CHICAGO (AP) – Amid concerns about possible unrest, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel held a tense meeting with ministers and others Monday to discuss the upcoming release of a video that shows a white police officer fatally shooting a black teenager.
Emanuel asked for their help in calling for calm, but some community leaders said afterward that city officials waited too long to get them involved – more than a year after 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times.
“You had this tape for a year and you are only talking to us now because you need our help keeping things calm,” one of the ministers, Cory Brooks, said after the meeting.
A judge last week ordered the Police Department to release the squad car dashcam footage by Wednesday after the city refused to do so for several months, saying the investigations into the shooting weren’t complete. The FBI and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office are investigating the incident and were expected to make a decision on whether to charge Officer Jason Van Dyke as early as this week.
Ira Acree, who described the meeting with Emanuel as “very tense, very contentious,” said the mayor expressed concerns about the prospect of any demonstrations getting out of control. The minister said Emanuel referred to unrest that broke out in other cities after police killed young African-American men.