CHICAGO (AP) — Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired the city's police chief Tuesday, a week after the release of a dash-cam video that showed a white Chicago officer fatally shooting a black teenager 16 times. 
 
 Protesters make their way up North Michigan Avenue on Friday, Nov. 27, 2015, in Chicago as community activists and labor leaders hold a demonstration billed as a "march for justice" in the wake of the... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - This Nov. 24, 2015 file photo released by the Cook County Sheriff's Office shows Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke, who was charged with first degree murder after a squad car video caught him... (Associated Press) 
 
 Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke, back middle, leaves the Cook County Jail after posting bond on Monday, Nov. 30, 2015, in Chicago. Van Dyke has been locked up since Nov. 24, when prosecutors charged... (Associated Press) 
 
 Emanuel called a news conference to announce the dismissal of Superintendent Garry McCarthy, who only days ago insisted to reporters that the mayor had his "back." 
 
 Protesters have been calling for McCarthy's dismissal in response to the handling of the death of Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old who was killed in October 2014. 
 
 The city released police video of the shooting only after a judge ordered it to be made public. The release set off several days of largely peaceful protests. Officer Jason Van Dyke has been charged with first-degree murder. 
 
 McCarthy has been chief since May 2011. 
 
 The audio-free video shows McDonald walking down the middle of a four-lane street. He appears to veer away from two officers as they emerge from a vehicle, drawing their guns. Van Dyke opens fire from close range and continues firing after McDonald crumples to the ground. 
 
 Police have said McDonald was carrying a knife, and an autopsy revealed that he had PCP, a hallucinogenic drug, in his system. Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez has said the 3-inch blade recovered from the scene had been folded into the handle. 
 
 Defense attorney Dan Herbert says his client feared for his life, acted lawfully and that the video does not tell the whole story. 
 
 Van Dyke was released from jail Monday after paying the $150,000 required of his $1.5 million bail. 
 
 Prior to his arrival in Chicago, McCarthy was police director in Newark, New Jersey, after rising through the ranks of New York City's police department. ||||| CHICAGO (AP) — A white Chicago police officer charged with murder in the 2014 fatal shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald pleaded not guilty Tuesday in a Chicago court. 
 
 FILE - In this Nov. 30, 2015 file photo, Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke leaves the Cook County Jail after posting bond in Chicago. Van Dyke, who is charged with murder in the shooting death of... (Associated Press) 
 
 Jason Van Dyke faces six counts of first-degree murder and one of official misconduct in the 17-year-old's death. 
 
 He appeared in front of Judge Vincent Gaughan in Cook County Criminal Court and was dressed in a dark suit and blue striped tie. The next hearing is set for Jan. 29. 
 
 Public outcry has been furious since a dashcam video was released last month showing the veteran officer shooting McDonald 16 times. The teenager, armed with a knife, was veering away from officers when Van Dyke opened fire. 
 
 The footage sparked days of street demonstrations, the forced resignation of Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and a broad federal civil rights investigation of the police department's practices and how allegations of officer misconduct are handled. 
 
 Over the weekend, Chicago Police shot and killed two other people, a 55-year-old woman who was shot accidentally and a 19-year-old man whom police have said was "combative" before he was shot. The department will not say how many officers fired their weapons or what the two people were doing before they were shot. 
 
 Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who has been the target of heavy criticism and calls for resignation since the McDonald video was released last month, is due to return Tuesday afternoon from a family vacation in Cuba. ||||| Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke, who faces murder charges after shooting Laquan McDonald, had at least 17 citizen complaints against him, according to a University of Chicago database of police records. Here's what else the records show about complaints against Chicago cops. (Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post) 
 
 In the graphic video seen across the country Tuesday, Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke levels his gun toward Laquan McDonald, an African American teen carrying a knife and veering away from the officer. Van Dyke shoots. McDonald spins, then falls to the ground as Van Dyke continues to fire every bullet in his clip — 16 shots in all. 
 
 The officer was charged Tuesday with first degree murder in the Oct. 20, 2014, shooting, which prosecutors say was an “improper use of deadly force.” That night protesters in Chicago streamed through downtown toward police department headquarters, chanting “16 shots.” 
 
 Van Dyke, a white 14-year veteran of Chicago’s police force, has been accused of misconduct 17 times before, according to data from the University of Chicago and the journalism non-profit Invisible Institute. The database, published less than a week before the announcement that Van Dyke would be prosecuted, details tens of thousands of complaints against Chicago police officers that weren’t previously made public. Fewer than five percent of the allegations resulted in disciplinary actions for the officers; none of the 18 complaints against Van Dyke led to a penalty. 
 
 [Chicago police officer charged with murder in shooting of black teenager as city releases video footage] 
 
 “We don’t have all of Van Dyke’s complaints but … the misconduct complaints from Van Dyke that we do have in our data tool show by and large excessive force and racial slurs. And he has largely operated with impunity and under a code of silence with the same huddle of officers again and again,” the Invisible Institute’s Alison Flowers told Chicago ABC affiliate WLS. 
 
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 Van Dyke joined the Chicago Police Department in 2001 and spent several years on the force’s Targeted Response Unit, a city-wide team that aggressively worked in neighborhoods where crime was spiking. That force was disbanded by Superintendent Garry McCarthy in 2011. 
 
 The allegations against Van Dyke include 10 complaints of excessive force, including two incidents where he allegedly used a firearm, causing injury. He was also accused of improper searches and making racially or ethnically biased remarks. Four of the allegations were proven factual, but Van Dyke’s actions were deemed lawful and appropriate. In most of the other cases, there was either not enough evidence to prove or disprove the complaint or the allegation was proven unfounded. 
 
 The information in the database comes from reports spanning 2002 to 2008 and 2011 to 2015, which were released by the Chicago Police Department in response to Freedom of Information Act requests and a years-long legal battle over whether citizen complaints should be public information. 
 
 Editor's note: This video contains graphic content. Chicago police released October 2014 video of police shooting Laquan McDonald, a black 17-year-old. Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder. (Chicago Police Department) 
 
 The data shows that it’s rare for any officers to be penalized, and white officers were half as likely as black ones to be disciplined for a complaint. More than 60 percent of allegations that resulted in discipline came from white citizens, even though they accounted for just 20 percent of complainants. (Black complainants were also much more likely to fail to file an affidavit, a necessary step in the investigation process, which may account for some of the disparity.) 
 
 Regardless of race, it was extremely rare for allegations of any kind to be upheld — four percent of the 56,361 allegations were sustained. And it was even rarer for officers to be disciplined with more than a reprimand or a suspension of less than 10 days. 
 
 The Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA), which investigates police shootings and misconduct allegations, is led mostly by former cops, according to Chicago public radio station WBEZ. That has led some to question how independent the agency really is. 
 
 “Complaints may be seen not through the eyes of the citizen but through the eyes of a police officer,” Paula Tillman, a former IPRA investigative supervisor who was a Chicago cop herself in the 1970s and 1980s, told WBEZ. “The investigations can be engineered so that they have a tilt toward law enforcement and not what the citizen is trying to say.” 
 
 [54 police officers have faced criminal charges for fatally shooting someone while on duty in the past decade] 
 
 The Invisible Institute database also reveals how easy it could be for a few apparently abusive officers to garner a disproportionate number of complaints. Apparent repeat offenders — officers with more than 10 complaints against them — represented 30 percent of all complaints, even though they made up only 10 percent of the police force — a fact that police accountability experts like University of Pittsburgh Law School professor David A. Harris find troubling. 
 
 “It’s not unusual for a police officer to get a complaint, but the fact is that a complaint is a significant piece of information if it is a recurring thing,” Harris told the New York Times. “It is the patterns we worry about.” 
 
 Though Van Dyke appears in the database many times, he is by no means the most complained-about officer listed. That distinction goes to Jerome Finnigan, the subject of 68 citizen complaints in nearly two decades with the Chicago Police Department; none of the allegations resulted in disciplinary action. 
 
 In 2011, Finnigan was convicted of robbing criminal suspects while serving on an elite force and ordering a hit on a cop he thought might turn him in. At his sentencing, Finnigan admitted to having become “a corrupt police officer,” according to the Chicago Tribune. But he said the police department was aware, and for many years did nothing. 
 
 “My bosses knew what I was doing out there,” he said, “and it went on and on. And this wasn’t the exception to the rule. This was the rule.” 
 
 The same year Finnigan was convicted, Garry McCarthy was appointed the city’s police superintendent. Since then, city officials told the New York Times, the police department that has been plagued for years by instances of brutality and abuse has undergone reforms in how it deals with officer misconduct. The department said it gets half as many citizen complaints as it did several years ago. (The Invisible Institute database lists 5,776 complaints in 2014, compared with 6,439 in 2011, though the non-profit says their information is likely incomplete.) 
 
 One of those 2014 complaints is dated Oct. 20 — a misconduct allegation against Officer Jason Van Dyke. The database doesn’t include the details of the complaint, but it’s clear from the date and location what it’s about: the shooting of Laquan McDonald. 
 
 When Ed Nance first heard that Van Dyke was the officer involved, he broke into tears. 
 
 “It just makes me so sad because it shouldn’t have happened,” he told the Chicago Tribune in April. “He shouldn’t have been on the street in the first place after my incident.” 
 
 Nance filed his own complaint against Van Dyke in 2007, after he says the cop aggressively handcuffed him during a traffic stop, injuring both his shoulders. A federal jury found that Van Dyke and a partner had used excessive force and rewarded Nance $350,000 in damages. But IPRA said there wasn’t enough evidence to prove Nance’s claims. Both officers were cleared of all the allegations. 
 
 “They looked like, OK, so what, go (back) to work,” Nance told the Tribune. “They was back on the street like nothing ever happened.” 
 
 Nance, a cable company employee with no criminal record, underwent two shoulder surgeries and began taking anxiety medication after the incident. Though he eventually recovered, the news about the shooting brought back Nance’s memories of the encounter with Van Dyke. 
 
 “It makes me feel like it could have been me,” he told the Tribune. 
 
 Daniel Herbert, Van Dyke’s attorney, said his client shot McDonald in self-defense. Prosecutors and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) thought otherwise. 
 
 “We hold our police officers to a high standards and obviously in this case Jason Van Dyke violated … basic moral standards that bind our community together,” Emanuel said at a news conference announcing the release of dash-cam video of McDonald’s shooting. 
 
 After a judge ordered the release of the video last week, Cook County chief prosecutor Anita Alvarez said she moved up the filing of the first degree murder charge to come out the same day, just hours before the video was made public. 
 
 “With release of this video it’s really important for public safety that the citizens of Chicago know that this officer is being held responsible for his actions,” she said. 
 
 Van Dyke’s case marks the first time in more than three decades that a Chicago police officer has been charged with murder for an on-duty shooting. ||||| The Chicago police officer caught on dashcam video shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times to his death in October 2014 pleaded not guilty to murder charges Tuesday morning. NBC 5's Phil Rogers reports. (Published Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2015) 
 
 The Chicago police officer caught on dashcam video shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times to his death in October 2014 pleaded not guilty to murder charges Tuesday morning. 
 
 Van Dyke appeared before Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan just before 10 a.m., pleading not guilty to six counts of first-degree murder and one count of official misconduct. He was harassed by at least one heckler on his way into the courtroom. 
 
 Van Dyke’s attorney Dan Herbert called the proceedings an "important day" in the case, adding that transcripts and video evidence were released to the defense. 
 
 "The evidence will come in slowly," Herbert said. "We received a piece of evidence today and that will be a continuous process for probably the next several months until motions are filed, and we look forward to having a trial." 
 
 Van Dyke has been free on $1.5 million bond since Nov. 30 after spending six nights in Cook County, Illinois, jail. He was charged hours before video of McDonald’s shooting death went public, sparking weeks of demonstrations and unrest in Chicago. 
 
 Herbert previously argued the video does not tell the whole story and said Van Dyke feared for his life, which is why he fired his weapon. He added that although Van Dyke has said nothing following his brief appearances in court, the officer hopes his side of the story will soon be heard. 
 
 "(Van Dyke) wants his story to get out so that people don’t see him as this cold-blooded killer, and that’s what the trial is for," Herbert said. 
 
 The officer has not been to Chicago’s criminal courts building since earlier this month. As Van Dyke left the courthouse Dec. 18, several groups of people shouted profanities and pounded on the black pickup truck he was riding in before it pulled away. 
 
 The case has been widely publicized, with even Mayor Rahm Emanuel blasting the Chicago officer. 
 
 Emanuel previously told reporters, "Van Dyke violated both the standards of professionalism that come with being a police officer but also basic moral standards that bind our community together." 
 
 Herbert said after the December hearing he was considering requesting a change of venue because of Emanuel's criticism. He noted Tuesday that they are still considering the move. 
 
 "It’s something that’s not routinely done. In Cook County it hasn’t been done in decades," Herbert said. "I think with the current events and specifically the comments by the mayor in this case, not just on a day but continuing throughout the last few weeks, we intend to seek a change of venue. And quite frankly Exhibit A is going to be the mayor and his comments and we’re going to have to find a county that is outside the reach of the mayor’s comments." ||||| Hundreds of protesters weaved through downtown streets Tuesday night into Wednesday morning after Chicago officials released the video of the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old by a Chicago police officer. 
 
 The march halted traffic for a few minutes on Interstate 290 in and out of the city, just east of the bridge over the Chicago River, around midnight, but the protest moved mostly between 18th Street and downtown, never going south of Cullerton or north of the Loop. 
 
 There were a few scuffles and one man, 22, was arrested after police said he struck an officer. Malcolm London, of the 4900 block of West Huron Street in the South Austin neighborhood, was charged with aggravated battery to a police officer. The rest of those arrested, about six people, were cited for obstructing traffic, police said. 
 
 Many of the marchers chanted "16 times," referring to the number of bullets fired by Officer Jason Van Dyke at Laquan McDonald, 17. A dash-cam video showing the shooting near 41st Street and Pulaski Road in October 2014 was released late Tuesday afternoon, hours after Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder. 
 
 Before the march, dozens of black activists gathered inside an art gallery just south of Halsted Street and Roosevelt Road to talk about the video. Fresco Steez of the Black Youth Project 100 later asked reporters to be aware of protesters' "raw" feelings. 
 
 "Tonight, what we're having is another instance of a killing, a public lynching of another young black man, so we're asking you to give us some space to process our feeling around that. ... Their feelings might be raw," Steez said. 
 
 Minutes later, the group emerged from the building, chanting. Activists later spilled into the streets, yelling in unison "16 times!" They called for an overhaul of the Chicago Police Department, demanded more resources for disenfranchised communities and scoffed at city officials' suggestions about how communities should react to the violent footage. 
 
 Protest in Chicago following release of dash-cam video shooting (Warning: Graphic language) Activists march through Chicago streets Nov. 24, 2015, following the release of a 2014 dash-cam video of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald being fatally shot by Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune) (Warning: Graphic language) Activists march through Chicago streets Nov. 24, 2015, following the release of a 2014 dash-cam video of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald being fatally shot by Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune) See more videos 
 
 The demonstrators, numbering about 150, were accompanied into the South Loop by a police escort on bicycles and in squad cars. At Roosevelt and State Street, protesters locked hands, enveloping several police cars. 
 
 As the crowd grew to more than 300, police blocked protesters from crossing the Balbo Drive bridge toward Columbus Drive, and there was a confrontation with police on bicycles. One officer fell beneath a bike, and a protester stomped on the bike. 
 
 At least three people were taken into custody, and one officer was taken to an ambulance. 
 
 After London was arrested, protesters tried to block the police SUV that was to take him to the Central District police station at 18th and State streets, about a mile south. The driver tried to back the SUV east on Balbo, with an officer banging on the back window to signal the driver when it was OK to step on the gas. 
 
 But the driver eventually went over a curb and doubled back to Indiana Avenue as officers tried to move protesters out of the way. 
 
 Laquan McDonald protesters clash with Chicago police Several protesters were arrested and one officer was hurt after a scuffle broke out during protests surrounding the shooting of Laquan McDonald. (Tony Briscoe / Chicago Tribune) Several protesters were arrested and one officer was hurt after a scuffle broke out during protests surrounding the shooting of Laquan McDonald. (Tony Briscoe / Chicago Tribune) See more videos 
 
 The demonstrators eventually marched away, winding down more streets to gather at the Central District station, blocking traffic along the way. 
 
 "People are mad as hell," said Page May, an organizer with We Charge Genocide. "It still feels so unnecessary." 
 
 May said the frustration stems from the public statements by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and police Superintendent Garry McCarthy in the hours leading up to the video's release. Emanuel said the publication of the video — which he and city leaders tried to block for months — could start a healing process for many Chicagoans. 
 
 "It was disgusting to try to claim any sense of moral superiority at this moment," May said. "They're out there trying to do damage control. How are they going to hold accountable a system that allowed this to happen in the first place?" 
 
 Earlier Tuesday, parents and guardians of students in Chicago Public Schools received an email from Janice Jackson, the district's chief education officer, alerting them of the video's release. 
 
 "This footage is sure to raise many emotions among our children, and we want you to know that CPS will do everything possible to meet their needs," Jackson wrote. 
 
 The video will not be shown in schools but may be discussed in class, Jackson told parents. Teachers have received "a special toolkit" to help them talk to students about the incident. Counselors also will be available, the district said. 
 
 The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois released a statement regarding the video release, urging calm and asking for "productive discussion" about Chicago police interactions with the public. 
 
 "The anger and frustration expressed by many African-American residents of Chicago in viewing the video is understandable. Members of the African-American community have seen mistreatment and, sadly, violence at the hands of the police for too long in the city," the organization said in a release. "We hope that we can seize this moment to improve all aspects of policing, with a commitment toward creating better relations between the public and police. 
 
 Earlier Tuesday, outside a Burger King restaurant near where McDonald was shot, speakers called on McCarthy to resign or be fired. 
 
 "Superintendent McCarthy knew about this tape a year ago, but he never said anything about it," activist Tio Hardiman said. "The only reason they're speaking up now is because the judge ordered the tape to be released. This is hypocritical." 
 
 Others questioned the political motives behind the timing of Van Dyke being charged with murder and McCarthy pushing for the firing of Detective Dante Servin, who was unsuccessfully prosecuted for fatally shooting Rekia Boyd in 2012. 
 
 "If they felt (Van Dyke) should have been charged this morning, then they should have felt that way a year ago," activist Quovadis Green said. 
 
 Chicago Tribune's Juan Perez Jr. contributed. 
 
 cdrhodes@tribpub.com 
 
 tbriscoe@tribpub.com
– Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Chicago Tuesday night soon after police released disturbing video of a white police officer fatally shooting a black teenager, and the Chicago Sun-Times reports that they chanted "16"—the number of times Officer Jason Van Dyke allegedly shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. One tense moment occurred when protesters and police engaged in a "full-on pushing match" for about 15 minutes at one barricade, which resulted in three people taken away in a police wagon. But pleas for restraint were generally heeded throughout the night, reports AP. More demonstrations were planned in the days ahead, including one at City Hall on Wednesday and one designed to block Michigan Avenue on Friday's busy shopping day. Van Dyke was charged with murder on Tuesday, hours before police released video of the Oct. 20, 2014, shooting. Protesters say they're angered not just by the shooting, but by the police department's failure to release the video until a judge ordered it to—and by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy telling the community that the video should start a healing process, after they had spent so long trying to block its release. "People are mad as hell," organizer Page May with the We Charge Genocide anti-police violence group tells the Chicago Tribune. "It still feels so unnecessary."