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Vol. 81/No. 14 April 10, 2017
New charges filed against Chicago cop who killed youth
BY BETSY FARLEY
CHICAGO — Chicago cop Jason Van Dyke was indicted on 16 new criminal
charges March 23, on top of six counts of first-degree murder he already
faces, for the 2014 killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. A grand jury
brought the new charges of aggravated battery with a firearm for each of
the 16 shots he fired.
The court-ordered release of the police dashcam video of the shooting 14
months after it happened prompted sustained protests demanding justice
and condemning both the cops and city administration for the cover-up.
The video clearly showed McDonald walking away from police as Van Dyke
shot him, including 14 times after the young man was already on the
ground. The video contradicts the accounts of Van Dyke and other cops at
the scene, who claimed McDonald lunged at them.
The protests led to the firing of then Police Superintendent Garry
McCarthy, as Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel moved to contain political
damage caused by the shooting and the cover-up.
In January, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a scathing report on
the Chicago Police Department, following a yearlong investigation begun
after the killing of McDonald. “Among the most egregious uses of deadly
force,” the report said, “were incidents in which CPD officers shot at
suspects who presented no immediate threat.”
Last August the Chicago Tribune released CPD statistics showing that in
435 police shootings from 2010 to 2015 cops killed 92 people and wounded
another 170. Some four out of every five persons shot by cops were
African-American males.
“People need to be in that courtroom, all the families, and keep the
pressure on until the killer of Laquan McDonald is behind bars,” Arewa
Karen Winters, a member of Justice for Families, told the Militant March
26. Winters is the great aunt of 16-year-old Pierre Loury, who was shot
and killed by cops here last April.
“We need to set a precedent and not just for Chicago,” she said. “Van
Dyke should be convicted and sent to jail like the criminal he is. We
don’t want to see this happen to other young people.”
Related articles:
200 protest cop killings, brutality in Bakersfield
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