Another one?
Tuesday, Dec 1, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Oy…
The mother of a man shot and killed by Chicago police last year said she has rejected the city’s proposed settlement and wants it to release dashcam footage of the slaying because it shows her son was unarmed when he was killed.
The mother of Ronald “Ronnieman” Johnson, Dorothy Holmes, told reporters during a press conference Tuesday that she has declined a proposed settlement by the city of Chicago in her federal civil lawsuit over her son’s death. Holmes said she will not take hush money from a city that has been doling it out in the millions to cover-up questionable police shootings, like the $5 million paid to Laquan McDonald’s family this past summer. […]
Her son was running through Washington Park on Oct. 12, 2014, on Chicago’s South Side when Officer George Hernandez shot him to death. Then, a familiar story was told to the press.
Johnson had a gun, Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat Camden told the media. (Camden is the same de facto cop spokesman who claimed McDonald “lunged” at police with a knife, causing them to open fire.) Hernandez was not in uniform and driving an unmarked car when he responded to a call of shots fired. Johnson became an automatic suspect because he was running. Camden said Johnson was carrying a gun when at one point he turned toward Hernandez, causing the officer to shoot.
Holmes and her attorney said they’ve seen the dashcam video and it shows police are lying.
Johnson is seen sprinting through the park with nothing in his hands, they said.
“He’s running with palms up,” said William Calloway, an activist who speaks on behalf of Johnson’s family. “The video’s not blurry. It’s not grainy. It is clear as day.”
“They killed him and he was unarmed,” he told The Daily Beast.
Even worse, according to a stunning and volatile allegation by Holmes’s attorney, is that police framed Johnson after they killed him by planting a gun on his person.
- VanillaMan - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 2:54 pm:
Holy crap.
This is so not good.
- Formerpol - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 2:56 pm:
A legacy of the McDonald shooting is that now people can believe that the cops were lying in other shootings. And the notion that the cops would plant a gun is now credible. Maybe pampered white suburbanites will now better understand the anger felt in many urban communities!
- anonny - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 2:59 pm:
The floodgates are straining…
- @MisterJayEm - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 3:01 pm:
“[TK] had a gun, Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat Camden told the media.”
From the Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/11/25/why-did-authorities-say-laquan-mcdonald-lunged-at-chicago-police-officers/
People who quote Pat Camden may be media employees, but they aren’t journalists.
– MrJM
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 3:01 pm:
Let’s see the video now.
No “spin,’ or “political CYA,” from authorities, as some people call it, will do.
- Jose Abreu's next homer - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 3:05 pm:
From Chicago Reader on 12/1/11
Mayor Rahm Emanuel, has repeatedly vowed to create “the most open, accountable, and transparent government that the City of Chicago has ever seen.”
This sets him apart from his predecessor, Richard M. Daley, who would only promise that city government would become “more accountable, open, and transparent.”
- Ducky LaMoore - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 3:06 pm:
===Even worse, according to a stunning and volatile allegation by Holmes’s attorney, is that police framed Johnson after they killed him by planting a gun on his person.===
I have been following this story for awhile. There are conflicting police reports, and crime scene photos seem to show some tampering (accidental or otherwise). Glad to see someone not taking the hush money.
- FormerParatrooper - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 3:12 pm:
There will be more for sure. So who is next under the bus?
- Ghost - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 3:14 pm:
maybe somone will FOIA the video
- Mouthy - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 3:15 pm:
Wow. Black lives matter…..not…
- Robert the Bruce - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 3:22 pm:
===(Camden is the same de facto cop spokesman who claimed McDonald “lunged” at police with a knife, causing them to open fire.)===
Request of Chicago media: could this disclaimer be added to anything Camden says?
- In the No - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 3:35 pm:
Nice to see that the old drop gun trick is still alive & well in the CPD’s repertoire. The dashboard cam may have been the only thing that arrested its use in the McDonald case.
- Blago's Luxurious Grey Mane - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 3:38 pm:
I’m as pro-police and generally Republican as you get. Can’t imagine what the cops go through.
That being stated, the Chicago Police Department leadership and its apparatus is rotten to the core. Whatever it takes to clean that cesspool up. As usual, it will probably boil down to money.
Rahm deserves every ounce of misery he gets for these cases.
- hisgirlfriday - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 3:38 pm:
Where do you start when fumigating the CPD? Between these shootings and the secret detention sites and the Burge torture legacy… how do you fix this?
Is it any wonder that segments of society come to be so disrespectful of our laws when so many in law enforcement are unworthy of our respect?
- Abe the Babe - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 3:39 pm:
==maybe somone will FOIA the video==
We’ve seen how fast that process is. Rahm cannot let another video fester. No matter what it shows, the political heat will be too much to hold that video from public eyes.
This is just sad if true.
- illinoised - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 3:41 pm:
Let’s see the video. Regarding the Laquan McDonald incident, I am unhappy with Emanuel, feel his actions should be scrutinized more closely.
- internal angel - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 3:46 pm:
Rut-roh
- walker - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 3:59 pm:
These things (police shootings of unarmed black youth and dropping guns on them) have been going on for at least 50 years, and it is only video cameras that have recently brought them to the general public eye.
Big problems to fix, that most politicians and leaders have been reluctant to touch with a ten-foot pole. “Black Lives Matter” has a righteous mission based in reality.
Maybe now, we all will face up to it.
- crazybleedingheart - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 4:04 pm:
Yes, of course there are others. And Holmes isn’t just coming forward now.
http://progressillinois.com/quick-hits/content/2015/03/17/families-chicago-police-shooting-victims-feel-betrayed-after-emanuel
- Honeybear - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 4:06 pm:
—“Black Lives Matter” has a righteous mission based in reality.–
Totally agree. The perception that black men are “thugs” and that all police actions are “justified” must be challenged. To be a nation of laws we must apply justice equally.
- Pc - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 4:21 pm:
I wonder what a surprise inventory of squad cars would turn up in the way of non-police issue firearms
- Tequila Mockingbird - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 4:37 pm:
So at what point do the taxpaying residents of Chicago/Cook County protest all the settlement payouts?
- Cheryl44 - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 5:00 pm:
Please tell me Camden is being canned as I type this.
- Arizona Bob - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 5:11 pm:
Tequila, Chicago taxpayers are USED to being fleeced to pay for corruption at every level of Chicago and Cook county government. I believe there’s something they receive in the property tax bills that explains this (snark).
What I guess I don’t understand is how someone can kill another apparently “innocent” person and could live with it and keep putting on the uniform every day.
A police officer friend of mine once told me there are two types of cops; the type who joined the force because they really WANT to serve and protect, and those who’re just violent bullies who’d be in jail if they weren’t on the force.
From the Joe Birge “it’s easier to torture a innocent guy into confessing rather than do the tough job of finding the REAL perp” days until today, it seems that the “bully” type of cops are pretty much running things.
Sadly, I’m also afraid that city cops steer clear of the really dangerous scumbugs in gangs and drugs and take things out on guys like this.
I remember in the early 2000s when I was managing CHA “make ready” renovations, there were open air drug markets like flea markets in Alsip in the courtyards. The cops HAD to know about it, they just didn’t want the risk of going in and shutting it down.
I also remember working at a high school in Altgeld Gardens where we were planning to drain and fill a marshy area, and CPD asked us not to do it. Why? That’s where the gangs dropped their bodies, and the cops would rather go find them at that spot than see them dumped all over the place.
Going into these nasty areas taught me one thing; the cops KNOW where the crime is, they KNOW what they have to do to fight it, but don’t want to take the risk of fighting the bad guys.
If you want a reason for why the murder rate is so high and the arrest and conviction rate is so low in Chicago, I believe the police culture in the city is a big part of it.
- Ex-ASA - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 5:17 pm:
From DOJ’s Implementing a Body-worn Camera Program study released in 2014:
“Body-worn cameras can help improve the high-quality public service expected of police officers and promote the perceived legitimacy and sense of procedural justice that communities have about their police departments. Furthermore, departments that are already deploying body-worn cameras tell us that the presence of cameras often improves the performance of officers as well as the conduct of the community members who are recorded.”
How long do you think it will be before the bill is introduced not merely permitting officer worn body cameras, but requiring them?
- crazybleedingheart - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 5:21 pm:
Why would Camden be canned? His job is to represent the union rank and file, not the department.
From everything I’ve seen, he is in fact representative of his constituency.
- JackD - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 5:33 pm:
When Camden makes his “statements” for the press, does he tell them that it’s based on hearsay to the nth power and he has no idea whether or not it’s true? Do they report that?
- Any Mouse - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 5:53 pm:
Mayor Rahm Emanuel, has repeatedly vowed to create “the most open, accountable, and transparent government that the City of Chicago has ever seen.”
Reminds me of the old saying that an optimist believes this is the best of all possible worlds…
and a pessimist is afraid the same is true.
- Anon - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 6:03 pm:
For as long as I can remember Pat Camden has been on camera as the defacto spokesman for officers engaged in shootings, etc. The Chicago media bears the responsibility for covering him. Few clips actually include any reference for whom he works, I actually thought he was CPD initially.
- Angry Chicagoan - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 6:44 pm:
I am curious as to when the political right is finally going to wake up to the crisis in American policing and respond to it by breaking police unions but somewhat punting on policing reforms.
- Zoe - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 7:13 pm:
‘m withholding judgment until all the facts are out on this one - let’s see the tape
- Wordslinger - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 7:33 pm:
Geez, those WP quotes from Camden — about himself — are brutal.
Why is any reporter using him as a source?
- Blue dog dem - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 7:50 pm:
I feel so lucky to now know where my new property tax increase money is going. I was losing sleep thinking it was going into pension payments.
- anon - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 8:23 pm:
Wordslinger hits it on the nose. The quotes from Camden are brutal. Please don’t tell me reporters are going to continue publishing anything this guy says. What Camden says recently is something out of Who’s On Third. Regarding the McDonald Report, Camden says, “It was being told to me, after it was told to somebody else who was told by another person.” You can’t make this stuff up. I can’t believe this guy still holds his job. Where was the Major Media or BGA, in regards to a Union Spokesman providing daily reports on any Police matter. I assumed Camden worked for the Mayor’s Office. Further, how could the Union expect credibility with him continuing as its’ Spokesman. Finally, can anyone clarify if tax dollars are being spent for his salary? Please tell me that his salary is being paid not by the City, but exclusively through the Union. Clarification on that would be great.
- cannon649 - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 8:43 pm:
Interesting development.
Is five million know the “market price” to settle?
- JackD - Tuesday, Dec 1, 15 @ 9:59 pm:
As Jim Montgomery commented in connection with the McDonald settlement, five million was cheap. If this one is as described, five million would also be cheap.
- Lt. Guv. - Wednesday, Dec 2, 15 @ 1:44 am:
I’m very pro-union, but FOP has lost all creditability. I understand where they’re coming from “we’ve got to protect one of our own,” but when the evidence is so overwhelming, their stance here is just destroying their organization. To stand on the sideline and say “let the justice system work” would be understood. Everyone deserves that. The knee-jerk defense of a murderer is an insane case of reputational suicide.
- NoGifts - Wednesday, Dec 2, 15 @ 6:56 am:
Like I said before, Pat Camden is such an animated story teller. I’ve seen him on the morning new so often recounting events. He really should try his hand at a few Paul Bunyan stories.
- Educated in the Suburbs - Wednesday, Dec 2, 15 @ 7:35 am:
==Where do you start when fumigating the CPD? Between these shootings and the secret detention sites and the Burge torture legacy… how do you fix this?===
I’m worried about this too. There are 12,000 officers; you can’t just fire them all and start over. You can’t even supervise them all, because they have to be working calls independently or in pairs. How on earth do you start reforming such a GIGANTIC sick system?