Chicago police superintendent Garry McCarthy fired

Pattern:

A week after the shocking video of a Chicago police officer shooting teen Laquan McDonald went viral, city officials appear to be wavering in their fight to keep secret another dash-cam video depicting a police shooting that lawyers for the victim say went down in strikingly similar fashion.

In response to questions from the Tribune, the city's Law Department said Tuesday afternoon that the city was "currently re-examining" when the video of Ronald Johnson III's shooting should be released even though the incident was still under investigation by the Independent Police Review Authority, which looks into allegations of police misconduct.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez revealed for the first time Tuesday that the office is investigating possible criminal charges against the veteran officer who fatally shot Johnson in the back during a foot chase just eight days before McDonald's killing.

At a news conference Tuesday, lawyers for Johnson's family said his shooting was eerily similar to McDonald's. The video shows an officer opening fire within seconds of arriving at the scene as Johnson was moving away from police, they said. And as with the video in the McDonald case, the audio that is supposed to accompany the footage is missing.

"This is a horrible thing. They continue to keep these things quiet," attorney Michael Oppenheimer said of the video that he has seen as part of an ongoing federal lawsuit against the city filed by Johnson's mother. "And how can anybody have confidence in the system when they keep happening this way?"

One major distinction between the two cases is a dispute in Johnson's shooting over whether he was armed. Police, who described Johnson as a known gang member, said they recovered a gun at the scene, but Oppenheimer contended police planted the weapon after shooting an unarmed Johnson.

City wavering on keeping video secret in another fatal police shooting

 

McCarthy never saw it coming.

He met with Rahm on Monday, and left with his job. He was in the middle of doing media appearances Tuesday morning when he was fired over the phone.

Sneed: Garry McCarthy blindsided by firing

 

The Johnson case is interesting. It says in the Tribune that "police said" that Johnson pointed a gun at Hernandez, which is why the officer opened fire. The "plant" accusation is extremely serious.

There is a pattern here. In both cases, officers showed up, plunging themselves right into the fog of war, and almost immediately began firing while officers who were already at the scene did not.

 

Emanuel won't get impeached, but this is the kind of thing that could cost him re-election ... and possibly any national political aspirations.

 

They are going to release the Johnson video next week.

Shooting video of Ronald Johnson to be released next week

 

Yeah, could be a huge opening for the Republicans in Cook County.

 

But the elections aren't run that way. It's an open primary, followed by a run-off if no one clears 50 percent, and party doesn't matter.

 

Republicans don't matter in Cook County. Emanuel is a Democrat in Chicago. He might get beat by another Dem, but if any sleazy politician is relatively safe, it's the Democratic mayor of Chicago. Plus, it's not like Democratic voters are suddenly going to start exploring their options.

 

It was 56-44 last time, FWIW.

 

Rahm was running to the right of all his opponents.

While sleazy, he was the most pro-business, and the one candidate who was most receptive to Republican voters.

Of the people running, he was far and away my choice.

 

What's strange is that I've never thought of him as sleazy in the way that we think of Illinois politicians being sleazy. I don't ever expect to hear him indicted for something, for example.

It seems reasonable to speculate that they really didn't think Van Dyke should have been charged with anything, and wouldn't have charged him had the judge not forced their hand.

Like I said, if you put yourself in the officer's shoes, it's at least plausible that he jumped into the situation in the middle of it, and McDonald made a brief move toward the center line and the officers.

 

And then, yeah, just to be safe, he shot him 15 more times.

OK, 14. I'll give him the second shot.