Intro: The Facts

On the night of Oct. 20, 2014, 17-year-old, Laquan McDonald—who was armed with a knife—was shot 16 times by Chicago Police Department [CPD] officer Jason Van Dyke from approximately 10 feet away. The shooting was captured by a police cruiser’s dashboard camera; however, the video of the shooting was not released until 13 months after the incident had occurred.

McDonald was walking away from the police after having been caught breaking into vehicles in a trucking yard. McDonald was a student at Sullivan House High School and did not hold an adult criminal record with the state, but he was arrested multiple times as a juvenile.

The McDonald family was paid $5 million dollars on April 15, 2015, in a settlement reached by the Chicago City Council before the family had even filed for a wrongful death lawsuit.

After the video was released on Nov. 24, 2015 through a Freedom of Information Act request, Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder. He was released from custody after posting bail on Nov. 30. Prior to the video’s release the most that Van Dyke had been reprimanded for his actions was when he was stripped of his “police powers” by former police superintendent Garry McCarthy.

On Dec. 16, Van Dyke was indicted by a grand jury on six counts of first-degree murder and one count of official misconduct and on Dec. 29 he pleaded not guilty to all charges.

To protest or not to protest

Following the video release of McDonald’s slaying, protestors took to the streets of Chicago to express their outrage over the delay of the video’s release, the alleged police cover-up and the lack of accountability taken by the city of Chicago’s top officials in handling the tragedy.

We believe that protests that took place in November and December were warranted given the shocking nature of McDonald’s death. However, we also understand that the protests caused an inconvenience for Black Friday shoppers on Nov. 27 as proponents of the Black Lives Matter movement caused several stores on Michigan Avenue to close their doors.

The fact of the matter is that there simply is no other way in which to garner the attention of public on national or even city-wide level without bringing the issues of racism and police to the forefront of people’s minds—even if that means disrupting the flow of Black Friday shopping.

It’s sad that has taken protestors’ chants of “16 shots” echoing throughout the city for people to begin discussing racism and the role it plays in police brutality. And the truth is we need the protestors as much as they need our attention.

It is easy to hear about the death of Michael Brown and the Ferguson protests or Freddie Gray’s death and the subsequent riots in Baltimore, but this time tragedy has struck our hometown.

The onus is on us to change the conversation and stop this heinous, murderous act from ever occurring again. We need to listen to what the protestors are saying, acknowledge that there is an inherent flaw in our police system and then take action. We urge everyone who is 18 and older to vote for Cook County officials who will commit to ending police brutality.

This is not an issue of white privilege vs. impoverished minorities. This is an issue of injustice that demands to be noticed, addressed and rectified. The process of healing and positive step forward begins with us. We need take to the streets of Chicago and support our fellow citizens.

McDonald was certainly no saint, nor was he abiding by the law on Oct. 24. while brandishing a knife with PCP in his system. But he did not deserve the fate he met, and it is up to us as the future of this city and this country to change this corrupt system.

To serve and protect?

The number one question raised following the video release of the McDonald shooting was: did the CPD attempt to cover up Van Dyke’s first-degree murder of a teenage boy?

Van Dyke had a history of using excessive force and had received more than 20 separate citizen complaints. Despite this, Van Dyke was never received as much as a slap on the wrist in terms of any disciplinary action from his superiors in the CPD with regards to these prior grievances. This inaction is ridiculous and highly suspect of the police department. The lack of oversight in Van Dyke’s ill-famed record as a police officer speaks to a larger problem within the department.

The dash-cam video that captured the homicide does not contain any audio despite the requirement from the CPD that all videos must record audio. There are five known videos of the shooting, however only one video has been made public.

In addition to the “mysterious” technical audio failure, 86 minutes of footage from a nearby Burger King were reported missing after the manager informed the Independent Policy Review Authority [IPRA] agents that five police officers had come into the restaurant chain the evening of Oct. 24. to review the tapes.

The primary reason that both the dash-cam videos and Burger King footage went “missing,” however, is due to the fact that all recordings of the shooting completely contrast the CPD’s initial police report from Oct. 24.

The original police report claimed that McDonald “lunged” at Van Dyke and that Van Dyke feared for his life—triggering his explosive response. On top of that, the first report neglected to mention how many times McDonald was shot and maintained that McDonald actively moved to harm Van Dyke, which is utterly false upon reviewing the video.

The cover-up extended far beyond wiping surveillance videos and falsifying police reports; the CPD also took to interrogating witnesses at the scene.

According to the attorneys of McDonald’s estate, there were three witnesses to the shooting who were interviewed by police officers for six hours and intimidated/coerced into matching their accounts with the official Chicago police version of the night’s events. These allegations were made following the release of over 3,000 documents related to the case.

The question still remains—did the CPD cover-up McDonald’s death as a “justifiable homicide” in order to protect Van Dyke and the police department’s image?

We believe that there are larger forces at play in the McDonald case. While the CPD as a whole does the best it can to serve and protect Chicagoans throughout the city, but this unwarranted and totally avoidable murder scourges the city and CPD’s reputation.

We may never know the true story behind who ordered which police report to be issued or who allowed Van Dyke to go unpunished for so long, but we do know that this tragedy is not limited to the CPD or the city of Chicago.

However, we also recognize that this type of behavior is not typical nor condoned by the majority, if not almost all, of precincts within the city. This problem is not relegated to the CPD or any one entity. It is up to all of us: citizens, police officers and political figures to call out one another to prevent this monstrous injustice from ever taking place in the future.

Rahm’s responsibility

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s response to the tragedy of McDonald’s death has come too little too late. No amount of op-eds in the Chicago Tribune or creation of an independent task force to review the CPD can change the fact that the shooting took place four months prior to Emanuel’s mayoral reelection race in February of 2015.

Emanuel did not even win the majority of the vote in February, regardless of the public’s knowledge of the shooting. After he was forced into a run-off election against Jesús “Chuy” Garcia he still barely won by four per cent. If Emanuel had released the video at that time of the shooting, it most certainly could have factored into an unfavorable outcome for his campaign.

The mayor claims he never saw the video, and if that is the case, then what kind of naïve and detached leader are we allowing to run the show? No, Emanuel’s denial is a cop-out and a lame one at that—the mayor most likely knew full well the contents of that video and that is why the city of Chicago fought so hard to keep it from being made public. The city went so far as to reject 15 requests for its release, according to a CNN article.

As Emanuel claimed in his Chicago Tribune op-ed, “At the end of the day, I am the mayor and I own it. I take responsibility for what happened and I will fix it.” Unfortunately for the mayor, words, no matter how cleverly crafted, are just that. It will take actions to make a real difference.

On Dec. 9, State Representative De Shawn Ford (D-8) filed House Bill 4356 in Springfield which would provide the capacity to recall the Mayor of Chicago. Hopefully Emanuel’s words will still be ringing in the ears of legislators as the bill enters the floor.

Wrap-up:

Laquan McDonald’s tragic death is a weight that should rest on all Chicagoans’ shoulders. It is our responsibility as citizens, police officers and elected officials to collaborate with one another to quell protests, brutality and corruption.