Black Caucus Calls for Firing of Chicago Police Superintendent

The 15 Chicago aldermen who comprise the City Council’s Black Caucus want Police Supt. Garry McCarthy fired because of the number of shootings the city has experienced this year.

“Supt. McCarthy’s leadership has failed our communities, and it is time for a substantial change. It is clear that the current approach has been ineffective,” Ald. Roderick Sawyer, the 6th Ward alderman who chairs the Black Caucus, said at a Monday afternoon press conference. “Five years has been long enough.”

This comes a week after a Chicago Tribune analysis found that the shootings and murders of September — 59 murders, 362 gunshot victims and more than 250 shooting reports — made 2015 the deadliest September of the last decade. Most noteworthy was the slaying of a mother and grandmother — and the wounding of an 11-month-old baby — on the street outside their South Side home. On Sunday, two more children, both 14 years of age, were shot.

The Black Caucus includes Pat Dowell (3), Leslie Hairston (5), Greg Mitchell (7), Michelle Harris (8), Anthony Beale (9), Toni Foulkes (16), David Moore (17), Willie Cochran (20), Harold Brookins (21), Michael Scott (24), Jason Ervin (28), Chris Taliaferro (29), Carrie Austin (34) and Emma Mitts (37).

The aldermen also took issue with what they see as McCarthy’s failure to hire and promote more black officers and leaders in the department.