they announced earlier they are launching this investigation into the chicago police department. we have attorney general loretta lynch making that declaration earlier today about officer use of force and actions that could be considered unconstitutional. ari melber, thank you. i want to go to our colleague, nbc s john yang, in chicago. two points i want to talk about here. the doj launching that investigation but first let s talk about the family, their reaction, they are going to be coming out shortly, the mother of ronald johnson, i believe, and their attorney will give a press conference? reporter: that s right. their allegation or their claim all along, they were able to view the same video, dash cam video that prosecutor alvarez just showed us and everyone. they say that they did not see a gun in johnson s hand. that is the that s the crux of this. those freeze frames, those enhanced videos, i think are really going to be the
and show you exactly what we looked at, what we considered, what we did before, you know, announcing any decision on this case. so we are expecting to hear from the family of ronald johnson, his mother and the family s attorney will be speaking. we ll take you there when that happens. joining me is msnbc national correspondent joy reed and just spent some time in chicago trying to figure out what the city s culture is like, especially given the fact that it is so tentative. right. within the laquan mcdonald case and now this and some folks look at this as justice moving forward for laquan mcdonald. questions about this but alvarez seemed to present a case today and lock solid for why that office would not pursue criminal charges against officer hernandez. also attempting to be frank to present a case for herself. you heard argument within that press conference she has a tough job, can t please both sides. put a lot of logistics off on the independent authority that
touchstone, the tipping point of this argument. what is in his hand. is anything in his hand. you heard anita alvarez saying she posits there is a gun in his hand. the family and their attorney in their lawsuit and in press conferences and in statements to reporters last week say they do not see a gun in his hand. i think that is going to be the real tipping point and the real turning point of this debate, and given the current state of trust or mistrust between the public, between the black community in chicago and the police department and anita alvarez s office, i think it s a debate that is not going to be easily resolved. this is a level of transparency we have not seen from this office before. in talking with ari about that, the presentation of alvarez s case about how they came to the
thomas? alvarez made the statement she calls it as she sees it and got to this point with officer hernandez. totally different for the other officer involved with laquan mcdonald. john yang in chicago, thank you. i want to bring in msnbc chief legal correspondent ari melber. this could be the end of the state attorney s investigation and not the end of legal questions for the case. correct? that s right. if you brought it out, there s the civil lawsuits, hearing from the mother of johnson and the lawyer later today. when i interviewed them last week, they were adamant that the video they felt was good for ronald johnson, showed he didn t have a weapon and they said, alleged that police planted a weapon. that is a long ways, miles away from what anita alvarez presented today that the gun recovered at the scene was mr.
whether this is a response to public pressure and politics and not a thorough investigation. in fairness, i want to say a couple other points on that before i toss it back to you. alvarez did just say in this press conference that she has to work with the independent police investigative authority. they just had their head replaced. rahm emanuel is working on that as well. they are beleaguered and criticized. her point being she has to wait on them. she mentioned she has been waiting for months for what she says are aspects of the investigation. number two, again in fairness, she says she showed this video to if fbi within a month of the incident and they decided not to move forward on a joint federal-local inquiry. again, that s her attempt to say as the criticism s coming in, look, i involved the feds, they didn t even see rise to investigate, let alone charge on a federal level. so i want to be fair in reporting some of her claims there. but there is no doubt as you see every aspect