when police release a potentially volatile video of a white police officer fatally shooting a black teen.
CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot talked with Chicago Congressman Bobby Rush, the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Sr. and St. Sabina pastor Michael Pfleger. They say there is much disappointment and anger that the officer at the center of the video is still on the Chicago Police Department.
At the same time, they're urging – and expecting – restraint.
"I'm not buying into the fact that there's going to be riots in the street. No. We're going to be having meetings in the churches, meetings in the barbershops, meetings in the community centers," Rush says. "There's going to be meetings, meetings, meetings with solutions and an agenda to deal with both the problems and also the perpetrators of the problems."
Jackson was hopeful calm will prevail.
"People are disgusted and many are angry, most are angry. The question becomes when will the cup runneth over? How much more of this can we take?" he says.
Pfleger says any violent reaction to the video's release would ultimately undermine the goal of activists seeking social change.
"There should be no violence. No destruction of property, no violence," he says. "You know, as Dr. King taught us, when you do that, you become just like the oppressor that we're protesting against."
Police said they will release the dash-camera video from a 2014 encounter between officers and a vandalism suspect sometime within the next few days. A judge earlier this week ordered the city to make the footage public, even though investigations are reportedly continuing into the officer's actions.
