Emanuel Apologizes for Controversial Cop Shooting, Protests Continue
Blamed by activists for Chicago’s troubled police department, Mayor Rahm Emanuel apologized last week for the “totally avoidable” fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald by a police officer.
“What happened on Oct. 20, 2014, should never have happened,” Emanuel told the city’s aldermen in an emotional 37-minute address Dec. 9 at City Hall, 121 N. LaSalle Blvd. “Supervision and leadership in the police department and the oversight agencies that were in place failed. And that has to change. . . Laquan McDonald’s death was totally avoidable.”
Emanuel told the council that he was the mayor and he “owned it.”
“But if we are going to begin the healing process, the first step in that journey is my step. And I’m sorry.”
Emanuel, who choked up during portions of his speech, acknowledged that there was a “code of silence.”
Emanuel also acknowledged that police treat some people differently than others.
“..One young man asked me a simple question that gets to the core of what we’re talking about,” Emanuel said. “He said, ‘Do you think the police would ever treat you the way they treat me? And the answer is no. And that is wrong. And that has to change in this city.”
In McDonald’s shooting, Officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with murdering the 17-year-old black teen. McDonald was shot 16 times.
Van Dyke was charged after a judge ruled that a police dash-cam of the shooting could be released to the public.
The shooting prompted downtown marches and protests on Black Friday.
U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch then announced that the U.S. Justice Department would investigate the city’s police department and its overall practices.
The political fallout also included several resignations and dismissals, including Police Supt. Garry McCarthy.
There were calls for other dismissals, including Emanuel’s.
But several black aldermen said they believed Emanuel’s apology was sincere.
Hours later that day, however, the City Council’s Black Caucus was making demands.
The group called for the new police superintendent to be an African American and a special prosecutor for police shootings. Among the demands, also was a request that police no longer shoot people in the back.
“We, as the Black Caucus, stand today to acknowledge that we also bear responsibility for being less vigilant in the review of this case and other complaints of police misconduct that unfortunately occur far too often in the city of Chicago, “said Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th Ward), chairman of the caucus. “The breakdown in the system was real, and it was the direct result of decades of racism and neglect of communities of color.”
Hundreds of activists, many of them young, packed Chicago downtown streets, attempting to block the entrance to Highway 290, as well as portions of Michigan Avenue and State Street.
As in the past, protestors called for Emanuel’s resignation and Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez.
Ill. State Rep La Shawn Ford (8th Dist.) announced that he was pushing to amend the state’s Revised Cities and Villages Act of 1941. If changed, Emanuel or other mayors could be removed in a recall election.
The Rev. Marvin Hunter, a great-uncle of McDonald, gave Emanuel a pass at a news conference last Friday at his Grace Memorial Baptist Church, 1457 Kenneth Ave., Chicago.
“I hold Anita Alvarez accountable,” Hunter said.
On Emanuel, he said, “We can cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“We can’t fight five battles on four fronts,” he said. “I only fight the battles that I can win.”
Hunter also called on President Barack Obama to hold a summit on the West Side of Chicago addressing a variety of issues, including the police.
On Tuesday, the aldermanic Public Safety Committee and the Human Relations Committee were scheduled to hear a variety of issues dealing with the police. One resolution calls for a special prosecutor in the McDonald case.
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