Friday, January 1, 2016

Coverup? What Coverup?

Cover upper # 1
In my opinion, the only wrongdoing that occurred here is the coverup among city officials. That's why everyone is so angry. 
Van Dyke is just the fall guy. His persecution is simply the human instinct to lash out during times of frustration. 
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CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago mayor's office, police and the body that investigates police shootings closely coordinated their response in the months after a white officer fatally shot a black teenager in 2014, emails released Thursday revealed.
The messages clearly indicate that advisers to Mayor Rahm Emanuel knew within months that the
case could be politically explosive.  

Thousands of emails were released in response to open-records requ The Associated Press and other media regarding 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, who was killed in October 2014 after being shot 16 times. Few communications from Emanuel's staff mention him directly — though several refer to him by the acronym "MRE."
A video of the officer shooting McDonald — which was not made public until more than a year later, on Nov. 24 — led to protests and repeated calls for Emanuel to resign. The officer has been charged with murder and pleaded not guilty this week at his arraignment.
Emanuel has denied ever seeing the video prior to its release, a contention many activists have said they do not believe. The emails do not appear to contradict Emanuel's claim, though they show how City Hall grew increasingly concerned that the video could pose a major public-relations problem.
In early December 2014, Scott Ando, head of the Independent Police Review Authority — publicly touted by the mayor as uniquely independent in its probes of police shootings — singled out the case. He sent an email to the mayor's deputy chief of staff, Janey Rountree, with a link to a website that raised questions about police accounts of the shooting.
Emanuel spokesman Adam Collins sent a flurry of emails about media inquiries into video of the shooting. His subject line on a Dec. 10, 2014, email to fellow Emanuel staffers included the headline in one Chicago newspaper: "If Chicago police have video of teen shooting, let's see it: advocates."
The risk that a publicly released video could blow up not just locally but also nationally was made by lawyers from McDonald's family, who reached out to the city about a settlement in early 2015, just over a month before Emanuel's re-election.
Although none of the correspondence directly addressed Emanuel, in a letter on March 6 — after the family's lawyers saw the video — attorney Jeffrey J. Neslund told city lawyers that the footage would reflect badly on the city.
"I submit the graphic dash cam video will have a powerful impact on any jury and the Chicago community as a whole," he wrote. "This case will undoubtedly bring a microscope of national attention to the shooting itself as well as the city's pattern, practice and procedures in rubber-stamping fatal police shootings of African Americans as 'justified.'"
He demanded $16 million. The two sides eventually settled on $5 million, a deal approved by the city council shortly after Emanuel won a second term.
Though the Independent Police Review Authority, or IPRA, is supposed to maintain a distance from police and the mayor's office, a March 11 email from Ando asks about forwarding witness interview transcripts to the law department "for their use in settlement negotiations with" the McDonald family.
In May, Collins cautioned IPRA spokesman Larry Merritt to "tread lightly" when a reporter asked for an IPRA interview about the case.
"Can anyone do an interview? I think we need to accept some of these opportunities," Merritt wrote in a May 26 email to top Emanuel aides and Ando. "These stories are getting done with or without us."
Collins responded: "I completely agree that we need to engage more, but if their focus is on specifics (sic) investigations we should tread very lightly. This is about Laquan McDonald and we should not do interviews about open investigations."
Also in May, Collins complained to colleagues that IPRA did not follow his recommendation on how to respond to a TV station about McDonald.
Days before the video's release, Collins wrote to police and law department representatives urging them to speak with "one voice" on the topic.
Emanuel and Chicago police have been under heavy scrutiny since the city, under court order, released the squad-car video. McDonald, who was carrying a folded 3-inch knife, is seen veering away from officer Jason Van Dyke in the video before the officer starts firing.

Months before the video was made public, Emanuel's administration was well aware of growing outrage about the case. In a late July email exchange, top Emanuel aides worried about the perception of a cover-up and noted recent news stories.
"As you might imagine, the timing and details discussed in the Sun-Times article and growing interest in the McDonald incident has not worked in our favor, and is helping to 'stir the pot,'" Emanuel aide Vance Henry wrote.
By October, Henry noted organizing by community groups around the McDonald case and the fatal shooting of 22-year-old Rekia Boyd by another Chicago officer. He suggested in an Oct. 11 email that officials would be "smart to act timely and strategically" in both cases.
The release of the video forced the resignation of Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy
and led to an ongoing civil rights investigation of the entire Chicago Police Department by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The city released the emails less than a week after police fatally shot two other people: 55-year-old Bettie Jones, who authorities said was killed accidentally, and 19-year-old Quintonio LeGrier, who police said was being "combative." Both were black.

8 comments:

  1. Anonymous1/01/2016

    Why aren't you people calling for Rahm's resignation?? O'Shea is a stand-up guy. It's Rahm...and he bullies the fearful. You are white 19th Warders, and he does not fear you. Don't you remember what he said to the Firemen? He is a weasel and a fraud and at best, a very poor manager. Call him out to the carpet! Get him out, now!

    Look at the latest small (but still a lie): going to Cuba for 10 days. That was the 18th. On the 27th, his "people" say he is coming back early to deal with the crisis, and he comes back the next day (28th). That's 10 days. He is a sociopath! He spews so many lies he doesn't even realize it. Do a document dump on New Years Eve, because he knows everyone is distracted and there will be no newscasts with "Chi-Town Rising."

    Mobilize Pickle. Mobilize O'Shea. Get a white alderman or two on the right side of this whole recall thing. We end up with Reilly for a while, and then we end up with a Mayor who has been here (i.e.-a native), who wants to stay here, and doesn't just see this as a stepping stone.

    Meanwhile, Rauner is returning from having his back rubbed down with Coconut oil by Rahm in Cuba. Think I'm kidding? Wake up! Get rid of the evil little Rahm!

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  2. Anonymous1/02/2016

    My problem starts at the top and that is with this Mayor. First off he's a liar. Stating that he didn't see the video until it was made public is an out and out blatant lie. But if he didn't see it then what the hell is he doing as Mayor? Why are you Mayor then? Wouldn't any sane person in charge want to see how his cabinet is being ran? Or was he too busy planning his trip to Cuba or where to put the next speed camera? Truthfully they all are at fault, from the top to the last alderman. They OK'd the settlement with the family without even once asking about the case. Now they want to cover their behinds as well. Sad really, but when can you trust a politician?

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    1. Anonymous1/02/2016

      If I can think of one alderman that should not be blamed for that settlement it would be Matt O'Shea. O'Shea is constantly looking out for the citizens of this community. Young or old O'Shea has everyones back.

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    2. Anonymous1/02/2016

      O'Shea is great, and I don't mince words. He has the back of all residents. I seriously don't understand why he gets so much crap from a few here and on True News. I don't think you can lump him into the Fran/Bill block, other than by the Democrat label. Keep up the good work, Matt.

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    3. The alderman does not catch any crap on this blog.

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  3. Anonymous1/02/2016

    Matt is catching grief because of his association with Fran Bill. Matt is a good guy and a model public servant. So why does he insist on sleeping with flee ridden dogs? Time to be his own man.

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  4. Anonymous1/04/2016

    Can we back things up a little. None of us were there when McDonald was killed. The dash cam video of this incident is the turd in the punch bowl. Now put yourself in the world of politics and factor in the entire Hands Up-Don't Shoot bullshit that Obama, and Attorney General Holder could have put a stop to, but decided to go after the police instead. You have these massive bullshit demonstrations in Ferguson, New York and Baltimore. You have coast to coast pandering so as not to offend the ignorant masses. And on top of that you have an election in the next 6 months. And now you have the VanDyke video where the only aggressor on tape is VanDyke. How many politicians, with this video available to view, would stand up and say the officer was in the right? Black, white, Asian? None of them would put this out to a black voters who've been chomping at the bit for months preceding this incident. Let's face it, they all got caught with their pants down.

    Im no fan of Rahm, but all this bullshit about demanding resignations would get a big "fuck you" from me. If you're displeased with the mayor, elect somebody else. The process is there. Go register all of your protesters. Circulate the petitions, get on the ballot and campaign why your candidate should be the one elected. This whole "give us Barabas", we want it now is bullshit.

    And frankly, i believe its safe to say that the "majority" of Chicagoans, "not George Soras hired anarchists", not publicity seeking demonstrators recruited by SEIU or the Teachers Union, are sick of your bullshit.

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  5. Anonymous1/04/2016

    While it was a nice gesture to put up the bunting up and down 103rd street, is anyone going to go back and collect it now?

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