The Chicago police officer who punched a 17-year-old in August 2019 in what investigators ruled was an unjustified use of excessive force and called a Black man who was filming the altercation “boy” will not be fired, according to documents obtained by WTTW News.
Instead, Officer Michael Bryant should be suspended for 25 days, Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling determined, rejecting the recommendation from the Civilian Office of Police Accountability to fire Bryant for his actions on Aug. 7, 2019, near Oak Street and Cambridge Avenue in Cabrini-Green, a complex operated by the Chicago Housing Authority that sits just west of the Gold Coast.
While Bryant committed misconduct during the incident, his actions were “not so egregious as to warrant separation,” Snelling told the head of the agency tasked with investigating police misconduct better known as COPA in an April 8, 2024, letter…