There is absolutely nothing that makes sense about the Laquan McDonald shooting, from the number of bullets fired into his body to the year-long investigation that resulted in charges of murder being filed against the Chicago police officer allegedly responsible for his death.
By now almost everyone has seen the police dash-cam video of McDonald heading down the middle of the street, away from the police officer who eventually sent bullets into each side of his chest, into his scalp and neck, into his back twice, into his arms seven times, in his right hand and in his right leg twice. According to numerous reports, prosecutors said police officer Jason Van Dyke was attempting to reload when his partner stopped him.
Police officers had followed McDonald up Pulaski Road and called for assistance. More police squad cars arrived on the scene. The 17-year-old McDonald seemed to have been surrounded, yet apparently refused to heed calls for him to stop. He was carrying a knife. But the video shows that, contrary to early claims, he never lunged at the police officer who shot him and didn’t even raise his hand.
Despite an army of witnesses, including law enforcement officers, it took more than a year for the Cook County state’s attorney to file charges in the case.
Despite the overwhelming evidence that McDonald posed no immediate threat to the Chicago police, no one in an official capacity disputed the story that he had tried to attack the police officer who shot him.
Civilian eyewitnesses to the incident claim that instead of interviewing them, Chicago police on the scene urged them to leave the area.
Managers at a nearby Burger King, which had video cameras near the scene, contend that after police investigators took possession of the equipment a gap of about an hour was found in the video evidence.
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Police radio accounts from the night reveal that some of the police officers on the scene were calling for patrol cars equipped with Tasers. Does that mean not every Chicago patrol car is equipped with a Taser, providing an alternative to deadly force? Does it mean, as one source told me, that not all Chicago police officers are trained in the use of Tasers? I posed those questions to Chicago Police Department news affairs on Monday, but did not receive a response.
What we do know is that McDonald’s family agreed to a $5 million settlement with the City of Chicago.
We know that Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez did not bring charges against Van Dyke until a judge ordered the city to release the videotape of the shooting and the city was faced with massive protest demonstrations.
And we know that Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s words condemning the “hideous” nature of the violence ring hollow in light of his efforts to prevent a court from releasing the police videotape of the shooting.
I have spent years, it seems, watching Police Supt. McCarthy at news conferences lamenting the lack of cooperation by civilians, which he claims has hindered law enforcement’s efforts to curtail the gun violence on city streets. Well, his witnesses this time were men in blue and it took 13 months to charge the shooter. If police were cooperating, McCarthy, Emanuel and Alvarez have done them an injustice by waiting for more than a year to charge any crime. If the code of silence prevailed, which is certainly the public perception now, I have yet to hear McCarthy express any outrage.
Before the release of the dash-cam video, Emanuel spoke with black ministers about the need to keep control of protest demonstrations that might erupt in its wake. Indeed, the demonstrations in Chicago so far have not resembled anything like those the nation witnessed in Ferguson, Missouri following a controversial police shooting there. Emanuel may deserve some credit for that, but the people who organized those protests and the people who participated are the ones ultimately responsible for their peaceful nature.
That does not mean their anger and frustration should be ignored. Political leaders in Chicago should not believe they can put this matter behind them, or pat themselves on the back, because there have been no scenes of burning cars or buildings for national news organizations to highlight each night.
From the theft of millions of dollars in public school funds by the mayor’s public schools chief, to the closing of public schools, to Chicago’s financial free fall, there is a line to be traced to the death on the streets of a 17-year-old at the hands of a police officer who within seconds decided to repeatedly fire his weapon.
There is a failure here of an entire system that needs to be condemned, examined, and rebuilt to restore public confidence in institutions that have completely failed the public.
McDonald was a product of that system, in foster care and out, through the public schools, and onto the city streets where, with PCP in his system and a folding knife in his hand, he was seen burglarizing cars and eventually shot down like a dog.
No one today would suggest that he deserved to die in such a manner, but if he had not encountered Van Dyke on that night, where was McDonald headed?
The question is rhetorical, intended only to suggest that perhaps someone ought to start thinking seriously about the thousands of teenagers who are lost to Chicago’s streets each year. These are children without families to guide them, or whose parents are on drugs or imprisoned, children who rely on the system more than most of us to protect them, educate them and turn them away from self-destruction and onto a road that will lead to, well, someplace other than a chalk outline on a city street.
The bodies have been piling up in Chicago for far too long. The protests always focus on the fallen, but the walking dead outnumber them 10,000 to 1. At least, for a few weeks or months, people will take note of Laquan McDonald’s life and death. The system, the same system that showed no mercy to a 17-year-old, will deal with the rest.
You can wonder, watching the dash-cam video, what McDonald was thinking in the seconds before he was shot. Surrounded by patrol cars and policemen, it appears as though he really believed he could somehow escape just by walking away. He does not attack anyone. He does not throw up his hands in surrender. In the end, a police officer walks over and kicks the knife away from his hand as McDonald bleeds on the street.
I would be surprised if he ever called out for help. He likely knew long ago that no one was coming to his rescue.