The Chicago Police Department directive on dashboard cameras says they “automatically engage audio and video recording when the vehicle’s emergency-roof lights are activated”. Overnight, demonstrators shut down traffic and confronted police, chanting in protest, though doing so orderly and peacefully.
Advertisement
Herbert said Van Dyke feared for his life when he fired at McDonald and that the case should be tried in the courtroom, not in social media or on city streets.
“That takes the scab off a deeper sore, a deeper cancer”, he said.
“The Laquan McDonald shooting is a terrible example of what appears to be a police murder”, said Paul Strauss, codirector of litigation at Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
His body then spins and strikes the pavement. Then McDonald can be seen lying on the ground, moving occasionally. And that’s exactly why she says she’s out protesting. Van Dyke was arrested Tuesday and charged with murder.
“The video clearly shows Laquan walking away and he was not threatening anybody and he certainly didn’t lunge at the police officer”.
At the brief court hearing, Cook County Circuit Court Associate Judge Donald Panarese scheduled a second hearing for Monday where he said he wanted to view the video in court and reconsider bail for Van Dyke based on its content. Prosecutor Bill Delaney told the judge that witnesses and the video concur that McDonald was not moving toward Van Dyke.
People gathered on the streets of Chicago Tuesday after the city released an initial video related to the incident.
Alvarez said she had planned to wait until a federal investigation was complete but made a decision to press charges against Van Dyke prior to the video’s release “in the interest of public safety”.
What continues to roil the black community is how police and Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez waited 400 days to release the tape, well after last spring’s election in which Mayor Emanuel faced stiff competition and had to undergo the first-ever runoff election in the city’s history, an eyebrow-raising moment for an incumbent in a city renowned for its “machine”-like politics”. “We have been attacked by complicity, patronage and discrimination in our city’s system”.
At the same news conference, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said police would “facilitate” protests but would not tolerate criminal behaviour.
McDonald’s family joined community leaders and city officials in appealing for calm.
The broadcaster said authorities did not say how many arrests were made, but newspaper USA Today said two protesters had been detained as of 10:30 pm Wednesday (0430 GMT Thursday). Don’t resort to violence in Laquan’s name.
Laquan’s parents were awarded a $5 million settlement from the City of Chicago for his murder.
Five people were wounded, but none seriously. After the meeting, about 100 protesters marched about a half-mile to Chicago police headquarters. Among them was the typically swamped Apple store, where dozens of employees in red shirts stood in an otherwise empty two-story space and watched through store windows as protesters linked arms to stop anyone from entering.
A number of police killings of black men over the past year have given rise to the nationwide “Black Lives Matter” movement, pushing the issue to prominence in the midst of the 2016 presidential campaign. Investigators say that the teen never threatened the officers, never moved toward them at any time, but away from them.
Advertisement
His brother Eddie Sutton thanked demonstrators for their vigilance but asked them to suspend their protests, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “We are all human, we all have families, we all have love and heart”.
