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Protests breakout in Chicago after Chicago pigs kill again...

ok.....this is where i get heat...

why are we THAT dependant on someone else?
why do we need handouts from people who already shown they dont give a shit about you?
at what point do you blame yourself for keep asking for crumbs behind a bakery and constantly getting kicked in the face?

so you blame the people who hate us?

quick story with link for verification.
i was sitting here a few months ago and saw the news.
russians are buying up places in cyprus. if you spend more than 2mil euros on a home you can get EU citizenship.
with the citizenship.....they will eventually outnumer the locals and that gives them voting clout and can influence the local politics.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...oligarch-oleg-deripaska-buys-cypriot-passport
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...tizenship-to-super-rich-of-russia-and-ukraine

now outside of the money...the purpose i used this was because there is a bigger goal. a bigger picture. they are moving as a unit to create influence one step at a time..
they are controlling their own destiny.

now you mean to tell me....black people cant do this on a small scale and make babysteps?

i could have sworn in chicago i believe that it was a gang that the politicians bent to to get their vote...i gotta look it up...i want to say the al rukens but i may be wrong.

but we dont need them....we need to support our own more. depend on us
Because black people have rights. Rights are not a “handout” and whenever black people tried to do their own thing the white supremacists destroyed those communities, they pass bills, they get coons to dissipate the energy etc. it’s not as black and white as you’re making it seem.
 
Because black people have rights. Rights are not a “handout” and whenever black people tried to do their own thing the white supremacists destroyed those communities, they pass bills, they get coons to dissipate the energy etc. it’s not as black and white as you’re making it seem.
i am not saying its easy...

but because a nigga keeps beating you up...do you stop trying to fight him? or do you learn how to fight?

but in the process of learning the system i am aware that they will change the rules....but until we get more control of us and our things and move as a unit....this is all we got.

nigga, if i have to live in a box...imma make the box look nice until i get on me feet.
but in the meantime.....we cant have niggas fucking up our progress.

i cant fight a war when niggas shooting me in the back when we supposed to be on the same side.
 
i am not saying its easy...

but because a nigga keeps beating you up...do you stop trying to fight him? or do you learn how to fight?

but in the process of learning the system i am aware that they will change the rules....but until we get more control of us and our things and move as a unit....this is all we got.

nigga, if i have to live in a box...imma make the box look nice until i get on me feet.
but in the meantime.....we cant have niggas fucking up our progress.

i cant fight a war when niggas shooting me in the back when we supposed to be on the same side.

Never gonna happen until we as black people GET A CODE & STAY ON THAT CODE.
 
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...ago-police-shooting-video-20180716-story.html

City officials balk at releasing more videos on deadly police shooting

A day after Chicago police released a 20-second video of a fatal police shooting that sparked unrest and outrage, city officials said there are no immediate plans to release additional footage that could shed more light on the deadly encounter.

The decision by Superintendent Eddie Johnson to release partial video footage Sunday of the seconds leading up to the shooting of Harith Augustus within 24 hours of his death was a highly unusual step. It was clearly aimed to calm tensions and quash rumors in the South Shore neighborhood, where a probationary police officer shot Augustus on Saturday afternoon. Officers had tried to detain the 37-year-old barber for carrying a gun in the 2000 block of East 71st Street.

In the brief video that has no sound and was recorded by the probationary officer’s body-worn camera, Augustus appears to have a holstered handgun at his side. After officers walk up, including one who seems to be calmly speaking to him, he appears to open his wallet just before three officers swiftly surround him, with one grabbing his wrist before he twists away and darts between two parked cars. As he is fleeing, his arm appears to move toward the holstered gun.

A second day of protests ended Sunday evening peacefully — as Johnson had hoped. But in remarks when he released the footage, Johnson also pledged “transparency,” saying he understood the city needs to be as open as possible to restore confidence that police-involved shootings are fairly and adequately investigated.

“I promise that CPD will be as transparent and open as possible while also respecting COPA’s investigation and the integrity of it,” he said, referring to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which investigates police-involved shootings and generally has 60 days to release footage of police-involved shootings.

Neighborhood residents and legal experts said the city needs to follow through on this commitment, given the many questions that remain.

“We are not going to have a full picture of the evidence, at least the video evidence of what occurred that day, until we have video that gives a broader context,” said Karen Sheley, the director of police practices for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. “We are just getting a slice of what happened that was selected by the department. So it’s good precedent that they are willing to release information earlier in the process, but when it is incomplete, it raises additional questions.”


On Monday COPA issued a statement saying it was conducting a thorough investigation and that it would release “all video at the earliest point.”

“We recognize the public’s interest to know all the circumstances of the officer-involved shooting however, further release at this present time may jeopardize the integrity of our investigation and thus COPA will not be releasing video or audio,” the statement said.

The shooting sparked unrest Saturday night near the barbershop where Augustus worked. Officers wielded batons after some protesters threw projectiles. It was this tension that Johnson aimed to reduce in deciding to release even just a portion of one video of the incident.

COPA has moved more quickly on releasing video of police-involved shootings that were of high public interest. When Chicago police fatally shot 18-year-old Paul O’Neal, also in South Shore, they released all the footage within a week.

A man died after police shot him on July 14, 2018, in the 7100 block of South Chappel Avenue in the South Shore neighborhood, according to the Chicago Fire Department. Protesters took to the streets that evening, and on the following day Superintendent Eddie Johnson held a news conference to release body camera footage of the incident.

Michael Oppenheimer, an attorney representing the O’Neal family, said he believed COPA moved that quickly because the shooting was controversial — several police officers opened fire on O’Neal, a suspect in a car theft, on a residential street, drawing sharp criticism. Oppenheimer also pointed out that the shooting itself was not captured because the officer failed to activate the camera.

“I think the press — and we — were putting a lot of pressure on them to do it as quickly as possible,” Oppenheimer said. “It was like the Wild West. … When it doesn’t go their way, they take more time.”

One key question about the footage released Sunday was its lack of audio. When the body-worn cameras are initially powered on, they record video only. Audio kicks in as soon as the officer double-taps a button on the camera and puts it into “event mode.”

Department orders dictate that officers switch to event mode “at the beginning of an incident and will record the entire incident for all law-enforcement-related activities.” The order also notes that if “circumstances” prevent the activation at the start of an incident, the officer should do so “as soon as practical.”


Steve Tuttle, a spokesman with the company that manufacturers the cameras used by Chicago, said it is not uncommon for officers, in the midst of responding to a call, to forget to double-tap the camera as a situation quickly develops. Chicago Police Department spokesman Thomas Ahern also pointed out that the officers on Sunday were making an “on view” stop and were not responding to a call for service.

With at least three other officers on the scene of the Augustus shooting, more footage could exist to help explain the critical moments before the shooting, including words exchanged before Augustus twists out of their grip and darts between two cars.

Community activist William Calloway, who has led the protests, said that Chicago police and COPA should “without a doubt” release all available video and audio footage immediately.

“We’ve seen one perspective,” Calloway said, adding that he is particularly interested in the officer who appears to be having a “civilized conversation” with Augustus before the confrontation escalated.

On Monday, at the Sideline Studio Barber & Beauty Salon on East 71st Street where Augustus, known as "Snoop," worked, questions remained among his co-workers on how a quiet, introvert like him could wind up dead at the hands of police.

Augustus’ framed barber’s license sat in his chair where he worked for more than a year.

Antoine Howell and Dionell Hill both said they were bothered that the incident escalated so quickly.

“I just wish they would release the (full) audio,” said Hill as he lined up a client. "It would be nice to hear what they approached him about."

Hill explained that, aside from the shooting itself, the major issue was respect between residents and police. Officers who approach residents in a disrespectful way often get angry responses from residents, he said.


“It’s the approach,” Hill said, saying residents already angry by police mistreatment will respond disrespectfully.

Neither man said he knew Augustus to carry a gun as depicted in the video. But it didn't shock anyone given the street crime in South Shore, they said.

Chicago police officials confirmed Monday that Augustus had a valid firearm owner’s identification card — but not a concealed carry license, which means he did not have legal permission to carry the gun.
 
https://www.rollingstone.com/cultur...ce-release-edited-body-camera-footage-699854/

Protests Erupt After Chicago Police Release Edited Body-Camera Footage

Misleading audio has caused the public to distrust the footage released in the fatal shooting

On Saturday evening, Chicago police shot and killed Harith “Snoop” Augustus, a 37-year-old barber, prompting a night of protests in the city’s South Shore neighborhood. On Sunday, the police department released body-camera footage of the incident, “in the interest of transparency & to dispell [sic] inaccurate information,” according to CPD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.

“We’re not trying to hide anything,” Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson concurred. “The video speaks for itself.”

But in reality, the video doesn’t actually speak at all, because there is no sound, and the department is not being nearly as transparent or accurate as they’d like the public to believe.

The incident on Saturday began at approximately 5:30 p.m., when, according Guglielmi, officers reported seeing “a subject that they thought might have been armed around his waistband.” That account is contradicted by at least one neighborhood witness, Gloria Rainge, who told the Chicago Sun-Times that she was leaving a nearby Walgreens when she saw the officers approach Augustus and instruct him not to sell loose cigarettes. According to Rainge, when Augustus denied selling loosies, an argument ensued, he fled into the street and one of the officers fired as he ran away.

According to Guglielmi, a weapon was recovered at the scene along with several magazines of ammunition. Police officials initially said that Augustus did not have a gun license, but later retracted that statement and clarified that he had a valid Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card, but no concealed carry permit. Augustus wasn’t a documented gang member and had no recent arrest history.

The officer who fatally shot Augustus was apparently still in his probationary period, meaning he had only recently graduated from the Academy. All of the involved officers have been placed on administrative duties for 30 days.

So far, footage from just one of the officer’s body-cams has been released. The 45-second clip contains just 19 seconds of the actual incident, which has been edited to include a four-second freeze-frame meant to draw attention to the fact that the victim was carrying a concealed firearm. Without audio, it’s impossible to tell exactly when the first shots were fired.


CPD directed Rolling Stone’s questions about the incident to the Civilian Office for Police Accountability, which is handling the investigation, but so far, we have not heard back. However, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, CPD officials explained that the lack of audio is due to the fact that the “sound doesn’t turn on until 30 seconds after the recording button is activated.” Chicago’s local ABC affiliate also similarly reported, “The body cam video that was released does not have audio as there is a 30-second delay when the officer turns the device on.”

This is simply not true. The Chicago Police Department, like the vast majority of police departments across the country with the technology, uses Taser/AXON body-cameras. According to AXON’s own website, their body-cameras operate in two modes – BUFFERING mode and EVENT mode. Once the body-camera is turned on, it’s automatically in BUFFERING mode, and begins “capturing video but no audio,” that “will not record to permanent memory.”

When EVENT mode is activated, “both video and audio will be recorded from the camera.” In addition, “the buffered video (not audio) captured directly before the event, up to 30 seconds, will be saved and attached to the event in permanent memory.”

There is not a 30-second “delay” before the audio turns on after the body-camera begins recording. The 30 seconds of silent footage recorded in BUFFERING mode “is intended to capture the video of an incident just before your activation of EVENT mode,” it’s not a technological quirk that officers have no control over and can’t avoid. From the moment EVENT mode is activated, video and audio begin recording to permanent memory.


According to CPD’s body-worn camera policy, “the decision to electronically record a law-enforcement-related encounter is mandatory, not discretionary,” and officers are required to “activate the system to event mode at the beginning of an incident.” The reason why the footage released by CPD does not have audio is because the officer wearing that body-cam did not actually activate EVENT mode until after Augustus had already been shot.

As a result, it’s unclear why officers approached Augustus or what was said in the seconds leading up to the shooting. What we can see is that Augustus was already talking to one officer when three others, including the one wearing the body-camera, approach. A blonde female officer goes to grab Augustus’s arm and he jerks away, as if caught by surprise. Multiple officers then attempt to grab him – why remains unclear – but he evades their grasp and turns to run toward the street.

At this point, approximately 18 seconds into the clip, the footage zooms in, so the body-camera’s timestamp is cropped out. Two seconds later, when Augustus turns toward the officers and his shirt lifts up, the frame freezes for four seconds, so viewers can’t miss his exposed abdomen and what appears to be a firearm tucked into his waistband. In total, the zooming-and-freezing lasts for approximately six seconds, but once the footage zooms out again, the body-cam’s timestamp indicates that barely a second has passed in real-time. Because the clip has been edited, it can’t be discerned just how long Augustus’s waist was exposed, but it couldn’t haven’t been longer than 1/10th of a second, giving the officers much less time to ascertain whether he was armed.

Zooming and freeze-framing are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to editing body-camera footage. Police departments with Taser/AXON body-cams have contracts with Evidence.com, the company’s proprietary cloud storage and evidence management platform, which comes with editing capabilities that one former police records custodian described as “analogous to a Photoshop application.”


In 2015, Reynaldo Chavez, the former records custodian for the Albuquerque Police Department, filed a whistleblower lawsuit claiming he was fired after he came forward with allegations that he knew of multiple Albuquerque police officers who were tampering with body camera and security camera footage by using Evidence.com. Chavez also signed a sworn affidavit and gave testimony under oath explaining how the platform was used to alter, delete, and/or hide footage from multiple fatal police shootings of civilians. He testified that the department was holding training sessions with officers so they could learn how to use Evidence.com to alter, delete and hide their own unwanted footage. Chavez described how the platform could be used to add, delete or alter objects across multiple frames of video, like turning a comb into a handgun.

In April 2017, Taser/AXON made a big move to corner the body-camera market, offering any police department that was interested a year of free body-camerasalong with the necessary hardware, software, data storage, training and support. Of course, not every police department with Taser/AXON body-cameras is using Evidence.com’s editing capabilities for nefarious purposes. But there has been little transparency from Taser/AXON or police departments who contract with them about what the technology is capable of. But given the misinformation Chicago PD has put out about how the body-cameras record audio, it’s no wonder the public doesn’t feel it can trust that they are hearing the truth?
 
http://abc7chicago.com/more-protest...eased-of-south-shore-police-shooting/3770873/

Protests continue after body cam video released of South Shore police shooting

Hundreds of protesters turned out again Monday, taking over the same block of 71st Street where police shot and killed a man in the South Shore neighborhood on Saturday.

The protests continued after police made the unprecedented decision to release body-camera video of the incident, less than 24 hours after it happened.

It's been two days since 37-year-old Harith Augustus was shot and killed during a confrontation with Chicago police officers. An independent investigation into the shooting is underway, but several groups say they don't trust it.

"I think that Mr. Augustus' constitutional rights were violated," said Maxwell Little, South Shore resident. "To weaponized somebody's blackness is against the law."

Chicago police released body camera video Sunday. Augustus was stopped by police who believed he had a gun.

"We're not trying to hide anything," said Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. "We're not trying to fluff anything. The video speaks for itself."

While the footage appears to corroborate the police department's version of events, there is no audio to determine what led to the confrontation.

"We need to know who the officer was who actually did this and they need to be held accountable," said Maria Hernandez, Black Lives Matter.

Witnesses to the shooting shared another video of the aftermath, in which they saw three officers running from the shooting and getting into a police car. CPD would not confirm how those officers may or may not have been involved.

Police have maintained that they shot Augustus only after he reached for a weapon under his shirt. The bodycam footage of the incident shows at least four officers approach Augustus. A brief struggle ensues after a female officer grabs his arm. He is then shoved with his back to a police vehicle.

At this point, police froze the image to show a holstered pistol and what appears to be an ammunition magazine. The video resume, showing Augustus getting away and walking into the street, where he appears to reach for the weapon. At that point one of the officers discharges their weapon several times, fatally wounding Augustus.

In voicing their suspicions, activists have also pointed to what appears to be Augustus displaying a firearms permit just as the confrontation begins.

"You can see that he has what looks like a wallet in his hand. He was trying to comply and he was shot in the middle of complying. Roughed up and shot," Hernandez said.


Violent protests on Saturday calmed into demonstrations on Sunday.

"We have a right to protest," said Frank Chapman of the Chicago Alliance Against Racism and Political Oppression. "The police do not have a right to come out and brutalize us because we're protesting. And that's been their history, that's what they've been doing."

Monday evening's protest by the Chicago Alliance Against Racism and Political Oppression United with Black Lives Matter called for a Civilian Police Accountability Council chosen by the people to investigate instead of the city's Civilian Office of Police Accountability.

"We want these things investigated because we know that the police are not clean on these issues, that they have a dirty record," Chapman said.

"The young men in our community aren't safe to walk the streets, and are in danger from police who are supposed to be protecting us," said Roberta Wood, South Shore resident.

The community ended their march at Augustus' barber shop, demanding to know more about his death.


The shooting brought up ongoing issues of distrust between the community and police.

"They are having to patrol a neighborhood that they are not even from," said Kendall Henderson.

Alderman Leslie Hairston (Ward 5) said there is work that needs to be done to address residents frustrated with complaints of police brutality as well as residents concerned about criminal activity.

Longtime South Shore residents called the shooting a tragedy, and are among those working with CPD and residents to increase vigilance against crime.

"We need to have people in the community stand up not just for police shootings but any shooting, it's not going to be tolerated," said Robert Van Puyenproek, Community Police Beat 332 Facilitator.

Little is known about Augustus, other than that he lived alone, worked at a local barber shop and had a 5-year-old daughter.

"We're looking for the family right now. As coworkers. We're looking for the family. There are people who brought a book already, people who will be bringing many things to put on his chair, commemorating him," said Dionelle Hill, colleague at the barber shop.

Meanwhile, the Coalition for a New Chicago is planning an act of civil disobedience in a business district to be named. The time is also being kept secret so they say no one can try to stop the effort. And they're calling on the mayor to resign.

"What I hate to see, everybody, is that if other incidents like this will occur is that we have another Laquan McDonald cover up because Mayor Emanuel wants to win office," said Rev. Gregory Seal Livingston.


A police spokesperson reiterated Monday that while Augustus has a FOID card, he did not have a concealed carry license. CPD said they will not release any further bodycam footage. The Civilian Office of Police Accountability is handling the investigation and released a statement saying that they will not be releasing further video at this time as it could jeopardize their investigation.

COPA said they will release all video no later than 60 days from the date of the shooting in accordance with the city's transparency policy.

screen-shot-2018-07-16-at-6-10-22-pm.png


What appears to be a firearm owners identification card is visible in the moments before police shot Harith Augustus. | Screen shot from Chicago Police Video
 
i am not saying its easy...

but because a nigga keeps beating you up...do you stop trying to fight him? or do you learn how to fight?

but in the process of learning the system i am aware that they will change the rules....but until we get more control of us and our things and move as a unit....this is all we got.

nigga, if i have to live in a box...imma make the box look nice until i get on me feet.
but in the meantime.....we cant have niggas fucking up our progress.

i cant fight a war when niggas shooting me in the back when we supposed to be on the same side.
You asked a question I gave an answer.
 
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...emanuel-augustus-shooting-20180717-story.html

Emanuel won't judge officers' actions in fatal police shooting, says he wants to use it to 'help all of us learn from this'


In his first public comments since the weekend fatal police shooting of a barber in South Shore sparked protests, Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday urged Chicagoans to take a step back and use this as a teachable moment.

Emanuel declined to say whether he thought officers acted appropriately in the shooting death of 37-year-old Harith Augustus. The mayor said he would wait for the Civilian Office of Police Accountability to complete its investigation before taking a position.

“I don’t think at this point while they’re doing that my energy’s going to be on trying to characterize something, so much as help all of us learn from this and learn for the future,” Emanuel said.

A probationary Chicago police officer shot Augustus on Saturday in the 2000 block of East 71st Street near the barbershop where he worked.

A large crowd gathered at the scene shortly after the shooting, and prompted widespread unrest. Officers wielded batons after some protesters threw projectiles. There have been peaceful protests in the area in the days since.

Within 24 hours, police released video footage, without sound, taken from the probationary officer’s body-worn camera that appears to show Augustus wearing a holstered handgun at his side. Augustus appears to be having a calm discussion with an officer and appears to open his wallet before other officers surround him. He appears to break away from officers and move his hand toward his waistband after one officer grabs his wrist.

Police officials have balked at releasing other video of the incident in addition to the 20-second clip they showed Sunday.

Eddie Johnson has said officers approached Augustus because they believed he was armed. Augustus had a firearm owner’s identification card, but the department has not found evidence he had a concealed carry license, Johnson said.

On Tuesday, Johnson said the body camera video footage from two officers who were involved in the shooting included no audio because of how the police body camera technology works and how the officers utilized it.

Typically, the audio doesn’t start recording until after an officer double-taps on the device, Johnson said. Once an officer double-taps, the prior 30 seconds of video get saved and the recording of audio starts. The officers in this case didn’t double-tap until after the shooting took place, Johnson said.

Emanuel’s comments Tuesday came a day after several candidates challenging him for mayor spoke out about the incident. While they praised the speed with which Johnson released the video footage, some questioned why there was no audio and whether the shooting should have happened.
 
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...-shooting-videos-augustus-20180717-story.html

Johnson says no audio on two video recordings of the fatal police shooting of Harith Augustus

Video of the fatal police shooting of a barber in the South Shore neighborhood last weekend was captured by two officers’ body cameras, but the footage does not include an audio recording of what happened at the scene, Chicago policeSuperintendent Eddie Johnson said Tuesday.

Police had previously released a silent video from the body camera of the probationary officer who fatally shot 37-year-old Harith Augustus on Saturday. The second video is from another officer who was with him. At least two other officers were also at the scene, but it’s unclear whether their cameras captured audio of the fatal shooting.

“The material that everybody wants to see, when the investigation is wrapped up, when they’re complete, they’ll get that material,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said, referencing the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, or COPA. “I think this material that the superintendent of the police department released provided for the right reasons of public safety the information but … it’s not complete. That will happen in due time.”

A probationary police officer shot Augustus on Saturday in the 2000 block of East 71st Street near the barbershop where he worked. Johnson has said officers approached Augustus because they believed he was armed.

Augustus had a firearm owner’s identification card, but the department has not found evidence he had a concealed carry license, Johnson said.

Because there is no sound accompanying the footage, it is unclear what exchanges occurred between Augustus and police in the seconds before the shooting.

Emanuel, speaking publicly Tuesday for the first time since the shooting, declined to say whether he thought officers acted appropriately. The mayor said he would wait for COPA to complete its investigation before taking a position.

“I don’t think at this point while they’re doing that my energy’s going to be on trying to characterize something, so much as help all of us learn from this and learn for the future,” Emanuel said while speaking to reporters at Police Headquarters after a ceremony to retire the badges of officers who died in the line of duty.

Johnson said the body camera video footage from two officers who were involved in the shooting did not include audio because of how the police body camera technology works and how the officers utilized it.

Typically, the audio doesn’t start recording until after an officer double-taps on the device, Johnson said. Once an officer double-taps, the prior 30 seconds of video get saved and the audio recording starts at that point. The officers in this case didn’t double-tap the device until after the shooting took place, Johnson said.

Chicago Police Department spokesman Thomas Ahern said officials are not yet sure whether other officers on the scene, besides those involved in the shooting, might have captured additional footage or audio. Still, it will be up to COPA, not the Police Department, to release further video or audio if it exists, Ahern said.

But Ahern said the two officers involved in the shooting did not violate department rules by initiating the audio so late in their encounter with Augustus. He pointed to a department rule that says if circumstances prevent an officer from double-tapping the device immediately when they begin a “law enforcement activity” such as an investigatory stop of a resident, they should do so “as soon as practical.”

“The first order of business is to protect themselves, their partners and other people in the area,” Ahern said. “They’re not going to stop a situation to activate their cameras.”

The mayor has spent years trying to rebuild the public’s trust in the Chicago Police Department since the late 2015 court-ordered release of a video showing a white police officer fatally shooting black teen Laquan McDonald. Part of that is his attempt to negotiate a court-backed Police Department consent decree that the Fraternal Order of Police regards with deep suspicion.

In the McDonald case, a court ordered City Hall to release the video more than a year after it occurred.

Meanwhile, the trial date for Jason Van Dyke, the officer charged with first-degree murder in McDonald’s death, was set Tuesday for Sept. 5, just as the mayoral campaign kicks into high gear.

As he heads into that tough re-election fight with 10 announced challengers, Emanuel is also attempting the delicate task of convincing rank-and-file police officers he’s not going to throw them under the bus to score political points. The latest incident could make that balancing act more difficult. He tried to strike a conciliatory tone Tuesday.

“I want people to express themselves, and how they feel strongly about the future of the city,” Emanuel said. “And I want people to hear what officers are facing in trying to do their jobs. I want officers to hear what community leaders are saying, and I got to be honest, I want you guys to all hear what officers feel.”

Emanuel’s comments Tuesday came a day after several candidates challenging him for mayor spoke out about the incident. While they praised the speed with which Johnson released the video footage, some questioned why there was no audio and whether the shooting should have happened.

Mayoral candidate Garry McCarthy, the city’s former top cop when the McDonald shooting occurred, issued a statement Monday calling the incident a “tragedy.”

“At first blush, this shooting appears to be justified, based on what we see in that video, and I'm pleased with its quick release. We are hoping that a thorough investigation gives us the truth as to what happened,” McCarthy said. “But let us also be clear that the shooting victim refused to comply with the officers. He appears to reach for a gun. At that point, he leaves the officers with little to no choice but to shoot in defense of their own lives.”

Lori Lightfoot, another of Emanuel’s announced opponents, called Augustus’ death a “tragedy” but did not address whether she believed the shooting was justified. Emanuel also picked Lightfoot to lead the Police Board, which is in charge of making final decisions on the discipline of officers, and to co-chair the Police Accountability Task Force, which made recommendations for police reforms in the wake of the McDonald controversy.

“It is critically important that the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) move forward swiftly, independently, and thoroughly in its investigation. The public has the absolute right to understand all of the circumstances that led to the use of deadly force against Mr. Augustus,” Lightfoot said. “Superintendent Johnson made a wise decision in releasing a body camera video expeditiously. Consistent with policies recommended by the Police Accountability Task Force and adopted by the city in February of 2016, all relevant videotapes, audio, and initial police reports must be released as soon as possible, balancing the importance of the integrity of the COPA investigation.”

Following the shooting Saturday, a large crowd gathered at the scene and prompted widespread unrest. Officers wielded batons after some protesters threw projectiles. There have been peaceful protests in the areas in the days since.

Within 24 hours, police released video footage, without sound, taken from the probationary officer’s body camera that appears to show Augustus wearing a holstered handgun at his side. Augustus appears to be having a calm discussion with an officer and appears to open his wallet before other officers surround him. He appears to break away from officers and move his hand toward his waistband after one officer grabs his wrist. Nevertheless, community members have called for the police department to release additional recordings, saying that what’s been released is incomplete and raises additional questions. The lack of audio has also been a point of contention.
 
Steve Tuttle, a spokesman for Axon, the company that manufactures the Chicago Police Department’s body cameras, confirmed that when an officer double-taps the “event button” on a body camera, it instantly begins recording and saving audio and video. While the video will include the 30 seconds before the button was pushed, it won’t include any audio, Tuttle said.

That 30-second buffer in body camera videos was seen as a feature that would maintain an officer’s privacy while also providing some context to what led to an incident, Tuttle said.

The feature is a standard practice across police departments, though it raises the question about when an officer should activate the camera, said Nancy La Vigne, a researcher and the vice president of the Justice Policy Center at the Washington D.C.-based Urban Institute.

La Vigne said the best practice would be for an officer to activate the body camera as soon as the officer interacts with anyone in the public, when a call for service comes in or when the officer is dispatched to a call.

“That is the best practice not necessarily what is happening on the ground,” La Vigne said.

The Chicago Police Department’s directives indicate officers are mandated to activate their cameras at the beginning of incidents, which include activities such as investigatory stops and requests for consent to search.

Nevertheless, Emanuel pointed to the fact that the department’s officers are equipped with cameras and the swiftness of the video’s release.

“Five years ago, not every officer had a bodycam. They do today. It’s on. In the past it wasn’t always on. It is,” Emanuel said. “In the past, tapes got held. The superintendent made the right decision, and I fully support it, for public safety. Once people saw the tapes, while protests continued, they were calmer because a lot more questions got answered.”
 
https://wgntv.com/2018/07/18/activist-sues-for-video-of-chicago-police-shooting/

Activist sues for audio, video of fatal Chicago police shooting

A community activist is suing the Chicago Police Department for all the videos and audio recordings of last weekend’s fatal shooting of a man by a Chicago police officer.

William Calloway’s lawsuit filed on Wednesday comes two days after he told The Associated Press that he’d file a lawsuit similar to one that forced the city in 2015 to release video of the fatal police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.

The police department has released video from an officer’s body camera that shows the shooting of Harith Augustus on Saturday. The video shows that Augustus was armed with a handgun. There is no audio.

The city says that additional videos and materials related to the shooting will be made public within 60 days by the independent agency that investigates fatal police shootings.
 
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...l-chicago-police-shooting-20180816-story.html

New video offers more complete picture of fatal police shooting, but questions remain

Harith Augustus walked briskly past several Chicago police officers, a bulge on his right side where he carried a holstered gun. The officers stopped him and attempted to search him, and within seconds the 37-year-old barber lay dying on the street.

New video released Thursday offers a more complete picture of how a street stop escalated within seconds into a deadly confrontation in the South Shore neighborhood on July 14. But questions remain about why the incident escalated so quickly. The only audio from the recordings comes after the shooting, so there is no account of the verbal exchange between the officers and Augustus.

Security video from surrounding businesses shows there was a heavy police presence on the 2000 block of East 71st Street that afternoon as part of a special foot patrol effort. Several officers milled around the block minutes before the shooting; they looked relaxed as they bantered with one another and shop employees. But as soon as Augustus walked by, they noticed the bulge on his hip and swung into action to confront him, the video shows.

As Chicago endures another violent summer, the Augustus shooting embodies much of the complexity, dysfunction and distrust that plagues relations between the police and the most troubled communities they’re assigned to protect. Augustus had a state license to own a gun but not one to carry it in public. Police tried to question him about the bulge on his hip but he resisted. Words failed, and within seconds the situation spun out of control. All of it unfolding in broad daylight with numerous witnesses and camera footage.

The various video and audio recordings released Thursday enlarge the public’s understanding of what happened on the sidewalk that day.

Once the officers caught up to Augustus, he appears to show some kind of ID to an officer while another officer approaches from behind, his gun drawn. A third officer attempts to grab Augustus’ right arm near the holstered gun, but Augustus pulls away. One of the officers, Dillan Halley, fires and Augustus spins and falls to the street.

Halley fired five shots, according to a report also released Thursday. He joined the department in August 2017.

In the hectic moments after the shooting, Halley can be heard incorrectly saying there were “shots fired at the police,” followed by a whispered expletive. As a sergeant arrives on the scene, he says Augustus “pulled a gun on me.”

Another officer, Megan Fleming, pulls him aside and asks, “You OK? You alright? Come here. You’re good. You’re good.”

“Breathe in, through your nose,” Fleming says, trying to calm him down.

“Why did he have to pull a gun out on us?” Halley asks.

“He was gonna shoot us,” Fleming says. “Look at me. You’re OK. You’re OK.”

“He pulled a gun on us,” Halley says.

“I know he did,” Fleming replies.

Meanwhile, an officer runs up to the body in the street, checks for a pulse and pulls a gun from the holster Augustus was wearing. In a body camera video, officers surround a motionless Augustus as a woman shouts, “I’m a nurse!”

Video released by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability on Aug. 16, 2018, shows moments before and after the police-involved shooting of Harith Augustus on July 14, 2018, in the 2000 block of East 71st Street on Chicago’s South Side.

“We need you to step back, ma’am,” one of the officers says.

The woman points toward Augustus and says, “It’s a body? No, I’m a nurse.” The woman walks on the sidewalk, apparently to get a better view of Augustus. “Ma’am, stay back,” an officer says. “Stay back.”

“Is he gone?” the woman asks.

It was not clear whether the woman was a nurse. Police, however, called for an ambulance.

A camera across train tracks captured the shooting and its aftermath from a distance. The footage shows police following Augustus. He’s stopped when one officer appears to try to grab him. Augustus spins away and takes off, running into the street and disappearing behind a police SUV. He returns on screen shortly afterward, stumbling several steps and appearing to grab at his body as he falls to the ground.

Two officers walk up to his prone body and appear to have their guns drawn. The camera zooms in on Augustus as he lays on the ground, not moving, and an officer kicks away what looks like an ammunition cartridge.

An autopsy found Augustus suffered gunshot wounds to the back of his head, left shoulder, chest and buttocks.

Also released Thursday was an 18-minute audio recording of the initial police radio traffic. When the first call came into dispatchers from officers on the scene, police sounded temporarily frantic about the number of people crowding the street.

“We’ve got shots fired by the police,” an officer can be heard saying. “We need more units over here.”

Police discuss stopping Metra trains from running on the nearby tracks, and crowd control quickly becomes an issue. “Let’s start pushing these people back,” an officer can be heard saying.

When the dispatcher asks for the identities of the officers involved, a supervisor snaps at her. “Stop asking for the names. Get the star numbers,” the woman says. “Quit asking for the names.”

In the first minutes, the officers can be heard asking for more help. “Get us units from another district.”

At 12 minutes into the tape, officers on the scene ask for another ambulance to be sent to 74th Street and Stony Island Avenue, and then at 14 minutes into the recording, officers say they are following an ambulance carrying the suspect to Jackson Park Hospital.

At 18 minutes into the recording, a supervisor says, “Things have calmed down, can you let every officer on the scene know to cut off their body camera?”

The dispatcher then gives the order.

Chicago's police oversight agency was ordered to release the new video Thursday morning. It includes footage from street surveillance cameras and cameras worn by three of the officers who approached Augustus.

Until Thursday, the city had released less than a minute of video from a camera worn by one of the officers. The snippet contained no sound, leaving viewers wondering what exchanges, if any, the officers and Augustus had seconds before the shooting. This latest batch of video leaves those questions unanswered because there is no audio in the first seconds of the encounter.

When the body-worn cameras are initially powered on, they record video only. Audio kicks in as soon as the officer double-taps a button on the camera and puts it into “event mode.” Department orders dictate that officers switch to event mode “at the beginning of an incident and will record the entire incident for all law-enforcement-related activities.” The order also notes that if “circumstances” prevent the activation at the start of an incident, the officer should do so “as soon as practical.”

Steve Tuttle, a spokesman with the company that manufactures the cameras, has said it is not uncommon for officers, in the midst of responding to a call, to forget to double-tap the camera as a situation quickly develops. CPD spokesman Thomas Ahern has pointed out that the officers were making an “on view” stop and were not responding to a call for service.

William Calloway, a community activist who sued for Thursday’s release of recordings, said he still had questions about why the incident escalated to deadly force so quickly.

Calloway said the release doesn’t fulfill his entire records request, including videos of clashes between demonstrators and officers after the shooting.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which reviews shootings by Chicago police, said it had planned on releasing the videos on Thursday without a court order.

COPA spokesman Ephraim Eaddy said COPA officials wanted to first arrange for Augustus’ family to view the videos before making them public. On Tuesday, he said, the agency arranged to have the family watch the videos on Thursday, the same day as the ruling.

Under COPA’s rules, the agency has 60 days to release video of police shootings. In this case, the deadline was Sept. 12, which would have been in the midst of the most important trial in decades of a Chicago cop for a fatal on-duty shooting. Officer Jason Van Dyke is charged with first-degree murder for shooting black teen Laquan McDonald 16 times, largely on the strength of disturbing video footage of the incident. His trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 5.

COPA chief administrator Sydney Roberts indicated last month that the agency could release more video before the September deadline, as several community leaders were demanding. The snippet of silent video was released a day after the shooting to calm tensions that lingered after sometimes violent clashes between officers and hundreds of demonstrators.

The Chicago Police Department referred questions about the new video to COPA. Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s spokesman Matt McGrath said in an email that "it would be inappropriate to comment" because COPA's investigation is ongoing.
 
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