Ready To 'Move On' After Laquan McDonald? Not So Fast, Chicago

CHICAGO — There has been a lot blame laid and punishment doled in the name of police reform during the nearly six years since on-duty cop Jason Van Dyke shot and killed 17-year old Laquan McDonald on the Southwest Side.

The Chicago police department now operates under a consent decree after a more than $7 million investigation found cops here are poorly trained, quick to use excessive and deadly force, and rarely disciplined for misconduct.

Van Dyke is in prison for murder. The Chicago Police Board fired three police officers and a sergeant accused of trying to cover for him.

Now, certain people believe Chicagoans should consider those things as a significant, albeit imperfect, justice for Laquan McDonald.

“It is time to move on,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board, the official voice of billionaires, Democratic Party insiders and union bosses who own the paper.

Not so fast.

[COMMENTARY]

Chicagoans still deserve answers to important questions. Here's a big one:

Why hasn't there been an investigation into allegations City Hall bureaucrats conspired to quickly negotiated terms of a $5 million payout that aimed to keep video of Laquan’s murder a secret and provide then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel political cover during his 2015 re-election bid?

I asked a bunch of people who know about these things.

“Rahm’s gone, who cares,” a former City Hall insider said. “What you’re talking about is complicated. Move on.”

“I presume it would be very difficult thing to do. The politics were difficult,” a former top law enforcement official told me.

That's about what I expected and probably about as close to truth as you'll get from anybody who really knows how Chicago works and, because of that knowledge, also believes the political "Machine" that controls this city will never be reformed.

The reason boils down to this: This one-party city of Democrats has evolved into the least democratic city in America.

Politicians here — like crooked cops covering up the details of a black teenager’s brutal murder — protect each other. When Ald. Danny Solis was outed as a federal mole who wore a wire on his City Council colleagues for two years, some ward bosses even admitted as much.

Chicago's brand of political party solidarity, coupled with Emanuel’s deep connection to the Obama White House, probably helped protect the former mayor and certain members of his staff from being the subjects of a criminal probe.

The political reality is clout-heavy Chicago mayors who oversee departments embroiled in massive political corruption have always been untouchable.

Over the years, Chicago mayors have even avoided answering questions under oath thanks to legal maneuvers initiated by the corporation counsel's office — which effectively acts as the mayor's legal team — including civil court settlements tagged with non-disclosure agreements that get rubber-stamp approval by a one-party City Council.

In May 2016, 11 days after federal judge Gary Feinerman ruled Emanuel would have to testify about the code of silence in a lawsuit brought by cops who claim they were blackballed for blowing the whistle on police corruption, Patton settled the case for $2 million.

And that’s just one non-Laquan example of how city attorneys used taxpayer cash to avoid questions about City Hall's role in cover-ups for dirty cops.

The practice is neither new, nor an anomaly.

It's legalized corruption practiced the "Chicago Way."

'Why would that be?'

Former Chicago top cop Garry McCarthy knows a thing or two about how the Emanuel administration's political agenda affected just about everything in the police department. That includes City Hall's fight to keep the dash cam video of Laquan's murder secret.

During his failed mayoral campaign, McCarthy publicly called on the Illinois attorney general to investigate Patton’s role in, and motivation for, negotiating the $5 million payout to Laquan's estate.

McCarthy alleged in a letter to Kwame Raoul that Patton committed official misconduct when he made his pitch to win City Council finance committee approval for the payout to Laquan’s estate.

According to state law, a public employee commits official misconduct if he performs an act in excess of his lawful authority with “intent to obtain a personal advantage for himself or another.”

“Patton didn’t tell the City Council there was a caveat in the deal to not release the video. That’s the seminal point here,” McCarthy said. “Why would that be?”

McCarthy, of course, is suggesting Patton acted quickly to negotiate terms of the payout to keep the police video secret in attempt to protect Emanuel from a political backlash. And it happened around the time video of New York City police officers choking Eric Garner to death had gone viral and Black Lives Matter gained political influence across America.

He’s not the only one. After word of the non-disclosure clause in the $5 million payout became public, Ald. Howard Brookins said he believed Patton “misled” the finance committee in April 2015.

When I talked to Brookins recently he put it this way: “Information about the settlement, how it was portrayed to us just didn’t seem right. It was really downplayed by omission.”

Brookins also expressed concern that Patton, who represents the mayor’s office, intentionally provided the council committee with only certain information about terms of the payout during the public meeting.

“How does the mayor’s office know all the details and [aldermen] don’t know?” he said.

“All the information about the settlement should have been released. And I don’t think a non-disclosure agreement should ever be in a settlement, especially when it means the case is over and we’ve paid the damn money. … Somebody should absolutely should take a look at that because the public has a right to know we’re good shepherds of their funds. And if there’s a non-disclosure agreement how can you ever look into that?”

“Absolute Bull----”

Over the years, I’ve consistently called for anybody — specifically the feds — to probe the way Patton handled the $5 million payout, which I believe should never be classified as a court settlement because the unusual deal was made to pre-empt a lawsuit being filed.

When U.S Department of Justice investigators interviewed me as part of the police department probe, I told them so. But, as far as anyone can tell, they didn’t look into City Hall’s role in trying to cover up the video.

And let’s face it, the Cook County State’s Attorney — no matter who’s in office —will never investigate a Chicago mayor’s top lawyer.

So, I asked the highest-ranking lawman in Illinois, Attorney General Raoul, why his office hasn’t looked into whether Emanuel’s administration committed crimes regarding the taxpayer funded payout to McDonald’s estate.

“Nothing was brought to my attention with regards to the city breaking the law in that process,” he said. “Whether or not I would have done things different if I was mayor or the corporation counsel or anyone else, that’s not the threshold in my evaluation.”

I reminded Raoul that McCarthy did allege that Emanuel’s office committed a crime negotiating the $5 million payout.

“I’ve read Garry’s letter over-and-over again. I know Garry … I sometimes see him at the health club. His letter was sent to this office during his campaign, not four years earlier. He doesn’t allege anything that rises to the level of official misconduct,” the attorney general said.

Raoul said he forwarded McCarthy’s letter to his chief deputy and “more experienced prosecutors for review” and none of them saw “any merit for any further probe into it.”

“My disappointment as an individual citizen of Chicago doesn’t mean I can over-exercise my power as attorney general,” Raoul said. “It’s not my job as attorney general to second-guess how different public officials govern.”

There were other issues, as well.

Raoul said his office doesn’t have “original jurisdiction” to prosecute official misconduct, which is generally handled by county state’s attorneys or the U.S. Attorney’s office. And by the time McCarthy made the official misconduct allegation, the statute of limitations had expired, Raoul said.

“Why did he wait until he was running for mayor?” Raoul said.

When I relayed the information to McCarthy, well, the New York City native didn’t mince words.

“Absolute bull---. They read the letter. I didn’t get interviewed. No phone call. Nothing.” McCarthy said.

“If you don’t interview the complainant, you can’t make a determination. … He doesn’t want to touch this just like nobody else does. It’s politics. The guy [Patton] committed a crime and he should be prosecuted. But it’s like people tell me all the time, 'Welcome to Chicago.'”

That's a familiar cliché, but it’s not wrong.

In one way or another, no matter how reform-minded the Democrat, politics taints everything in Chicago.

'Almost no scrutiny'

So, there you have it, I guess.

The reason there hasn’t been a criminal investigation into City Hall “cover-up” allegations is because what the corporation counsel’s office did, which coincidentally protected Emanuel during the 2105 mayoral election, wasn’t illegal.

And even if it were a crime, it’s too late to prosecute, anyway.

Now, if that doesn’t sit well with you, take comfort in knowing you’re not alone. Even Raoul thinks so. “How this was all handled is a legitimate question,” he said. “Just because it didn’t rise to the level of a criminal investigation doesn’t mean that light shouldn’t be shed on it."

How the payout was "handled" has everything to do with the long history of Chicago’s corporation counsel blocking attempts by journalists, activists and lawyers to use freedom of information requests and civil lawsuits to shed light on police misconduct. Ultimately, those efforts contributing to a City Hall culture of cover-up that harbors the “Thin Blue Line” code of silence in the police department.

Attorneys in the city law department cite provisions in the Fraternal Order of Police contract that are codified in state law to deny public information requests and insert non-disclosure deals in civil lawsuits alleging police misconduct that keep evidence that might prove the legitimacy of allegations — police reports, depositions and video, among other things — from the public.

If Patton’s legal maneuvers to keep the video quiet had worked, Laquan McDonald’s murder might not have led to federally mandated police reform and Emanuel’s unexpected mayoral exit.

Back during the height of former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s tenure, City Hall’s stranglehold on public information involving police misconduct stood as an almost insurmountable barrier for reporters, activists and civil rights attorneys trying to expose the truth.

Emanuel's administration carried on the tradition. I know from experience that the city law department regularly reviewed, and ultimately decided how the police department would respond to Freedom Of Information Act requests. After the video of Laquan’s murder went public, the mayor’s chief spokesman even held secret meetings and scripted press conferences in attempt to make sure everybody at City Hall got their story straight on Laquan.

Independent journalist Jamie Kalven reported that Emanuel’s chief spokesman held regular meetings to review police department FOIA requests to keep tabs on what investigative reporters are working on in hopes of controlling the narrative.

Kalven is the guy who uncovered the autopsy that revealed Laquan died after being hit by 16 shots, and won a lawsuit to give the public access to more information about police misconduct allegations. He’ll tell you that there’s been a disproportionate emphasis on laying blame and punishing cops in the aftermath of the murder in post-Laquan Chicago, and not enough to acknowledge how City Hall stands as a roadblock to reform.

“The role that the corporation counsel plays in blocking larger reforms of the police department and the criminal justice system is huge, and it gets almost no scrutiny,” Kalven said.

“They essentially retard the reform process. A well-investigated civil suit generates a tremendous amount of information for the department and the city. But to remove that, through settlement and non-disclosure, from judicial and public scrutiny defeats the whole process.”

What’s interesting is that Emanuel admitted as much during his December 2015 mea culpa following the release of the Laquan murder video.

“Just because we have done it like this for 40 years doesn’t mean it’s right," Emanuel said. "Just because that’s how we’ve done it, I should have along the way challenged the entire legal team and others, of how a practice that was actually undermining the very value that I think is essential to the public safety and wholeness of the city.”

Yet, the former mayor turned news commentator focused his reform narrative on successfully negotiating federal oversight of the police department, and didn’t prohibit the corporation counsel’s office from using its might to keep information about police brutality from the public.

An ‘expression of the norm’

It’s not a secret that the Chicago Police Department, more than any other city agency, is a perpetual public information scofflaw.

Police FOIA officers routinely delay responding to public information requests and deny access to documents the public has a right to see. Chicago police even ignored rulings issued by former Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan that called for the release of public information requested under FOIA.

When it comes to releasing information to the public, Chicago’s top cop faced constant pressure from the police union — which advocates to keep information secret to protect its members — and the Emanuel administration’s relentless efforts to control news story narratives.

Believe it or not, Kalven says he almost feels sorry for police Supt. Eddie Johnson and his staff, “as hapless as they are.”

“What we can learn about covering up police misconduct from Laquan McDonald’s history is that people made much about it being a departure from the norm — the $5 million settlement without a lawsuit being filed, all of that. What’s more powerful is that this was an expression of the norm. This is how it works. If you think [Laquan McDonald] is a singular problem you’re missing how f----- up the overall system is.”

Unless and until there’s reform that forces the corporation counsel to start to recognize that the city of Chicago has to abide by state FOIA laws, we’re not going to fix Chicago’s ultimate problem: For decades, whoever has been mayor has used the corporation counsel’s office to get away with doing whatever they want.

City law department attorneys can’t keep operating above the law or they’re never going to gain the city’s trust, and we’re going to continue to have the same culture of silence that harbors police misconduct.

The police department consent decree doesn’t mandate reforms to City Hall’s role in blocking the release of public information, or provisions in the FOP contract cited by the law department for keeping details about misconduct allegations from the public.

The deal negotiated by the Emanuel administration and former Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan doesn’t weigh in on City Hall’s practice of including non-disclosure agreements in civil lawsuit settlements.

Maybe you think that’s OK. After all, Patton resigned. Emanuel quit, too. And voters replaced him with arguably the most “woke” mayor Chicago has ever had. Lori Lightfoot, that is.

Lightfoot led a police accountability task force that condemned Chicago cops for lacking respect and humanity and called for reforms. During her mayoral campaign, she pledged to take a sledgehammer to Chicago’s political status quo. And in one of Lightfoot’s first acts as mayor, the former federal prosecutor eliminated the unchecked power aldermen had to approve permits and zoning in their wards.

Even if you generally trust Lightfoot will do the right thing — ordering her top attorneys to err on the side of the truth, transparency and a new Chicago Way when dealing with police misconduct allegations, for example — you've got to ask yourself, is that good enough?

I don’t think so. But don’t take my word for it.

Chicago Inspector General Joe Ferguson, who has served as the city’s top watchdog for nearly a decade under three mayors, cautions against having blind faith in anybody who runs a government outfitted with the kind of institutional infrastructure to keep secrets built by the Chicago Democratic machine.

“Even the most enlightened political leadership can come to have a vested interest in non-disclosure as it comes to affect matters within their administration. Against that backdrop, how do we continue to operate within a system that doesn’t change, and is that acceptable? Should we rest on the fact that there’s a possibility a more enlightened leadership will give us more disclosure instead of less?”Ferguson said.

“The answer is you can’t rely on individuals. It really goes to the system itself and what [the rules] obligate political leaders and government actors to do. And if they’re not obligated, we have to assume that both consciously and subconsciously their interest in the existing culture is going to gradually incline them to less transparency.”

Chicago has reached a high-water mark of mistrust in government and its police department.

So, what’s the Democratic mayor of America’s least democratic city to do?

The answer seems simple enough.

“Bring in the light,” to quote Mayor Lightfoot’s campaign slogan.

It’s time to end the City Hall tradition of including non-disclosure agreements in police misconduct settlement cases and eliminate provisions in police union contracts that require sworn affidavits to investigate allegations of police misconduct, among other things.

And there’s only one way to accomplish that, Ferguson says.

“It has to be reduced to legislation in the form of a hard reset of FOIA laws,” he said. “Because if it’s not written into law and if it’s left to the discretion of individuals then I don’t think the public is going to have confidence [they’re being told the truth] regardless.”

Whether any of those things happen ultimately depends on the political will of Mayor Lightfoot.

I can only assume Lightfoot isn't ready to talk about it.

Over the last two weeks or so, members of the mayor’s communications team — which includes a collection of holdovers from Emanuel’s spin machine, by the way — have dragged their feet responding to repeated requests to discuss City Hall’s long history covering up police misconduct, and how — or if — she plans to change things.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting and Emmy-nominated producer, was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docu-series on CNN. He was a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary, "16 Shots."

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