Newark leaders sound off on the ouster of former Newark police director Garry MacCarthy from the Chicago Police Department.
NEWARK -- News that former city police director Garry McCarthy was relieved of his duties as head of the Chicago Police Department has generated little sympathy among city leaders that remember his tenure.
The city is "still suffering because of his bad public policy regarding police issues," said Central Ward Councilwoman Gayle Chaneyfield-Jenkins. "I just feel sorry that the citizens of Chicago had to be subjected to his horrific brand of community policing for all those years. He needs to get a different profession."
Udi Ofer, Executive Director of the ACLU of New Jersey, questioned the decision by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to hire McCarthy.
"He left a legacy of widespread civil rights violations," Ofer said, referring to the findings of a U.S. Justice Department review spurred by the ACLU that found that municipal police in the state's largest city had repeatedly violated the rights of its residents.
"That was his track record in Newark, and that's what he brought to Chicago," Ofer said.
McCarthy, the now former Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department, was dismissed Tuesday amid the fallout over the shooting death of a black 17-year-old at the hands of a white city police officer.
McCarthy had held the position since 2011, when he was poached from the Newark Police Department by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to lead the Windy City's 13,000-plus member police force.
Prior to that, McCarthy served as director of the Newark Police Department, a job he was tapped for in 2006 by former Newark Mayor Cory Booker. Attempts to reach McCarthy for comment were unsuccessful. Booker could not immediately be reached for comment.
McCarthy's tenure in Newark was marked by extended periods of unrest. During his time at the helm, the city police department was hit with accusations of widespread police misconduct and civil right abuses. He also sparred publicly both with police officials, and city leaders who questioned reports of significant decreases in violent crime.
Council member Chaneyfield-Jenkins said that she and many other longtime Newarkers became increasingly disturbed as McCarthy's touted crime reductions, even as their own experiences signaled otherwise.
Residents at the time were afraid to walk in their own neighborhoods, but "this man (was) telling us the crime numbers were going down," she said.
A spokesperson for Mayor Ras Baraka did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In 2010, McCarthy angered city activists when he rejected calls by the state ACLU for federal oversight of the police department. He also faced down a a unanimous "no confidence" vote by the Newark Superior Officers Association, further undercutting McCarthy's leadership of the department.
That same year, relations between the Newark police union and the city reached a breaking point as the city moved to layoff 167 police officers.
Newark City Council President Mildred Crump, who voted against appointing McCarthy as director, said it was his contentious relationship with both residents and the police department's rank and file that ultimately led to his exit.
"His ability to respect the community called Newark was absent," Crump said. "And as a lifelong believer in the police department, because they keep me safe and the people safe, I didn't like the way he treated the police officers"
Following McCarthy's 2011 departure, a scathing federal review of the Newark Police Department provided founding for accusations made by the state ACLU and others that the state's largest police force swept aside accusations of misconduct against hundreds of officers and failed to address complaints of brutality by city residents.
The department has since undergone a host of changes. The city found a new director in Eugene Venable, who has touted a new direction for the police department. And officials now appear poised to sign an agreement formalizing federal oversight of the city's police department.
When the agreement is finalized, Newark police will become the third New Jersey agency to require a federal monitor in the past 15 years. McCarthy's future, however, appears murky.
While public calls for reform of one of the nation's largest and most controversial police department's grow louder, one of McCarthy's former deputies has been temporarily installed in his place, according to reports.
But even after his firing, some are unwilling to lay blame for all of the department's issues with McCarthy.
Chicago had big problems before McCarthy's arrival, said James Stewart Jr., president of the Newark chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police.
"I don't know that one man can change that atmosphere," he said. "It's probably going to take a generation to fix that situation."
Staff Reporter Dan Ivers contributed to this report.
Vernal Coleman can be reached at vcoleman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @vernalcoleman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.