Chicago’s African American community will have trouble trusting CPD Supt. Eddie Johnson now that it’s known Johnson saw the Laquan McDonald shooting video before it was publicly released and was among the police brass who believed the shooting was justified.
That’s the bottom line from influential black aldermen, who urged Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Thursday to take Inspector General Joe Ferguson’s investigative report into consideration when she decides whether or not to permanently retain the superintendent she inherited.
Ferguson’s long-awaited report, released this week, placed Johnson, then deputy chief of patrol, at a meeting of police brass held “on or around” Nov. 1, 2015.
The explosive video was played; it showed now-convicted police officer Jason Van Dyke firing 16 shots into the body of the black teenager as McDonald was walking away from the officer with a knife in his hand.
“Everyone in the meeting agreed the shooting was justified and that Van Dyke ‘used the force necessary to eliminate the threat,’” Ferguson’s report states, quoting Lt. Ozzie Valdez.
For years, unconfirmed reports have circulated about Johnson’s involvement in that meeting. Now that there is definitive proof, African-American aldermen are incensed.
“He should not be able to keep his job because of this. He knew. This is another way that our communities feel like we can’t trust the people who are supposed to protect us,” Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th) said Thursday.
Taylor branded Johnson “a liar.” She accused him of being a go-along, get-along participant at a meeting held by police brass “to get their lie together.” She did not hesitate when asked what Johnson should have said or done during that November 2015 meeting.
“The right thing. Not sign off,” she said.
“This is a slap in the face to folks in our communities. While we’re trying to mend these relationships we have with the police, this does not help. It’s like one step forward and 20 steps back.”
Public Safety Committee Chairman Chris Taliaferro (29th) agreed Johnson “should have spoken up” at the meeting, even if he was the only one in the room to do so.
“That was a very difficult time for the city. And we still have to heal from it. If there was information the police superintendent knew at the time and didn’t speak about it and didn’t release it, he was wrong for that,” Taliaferro said.
In deciding Johnson’s fate, “the mayor has to weigh everything — his successes, his failures,” Taliaferro said.
“It’ll be difficult,” for Johnson now, he added. “Once you lose trust … of the residents that you serve, it’s hard to get that back.”
License Committee Chairman Ald. Emma Mitts (34th) added: “If I was in that position, I would have had to say something about that because I have to sleep with myself at night.”
Education Committee Chairman Michael Scott Jr. (24th) said Johnson has “talked a lot about the culture that existed in CPD and how he’s never seen any of the underbelly. ... That’s kind of contrary to what this report presents,” Scott said.
The mayor’s office refused to say if Ferguson’s report would play a role as Lightfoot decides whether Johnson can keep his $260,044-a-year job until next spring, when he will be fully vested in his superintendent’s pension.
Taping the WLS-AM radio program, “Connected to Chicago,” to be broadcast at 7 p.m. Sunday, Lightfoot talked, instead, about the operational changes she is “pushing, pushing, pushing” Johnson to make — changes he has “not been called upon to do before.”
“There are gonna be some tough decisions that have to be made around the organization of the department personnel. ... These are new things. I think he’s up to the challenge. But time will tell,” the mayor said.
CPD has “too many people at headquarters doing jobs that could be done by civilians,” Lightfoot said.
“I want to make sure that our district commanders in particular have every resource that they need to be successful. … I don’t want them to have to beg, borrow and steal for more resources, particularly over the course of the summer or a weekend or any time,” she said.
“We’ve got a plethora of specialized units. … Some of those people need to be back in the districts.”
