|
 Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced during a news conference that he had
asked Garry McCarthy, police superintendent since May 2011, to
resign. Emanuel also said he was creating a new police
accountability task force.
The white officer, Jason Van Dyke, was charged a week ago with
first-degree murder in the 2014 killing of Laquan McDonald. The
video, from a patrol car's dashboard camera, was released on the
same day.
High-profile killings of black men at the hands of mainly white law
enforcement officers in U.S. cities have fueled demonstrations for
some two years, stoking a national debate on race relations and
police tactics.
Emanuel, a Democrat and former chief of staff to President Barack
Obama, said he was responsible for what happened in the case, the
same as the police superintendent. He said the creation of the task
force was meant to rebuild trust in the police department of one of
the country's largest cities.
 The mayor said McCarthy had become "a distraction." In an editorial
on Tuesday, the Chicago Sun-Times had called for McCarthy's
resignation and the Chicago City Council black caucus and some
protesters had also called for him to leave.
About 150 demonstrators endured nearly freezing temperatures to
rally outside Chicago police headquarters on Tuesday evening, in a
protest led by the city's chapter of the Black Lives Matter group.
"We have built a resistance movement and put pressure at the highest
offices in both the police department and City Hall," said
demonstrator Damon Williams, 23. "This is a very long fight and we
have a lot more work to do."
The Conference of National Black Churches applauded McCarthy's
dismissal.
STREET VIOLENCE AN ISSUE FOR MAYOR
Dean Angelo, president of Chicago's Fraternal Order of Police,
expressed surprise at McCarthy's ouster. "We thought the mayor was
supportive of the superintendent," he said.
Policing and street violence have emerged as leading issues for
Emanuel since his election in April to a second term after being
forced into a runoff. The mayor, McCarthy and Cook County State's
Attorney Anita Alvarez have faced criticism for taking 13 months to
release the video of the shooting and to charge Van Dyke.
By naming a commission and removing McCarthy, Emanuel could be
hoping to deflect criticism of his own handling of the case. Soon
after Emanuel's re-election, the city agreed to a $5 million
settlement with the 17-year-old's family.
 The video shows Van Dyke shooting McDonald in the middle of a street
on Oct. 20, 2014, as McDonald was walking away from police who had
confronted him. Protests followed the charging of Van Dyke and the
release of the video on Nov. 24.
Van Dyke, 37, was released from jail on Monday after posting bail of
$1.5 million.
A civil rights leader, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, urged an
independent investigation led by a special prosecutor.
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Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police,
said: "Blame Rahm Emanuel. He hired McCarthy, he set his parameters,
and he fired him."
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People President
Cornell William Brooks accused the city of "generational police
misconduct and police brutality."
FIVE-MEMBER PANEL
Emanuel said the new five-member task force would be advised by
former Massachusetts Governor and Chicago native Deval Patrick. A
former government civil rights lawyer, Patrick said he hoped to help
restore the community's confidence in the police and rebuild the
system of accountability.
The panel, due to make its recommendations by March 31, aims to
boost independent oversight of police misconduct, ensure officers
with repeated complaints are evaluated and forge a process for
releasing videos of police incidents, Emanuel said.
Federal authorities have had an open criminal investigation into the
shooting since April, and the U.S. Department of Justice might still
investigate the police force, as it did in Ferguson, Missouri, and
Baltimore following deaths involving officers and unarmed black men.
On Tuesday afternoon, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan called
on the DOJ's civil rights division to investigate Chicago police
practices, including use of deadly force and the adequacy of its
investigation of misconduct allegations.
In another incident, a lawyer representing the family of a
25-year-old man killed by Chicago police on Oct. 12, 2014, told
reporters a dashboard camera video of the shooting that would
challenge the police version of events could be released by court
order as early as Dec. 10.
Ronald Johnson III was running from police when Officer George
Hernandez arrived and seconds later shot him in the back, lawyer
Michael Oppenheimer said. Police said Johnson had a gun and turned
toward officers before being shot.
(Additional reporting by David Greising, Michael Lansu, Dave
McKinney, Karl Plume and Renita Young in Chicago, Brendan O'Brien in
Milwaukee, Ben Klayman in Detroit, Julia Edwards in Washington,
Barbara Goldberg and Justin Madden in New York, Eric M. Johnson in
Seattle and Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Writing by Howard
Goller; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Lisa Shumaker and Jacqueline
Wong)
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