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I guess I'm the only one disgusted that the kid's "family" got a 5 million dollar payout. He was a ward of the state and had JUST been taken in by a family member. Lined up for the payday, but where were they when he needed someone?
 
The video doesn't look good but if he was within 20 feet of a cop with that knife it might be justifiable. The blade my have been only 3 inches long but it's still a weapon.
 
laquan6n-4-web.jpg

The Chicago cops who watched their fellow officer shoot a black teenager 16 times filed reports claiming the 17-year-old was killed only after he swung at cops — accounts that starkly contrast with the dash cam footage that showed the teen running away from, not toward, cops.

Late Friday, the city released the police reports filed after the October 2014 killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. In their notes, the cops said Officer Jason Van Dyke — who has since been charged with first-degree murder — was under attack and feared for his life when he opened fire.

“In defense of his life, Van Dyke backpedaled and fired his handgun at McDonald, to stop the attack,” one report read. “McDonald fell to the ground but continued to move and continued to grasp the knife, refusing to let go of it.”

One report stated that McDonald pointed his knife at Van Dyke and charged at the cop. The accused cop even told an investigator that McDonald was “swinging the knife in an aggressive, exaggerated manner.”

Those reports prompted police supervisors at the time to rule at the time that McDonald's death was a justifiable homicide and within the bounds of the department's use of force guidelines. It's not clear who wrote some of the police reports.

But chilling video from an officer’s dash cam, released just last month under a court order, told a different story.

The footage showed the teen veering away from officers when Van Dyke opened fire from close range and continued shooting after the teen had crumpled to the ground and was barely moving.

Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder only hours before the department released the video. City officials fought in court for months to keep the video out of the public’s eye, before deciding in November not to fight a judge's order.

The release of the reports Friday comes amid mounting questions about the Chicago Police Department's handling of the incident. Activists claim police and city officials tried to cover up the killing, refusing to release video for months.

The U.S. attorney's office is investigating the issue, and a number of officials have called for a broader intervention by the U.S. Justice Department.

Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement late Friday that the city's Independent Police Review Authority — not the Police Department — conducts all investigations of officer-involved shootings and that the agency was given the case report and videos. The authority, which did not return a message left Friday, has not released its report on the McDonald shooting.

"If the criminal investigation concludes that any officer participated in any wrongdoing, we will take swift action," Guglielmi said in an emailed statement.

The release of the footage, which doesn't have sound, triggered protests and calls for public officials to resign, including Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has called for an overall federal investigation of police department practices, which Democratic presidential candidates and local Illinois politicians have echoed. Emanuel also announced the expansion a body camera program and formed a task force.

Chicago authorities have not been able to explain why the footage released to the public, including from other squad cars on scene, doesn't have audio when department technologies allow for it. Acting Superintendent John Escalante said Friday he issued a reminder to all officers to check that equipment works each time they get into police cars.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...ons-teen-killing-odds-video-article-1.2456213
 
The trial of three Chicago police officers charged with lying to protect a fellow officer who was convicted of second-degree murder after he fired 16 shots into a black teenager has begun.

Laquan McDonald, 17, was shot dead by Jason Van Dyke despite being contained by other officers and one with a taser being 25 seconds away in Chicago in October 2014.

Shocking dash-cam footage of the incident shows the teenager twitching on the road as McDonald continues to blast shots into his body.

Former officers Joseph Walsh and David March and Officer Thomas Gaffney 'violated the public trust' when they 'began to fashion a story (and) create lies that were designed to help (Jason) Van Dyke avoid the consequences of his actions,' Special Prosecutor Patricia Brown Holmes said during opening statements yesterday.

The case marks what is believed to be the first time in Chicago history police have faced criminal charges for trying to cover up the actions of a fellow officer in an on-duty shooting.

Defense attorneys, however, dismissed any suggestion that their clients created a cover story to help Van Dyke.

The defense also took a tack that proved unsuccessful for Van Dyke's attorneys in the trial that ended with a conviction on second-degree murder and aggravated battery charges. They pinned the blame for McDonald's death on the shoulders of the teen who was shot 16 times.

The three men are on trial for felony charges of obstruction of justice, official misconduct and conspiracy.

March and Walsh are no longer with the department, while Gaffney has been suspended.

The bench trial, in which a judge and not a jury will decide the defendants' guilt or innocence, is expected to last about a week.

Van Dyke has yet to be sentenced for the murder of McDonald but faces between four and twenty years behind bars.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...officer-murdered-black-teenager-16-shots.html
 
Three Chicago police officers have been acquitted of trying to cover up the 2014 police shooting of Laquan McDonald to protect the white officer seen pulling the trigger on dashcam video that showed the black teen getting hit with 16 bullets.

Officers Joseph Walsh and Thomas Gaffney, as well as detective David March, were all accused of conspiracy, official misconduct, and obstruction of justice.

Prosecutors alleged that the three men had coordinated their stories and filed false police reports after McDonald was shot in October 2014.

In rejecting the prosecution's entire case, Judge Domenica Stephenson seemed to accept many of the same defense arguments that were rejected by jurors who convicted officer Jason Van Dyke.

Stephenson repeatedly said in her ruling on Thursday that McDonald continued moving and holding a knife after being knocked to the ground by Van Dyke's initial shots, suggesting he could have still been seen as a threat.

The judge said there was no indication that officers tried to hide evidence.

'The evidence shows just the opposite,' said Stephenson, who singled out how they preserved the graphic video at the heart of the case.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...-issue-verdict-Chicago-police-cover-case.html
 
Thank Allah there has been SOME measure of justice and fairness in this ordeal. NONE of these officers deserved to be charged. Totally political from the getgo, makes me sick the one cop was persecuted(and i didnt mean to spell prosecuted there, this was a fucking witchhunt for sure).
 
Jason Van Dyke, the former Chicago police officer convicted of fatally shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in 2014, was sentenced to six years in prison on Friday.

At his sentencing hearing he was given 81 months behind bars - equal to six years and nine months - and two years supervised mandatory release.

It was somewhat a victorious day after a long history of white law enforcement officers in wrongful death cases involving black men in the United States.

His earlier conviction was a move forward where others had not been convicted, but the murdered boy's family and community activists were unsatisfied with the judge's focus on the second-degree murder charge, which carried a lesser punishment.

'I assume 100 percent of people will be disappointed,' Judge Vincent Gaughan said.

With good behavior Van Dyke, 40, could be released in three years due to the second-degree nature of the charge. He has already served three months of his sentence so could be 43 when he's free again.

Laquan's great-uncle Marvin Hunter said it was the sentence for a 'second-class citizen'.

'That’s a slap in the face, to us, and a slap on the wrist to him,' activist William Calloway said.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...hooting-death-black-teen-Laquan-McDonald.html
 
The grandmother of Laquan McDonald is blasting the looming release of ex-Chicago cop Jason Van Dyke, who is set to walk free next month after serving less than half of his prison sentence for murdering the black teen in 2014.

Van Dyke, who is white, was sentenced to 81 months in prison in January 2019 after being convicted of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated assault — or one for every shot he fired into McDonald as he held a knife about 10 feet away.

But due to good behavior while locked up, Van Dyke, 43, was eligible to have his six-year sentence slashed in half and is expected to be released on Feb. 3, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Tracie Hunter, the late 17-year-old’s grandmother, demanded federal charges be filed against Van Dyke during a news conference Thursday while denouncing his prison term as a “slap on the wrist.”

“I just want justice, the right justice,” Hunter said. “I’m not going to rest or be satisfied until this man does his rightful time.”

Congresswoman Robin Kelly, a Democrat from Illinois, compared the high-profile police killing of Laquan to that of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020. Ex-cop Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22 ½ years in prison for Floyd’s slaying the following June.

“The same charges against [Van Dyke] are the same charges of the man who killed George Floyd,” Kelly said. “He got 22 years — still not enough — but 22 years compared to six years? There’s something terribly wrong with that, that is not justice.”

Rev. Michael Pfleger called on all city residents to voice their opposition to Van Dyke’s release.

“This is not a black issue,” Pfleger said. “Everyone who believes in justice should be shouting and screaming that Jason Van Dyke should not be getting out of jail.”

Van Dyke is set to be sprung after serving three years, three months and nine days behind bars, the Chicago Sun-Times reported earlier this month.
 

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