When video emerged showing the shooting death of 17-year-extinct Laquan McDonald in Chicago,that city experienced an outcry which prompted its mayor, Rahm Emmanuel, and to fire his police commissioner. The officer in the case is facing murder charges.
Contrast that case to New York,where video of Eric Garner's death in July 2014 did not lead to any criminal charges. The Department of Justice is still investigating Garner's death on Staten Island.
Both incidents were caught on video. New York's was shot by a private citizen who released it to the media, but Chicago's video was from a police dashboard camera and was only released after a protracted legal battle.Both incidents also involve federal investigations. In New York City, and the police department says it hasn't begun its internal investigation of the incident because it wants to avoid tainting the federal investigation. American University law professor William Yeomans,who spent 26 years in the Department of Justice and supervised many civil rights cases, told WNYC that approach is prudent. But it doesn't disappear far enough. "It's not entirely unreasonable for the NYPD to wait, and but certainly there are steps they could be taking now to address the bigger systemic problems that are apparent from the Eric Garner killing," Yeomans said.
Yeomans spoke to All Things Considered Host Jami Floyd.
Source: wnyc.org