NEAR WEST SIDE — Less than 48 hours after the Laquan McDonald video was released, Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. said he already knew Police Supt. Garry McCarthy's future in Chicago was coming to an end.
In Grant Park for the annual Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving, Burnett (27th) shared some news from the streets with Mayor Rahm Emanuel. A strong mayoral ally and veteran African-American alderman, Burnett said he never pressured the mayor to fire McCarthy, but he did tell him that outside pressure — from the people and pastors, not politicians — was building.
"I let him know that everywhere I went, whether it was to church, in the stores, even the cleaners run by the Korean guy who can hardly speak English, everyone was telling me they felt [McDonald's death] was wrong, unjust and that something's got to change," Burnett said. "I didn't see the momentum going away. I knew eventually it was going to give."
McCarthy and Emanuel have been under pressure after the release of a dashcam video showing an on-duty police officer shooting Laquan McDonald 16 times in October 2014. The officer in the case was charged with murder.
By Tuesday morning, and after Black Friday protests on the Mag Mile, Emanuel relented to that "outside pressure," asking McCarthy to resign, saying that the superintendent had become a distraction amid the furor over McDonald's death.
"He tried to be as loyal as he could to McCarthy, but I think [the mayor's] loyalty was divided ... because he wanted to be loyal to the community also," Burnett said. "He finally made his decision and I commend him on that decision."
Still, Burnett said that the "bad culture" that plagues parts of the Chicago Police Department won't change overnight.
Like a snake "you can't just cut off the head and it goes away. The body is still moving," Burnett said "The majority [of police officers] are good folks and all of that but I think there are guys who think they're entitled to do anything, and that culture has been there for many, many years. That culture needs to change."
Ask any black officer, "and they'll tell you, 'Yes. There are some [cops] that are racist, some that hate people. Some hate Latinos, gay people,'" Burnett said. "The racism in the police department is bad and everyone just ignores it. Our people have got to treat each other in a civilized manner," police included, he said.
Organizing a task force and adding more body cameras on cops are steps in the right direction, Burnett said, and he would like police to undergo stricter psychological evaluations on an ongoing basis after they are involved in a traumatic situation.
An officer "who shoots someone 16 times, there's something going on with him psychologically, something wrong in his head," Burnett said. "There's a way to deal with people who have mental illnesses or are on drugs without shooting them."
In October, Burnett said that he stood with the Black Caucus as they called for McCarthy's firing.
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