Thursday, December 31, 2015

Abayomi Azikiwe, PANW Editor, Quoted in Mercury News Daily: Major Overhaul Expected for Chicago’s Police Dept.
Dec 31, 2015
Adam Mitchell

Emanuel noted that on audio recordings of communications between dispatchers and officers on the scene that night, several officers are heard “frantically” asking for a Taser before officer Jason Van Dyke shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.

Activists were skeptical Wednesday that the changes would reverse decades of problems and mistrust between Chicago residents and police.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel says every Chicago police patrol auto will be equipped with a Taser following a series of high-profile shootings by officers.

A not guilty plea by a white Chicago police officer charged with the murder of a black teenager past year illustrates the “arrogance” and “combative” nature of USA police, an African-American journalist in Detroit says. The shooting occurred in October of a year ago. Officers will also be encouraged to call in additional personnel during incidents, Escalante said.

The mayor said: “Our police officers have a very hard and risky job”.

Ted Pearson is a leader of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, which advocates for the city to have a civilian police accountability council that isn’t appointed by the mayor.

On Monday, the father of another teen fatally shot by a Chicago police officer filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city. Yet that didn’t stop the latest shooting.

“There’s a difference between whether someone can use a gun and when they should use a gun”, Emanuel said at the news conference.

Chicago police fatally shot a 19-year-old man and 55-year-old woman over the weekend, again putting a spotlight on one of the nation’s largest police departments and raising questions about whether its officers are too…

“These deaths by the hands of police are gaining a horrendous reputation for the United States both domestically as well as internationally”, said Abayomi Azikiwe, editor at the Pan-African News Wire. A 55-year-old neighbor, Bettie Jones, was accidentally hit and killed by gunfire.

Emanuel and Interim Police Superintendent John Escalante on Wednesday will announce a “major overhaul” in policy covering police responses to incidents and the use of physical and lethal force, a mayoral spokeswoman said.

Police have said no officers or vehicles on the scene were equipped with one. That announcement came after a court forced the city to release a video from 2014 showing a police officer shooting a black 17-year-old, Laquan McDonald, 16 times.

Currently, about 20 percent of Chicago officers who respond to service calls have access to stun guns. According to Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi’s emailed statement, the training will begin on June 1.

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