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| Attorney General Loretta Lynch speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, Monday, Dec. 7, 2015. Lynch announced a federal civil rights investigation of the Chicago police department. |
CHICAGO
(AP) -- Responding to deepening mistrust of one of the nation's
largest police forces, the federal government opened an investigation
Monday into the Chicago Police Department, and authorities announced
they would not charge an officer in the death of a 25-year-old black man
who was shot in the back last year.
The
Justice Department investigation was to look into patterns of racial
disparity in the use of force. It comes nearly two weeks after the
release of a video showing a white Chicago police officer shooting a
black teenager 16 times.
Lack of trust between
police and their communities, "makes it more difficult to gain help
within investigations, to encourage the victims and the witnesses of
crime to speak up and to fulfill the most basic responsibilities of
public-safety officials," Attorney General Loretta Lynch said. "And when
suspicion and hostility is allowed to fester, it can erupt into
unrest."
The investigation, which is separate
from an existing federal investigation into last year's shooting death
of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, will also review how the department
disciplines officers and handles misconduct accusations. Justice
Department officials say they use so-called patterns-and-practices
probes to identify systemic failings in troubled police departments and
to improve trust between police and the communities they serve.
The
civil-rights investigation follows recent ones in Baltimore and
Ferguson, Missouri, and comes as the police department and Mayor Rahm
Emanuel are under intense scrutiny over their handling of the October
2014 death of McDonald. Officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with
first-degree murder Nov. 24, more than a year after the killing and just
hours before the release of police dashboard camera footage showing the
officer shooting the teenager.
Emanuel, who
initially said a federal civil rights investigation would be "misguided"
but later reversed course, said the city needs comprehensive solutions
in the wake of the video showing McDonald's death.
Speaking
at a news conference, Emanuel said the police department's challenges
go beyond one case and he's making several reforms, including appointing
a new leader for the Independent Police Review Authority, which
investigates shootings by police. The previous head resigned Sunday.
The
authority's new chief will be Sharon Fairley, a former federal
prosecutor who also worked with Chicago's Office of Inspector General.
She appeared with Emanuel at City Hall and said she has no agenda beyond
the pursuit of integrity and transparency.
Also
Monday, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said there would be
no charges against Officer George Hernandez in the shooting of Ronald
Johnson. Authorities say he pointed a gun at police before he was killed
on Oct. 12, 2014.
Alvarez and Assistant
State's Attorney Lynn McCarthy spent more than 30 minutes detailing
evidence before showing the dashcam video, which similarly to the
McDonald case has no audio. The state's attorney's office overlaid
police radio communications.
The video shows
Johnson running from police across a street with several officers in
pursuit, and then one officer fires. Johnson is not on screen when he
was struck by two bullets.
The video was also
slowed down to show what McCarthy said was a gun in Johnson's hand.
Prosecutors say a loaded weapon was found in his hand after he was
killed. She also said Johnson ignored officers' commands to stop and
drop his weapon and had been in a physical altercation with at least one
other officer before he was shot.
"We're in
different times right now when we're talking about transparency and what
the public wants to see," Alvarez said after showing the video. "I have
pretty much opened the door here."
The
attorney for the Johnson family, Michael Oppenheimer, said the
prosecutors' investigation was a "joke" and an affront to Johnson's
family and Cook County citizens.
When asked
why there was no audio on this video and others, Alvarez said: "That's a
problem for the Chicago Police Department, and I think they need to
answer to that. ... Time and time again we look at these videos, and
there is not any audio."
Alvarez has been
criticized for not filing charges earlier in the McDonald case, in which
the video shows the teen veering away from officers on a four-lane
street when Van Dyke, seconds after exiting his squad car, opens fire
from close range. The officer continues shooting after McDonald crumples
to the ground and is barely moving.
The
Chicago City Council signed off on a $5 million settlement with
McDonald's family even before the family filed a lawsuit, and city
officials fought in court for months to keep the video from being
released publicly. The city's early efforts to suppress the footage
coincided with Emanuel's re-election campaign, when the mayor was
seeking African-American votes in a tight race.
Since
the release of the McDonald video, Emanuel forced Police Superintendent
Garry McCarthy to resign and formed a task force to examine the police
department. But protesters' calls for the mayor to resign - something he
said he won't do - have grown louder.
Politicians,
including Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, called for the federal civil
rights investigation. The Rev. Jesse Jackson said he hopes it would
focus not only on the police department, but on Emanuel's office and the
Cook County State's Attorney's office.
"All three of them - the police, City Hall and the prosecutor's office - are suspect," Jackson said. "We cannot trust them."
The Justice Department has opened 23 investigations of police departments since the start of the Obama administration.
If
the Justice Department finds systemic violations, the investigations
typically result in court-enforceable agreements between the federal
government and the community that serve as blueprints for change and are
overseen by an independent monitor. The federal government has the
option of suing a police department that is unwilling to make changes.
