Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has called for a full investigation of the recent spate of shootings by the police in the city, but it may be too little, too late. The cries for him to resign now resonate across the nation, amplifying the local voices and protests.
A growing contingent of protesters were already in the streets following the video release of Laquan McDonald being riddled with 16 bullets fired by a police officer and a similar earlier shooting death of Ron Johnson.
Things intensified last Saturday, when police were summoned to a “domestic disturbance” and shot and killed a troubled Quintonio LeGrier, 19, and “accidentally shot and killed” Bettie Jones, 55, a mother of five. According to the police, LeGrier was brandishing a baseball bat, and Jones was shot when she answered the door to allow the police to enter her home.
It was reported that LeGrier, an honor student in high school and college, had a history of mental problems, and his father called the police when his son began banging on his bedroom door with the bat.
“Seven bullets were put in my son,” LeGrier’s mother, Janet Cooksey, told reporters. “Eight shots were fired … one hit an innocent lady who was just opening the door. Something is wrong with this picture.”
“There are serious questions about yesterday’s shootings that must be answered in full by the Independent Police Review Authority’s investigation,” Emanuel, who was vacationing in Cuba, said in a statement Sunday. “While their investigation is underway, we must also make real changes within our police department today, and it is clear changes are needed to how officers respond to mental health crises.”
Earlier this year he removed Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy in the wake of the release of the video of McDonald’s slaying and possible cover-up.
The officers involved in the recent shooting have been placed on administrative duty for a month, according to a statement from the Chicago Police Department.
Meanwhile, the Rev. Al Sharpton has called for Emanuel to relinquish his post given his poor management of race and policing in the city. “You talk about a crisis on steroids,” he said Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program. “You are in the middle of a recall vote, they are accumulating petitions in Chicago to recall you, the state Legislature is going to have to deal with it and you don’t even come back? This is the height of either insensitivity or lack of intelligence or arrogance or a reasonable combination of all three.”
Monday, protesters continued to march and call for Emanuel to resign. Many of those on streets of the city wore T-shirts declaring “Rahm Has Failed” and “Rahm Must Go!”