Back in October of 2014, Laquon McDonald was shot 16 times by Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke. There was a fairly hasty $5 million settlement, approved by the city council even before the family filed suit.
I took the title of this diary from a column by John Kass in yesterday’s Chicago Tribune. John Kass is normally a friend of police officers, and not a columnist with whom I normally agree, but he writes directly and clearly about this case.
The judge is set to rule next week on a FOI request for the release of the dashcam video. The mayor and the city are against it, claiming it will be released at the appropriate time, but releasing it right now would compromise the ongoing investigation. The officer is currently on paid desk duty.
Kass writes:
“One man who said he has talked to federal authorities told me on Tuesday he'd been driving his son to the hospital and saw it all. The police union version was that McDonald "lunged" at the officer. The witness's account differs markedly.
"I was there, I saw it," he said. "He (McDonald) wasn't attacking anybody. He was looking for a way out. He was just trying to turn away. The kid turned away, was dropped at the first shot or two, and the police kept shooting and shooting. You could see his body moving.
"It freaked me out. It freaked my son out."
Mr. McDonald had reportedly been slashing tires with a small knife. Initial police reports stated that he lunged at the office with the knife. This is contradicted by witness reports and by the video. Kass says:
“Reading or hearing about 16 shots pumped into the body of a young man isn't the same thing as seeing it.
If the video is released, many won't care about the drugs or the knife. Here's what will be seared on the American mind: the black body flinching with bullet after bullet from a white cop's gun.
I have not seen the video. "It's worse than anything that's come out this summer on police cases anywhere," said a source who has seen it. "He starts walking away from the officers. The first shot, he spins and falls to the ground. Then the officer continues to shoot, and intermittently, you see the body twitching and jerking from the rounds."
You can read the rest @
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/11/12/1449255/--The-Video-That-Might-Rip-Chicago-Apart-And-Why-You-Need-To-See-It
You can find the original article by John Kass here [you might have to register to read it]:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kass/ct-police-shooting-video-kass-met-1111-20151110-column.html
Considering both this and what has been going on at Homan Square, one needs to ask why the FBI and Justice (sic) Department have not stepped in and made some arrests? One possible answer is that Obama ad-Dajjal is in cahoots with his buddy Mayor Emanuel and doesn't want to rock his boat.
Here's what I think - show the video and LET IT rip Chicago apart. Light a fire under Emanuel's feet and start putting some Chicago cops in jail.
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