From [HERE] A petition urging federal and state investigations of the North Chicago Police Department has gained an estimated 1,500 signatures since it was first circulated last week. The petition, which is also circulating online at change.org, calls for U.S. Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to conduct investigations “relating to the torture, cover-up and death of Darrin Hanna.

Hanna, 45, died Nov. 13, a week after he was arrested inside his apartment by six North Chicago police officers on a domestic battery charge.  He was beaten and repeatedly shocked with a stun gun by North Chicago police. In police recordings from the scene, an anguished Hanna can be heard pleading, “Put me down, please, I was down,” while an officer tells him, “You are OK ... relax.” Advocates have said the recordings show Hanna was cooperative, still conscious and understandable after being arrested, though he was barely conscious and unintelligible by the time he was carried out of his apartment on a stretcher.

Both unofficial and official autopsy reports showed that physical and Taser “restraint” contributed to Hanna’s death, which caused an outcry that sparked rallies and protests. Hanna’s survivors  filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against the city and its police department on December 13, 2011.