Emails Reveal Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Knew Of Video Showing La Quan McDonald’s Death

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been criticized for the city’s delays in keeping the incriminating dashcam video of Laquan McDonald’s murder under wraps for more than a year.  NBC Chicago obtained e-mails through a Freedom of Information Act request, which show the City Hall press office was made aware of the possibility of a dash cam video on December 8, 2014, two months after  Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times by a Chicago police officer.

Via NBC Chicago:

Rahm’s spokeswoman Shannon Breymaier was apart of an e-mail chain questioning whether the city could release the video. A top assistant in the corporation counsel’s office replied, “This is not a lawsuit as of now.”

Top press aides Kelly Quinn and Adam Collins were also part of an e-mail chain onFeb. 10, 2015, which included an article by freelance reporter Jamie Kalven which first reported the autopsy results and wrote: “the account…given by police cannot be true.”

McDonald family attorney Jeff Neslund warned the city in a letter to the Corporation Counsel’s office on March 6th of this year: “This case will undoubtedly bring a microscope of national attention to the shooting” and “the City’s pattern, practice and procedures.”

In fact that’s what it did. Citizens in Chicago especially were outraged. Now State Representative LaShawn Ford, a Chicago Democrat, has filed House Bill 4356 on Wednesday which would recall the election of Rahm.

Currently there is an active federal criminal investigation into this incident. Hopefully now justice can be served.