Contact: Michele Setteducato, michele@fitzgibbonmedia.com, 732.614.3818

Chicago, IL— Today Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez said there would be no charges stemming from the Chicago police shooting of Ronald Johnson. Alvarez played the dash-cam video that shows Johnson being shot several times in the back by Officer George Hernandez, but shows no sign of a struggle having taken place between Johnson and the officer responsible for his death.

Johnson was killed over a year ago, less than a week before Laquan McDonald was gunned down. The dash-cam footage was made public only after months of repeated calls from the Johnson family to share the video and on the heels of the release of damning footage that shows a CPD officer shooting 17 year-old McDonald 16 times. From 2010-2014 Chicago Police killed more Black people than law enforcement in most other cities, none of those killings have resulted in charges.

Rashad Robinson, Executive Director of ColorOfChange.org said, issued the following statement:

“State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez’s press conference this morning was an obvious and desperate attempt to shift media attention away from the dangerous coverup in her office that allowed the police officer who unjustly killed Laquan McDonald to go uncharged for more than a year — an office that continues to act as an accomplice to an unchecked Chicago police department.

It is inexcusable that 97% of Chicago police misconduct complaints result in no disciplinary action, despite the fact that the police department has paid half a billion dollars in police brutality settlements since 2004. It is clear that this police department lacks institutional control and that we have a complicit State’s Attorney that has no intention of forcing even an ounce of accountability. Prosecutors are one of the most powerful players in our criminal justice system and have a ton of discretion in determining whether to charge police officers for excessive use of force.

This morning, once again we saw video footage of an officer shooting a Black person, Ronald Johnson, in the back. Officers are trained to apprehend suspects, even those who are armed, in ways that don’t lead to their death. But time and time again, that training — that standard of professional conduct — is not applied to Black suspects of crime.  While transparency by prosecutors should be applauded, waiting more than a year to release dash-cam footage is too little, too late. State’s Attorney Alvarez must resign.”

More than 49,000 ColorOfChange members have called for the resignation of State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez.  They are joining the voices of local Chicago leaders from youth organizing groups to elected officials who are demanding a shake up of a local government that placed no value on the life of Laquan McDonald.”

View the petition here: http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/anita-alvarez-step-aside/

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With more than 1 million members, ColorOfChange is the country’s largest online civil rights organization.</em