Bernie Sanders Joins Calls For Those Who Covered Up Laquan Shooting To Resign

By Rachel Cromidas in News on Dec 4, 2015 8:32PM

Bernie Sanders (Photo by aaron cynic/Chicagoist)

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has joined the calls for the Chicago officials who may have "suppressed" information about the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald last year to resign.

“I join with those calling for a federal investigation into the practices of the Chicago Police Department. Futhermore, any official who helped suppress the videotape of Laquan McDonald’s murder should be held accountable. And any elected official with knowledge that the tape was being suppressed or improperly withheld should resign. No one should be shielded by power or position,” Sanders said in a statement, according to the Sun-Times.

Rival candidate Hillary Clinton and a host of regional politicians have also called for a broad federal investigation into the Chicago police department in the wake of the release of a video last week showing a police officer fatally shooting McDonald, a black teenager, 16 times. The video has spurred calls for Mayor Rahm Emanuel to resign, prompted the firing of police chief Garry McCarthy and called into question how Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez investigated the death before charging the officer, Jason Van Dyke, with first-degree murder last week just a head of the video's release.

Unlike Clinton, Sanders is also saying Emanuel should step down if he was at all involved in a cover up of the shooting, which happened in October 2014. It's increasingly likely the police officers who witnessed the shooting and the Fraternal Order of Police lied about the events of that night before the video became public, and a surveillance video from a nearby Burger King has missing footage from that night that still remains a mystery.