The video was released after a court judge decided in favor of a freelance journalist who sued the Chicago Police Department, demanding that the video be released to the public. The officer, 37-year-old Jason Van Dyke, was charged with first-degree murder Tuesday.
Advertisement
The protesters chanted “Stop the cover up, 16 shots”, as they marched along Michigan Avenue. The police union is also paying the lawyer representing the cop. It was the police who maintained a code of silence despite at least seven other officers who witnessed the shooting at close range.
The video has drawn nationwide attention to the 17-year-old’s October 2014 death, and the march Friday along the Magnificent Mile on a cold, wet day was the most prominent demonstration by those critical of the incident and Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s response to it. The police chief knew, the mayor knew. McDonald, who authorities allege was carrying a three-inch knife and was suspected of breaking into cars, spins around and falls to the pavement as Van Dyke keeps shooting. Police kept their distance from the protesters and blocked traffic from entering Michigan Avenue. The charges were announced ahead of the anticipated release of the dash-cam video showing the shooting.
The Chicago Sun-Times’ initial reports had Laquan McDonald as a threat to the safety of the police officers on the scene.
As of now, Van Dyke is in jail and is being held with no bond for the Chicago teen shooting.
The recording – a key piece of evidence released Tuesday as a first-degree murder charge was filed against Van Dyke – is the latest in a catalog of videos that has put police use-of-force under intense scrutiny across the U.S. In the past 18 months, surveillance feeds and cellphone recordings have led to protests and criminal charges after officers used force against civilians in New York City, Los Angeles, Cleveland and SC, among other places.
Alvarez said the reason it took so long is because investigations into police shootings and misconduct are “massive and labor intensive” and can take up to 20 months.
Protestors and Chicago city council’s black caucus calling for Chicago police superintendent Garry McCarthy to resign. He says despite people screaming in their faces, getting hit with spittle and thrown objects, officers are acting in a professional manner. Lights flash and from a first-person perspective we drive the streets of southwest Chicago; a siren whines at low volume.
Several thousand protesters toting signs and yelling slogans began their march before noon on Black Friday and marched northward, the length of Chicago’s lucrative Michigan Avenue shopping district. “I have my concerns, not only for myself but for the people I love who are in the city”, protester Erwin Ford said. He was one of 70 people killed by Chicago police from 2010 to 2014 – the most of any United States city, though the Midwestern metropolis has only about one-third as many people as NY and 1.2 million fewer than Los Angeles.
Advertisement
“The officer in this case took a young man’s life, and he’s going to have to account for his actions”, the Tribune quotes McCarthy’s statement during the press briefing. And they have asked why Van Dyke continued to collect a paycheck for more than a year after he shot McDonald near 41st Street and Pulaski Road.
