Politics & Government
5 Perspectives on '16 Shots: The Death of Laquan McDonald'
A ward of the state, shot dead on a Chicago street. A teen who loved his teachers. A mayor who won't lead. Questions no one will answer.
One day after first-degree murder charges were brought against a Chicago Police officer, Jason Van Dyke, for shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald to death, many questions have been asked and few answered.
Here are five valuable perspectives worth reading.
Laquan McDonald, who died at the age of 17 when a Chicago Police officer fired 16 bullets into his body, didn’t catch a lot of breaks as a kid. Neglected by his mother, DCFS took him in as a ward of the state when he was 3. As a boy, a friend of his mom beat him. He did two stints in foster care before his grandmother became his legal guardian.
He enjoyed school, showed up early and got pretty good grades. “He would come up every morning and hug me, and he would do that with a lot of teachers,” Ashley Beverly, one of his teachers, told Annie Sweeney, reporting for the Chicago Tribune.
And he was funny.
WILL RAHM EMANUEL LEAD?
Before releasing the police dashboard camera video recording to the public, Mayor Rahm Emanuel staged a press conference and uttered vague platitudes: “All of us will be judged by our actions and I call on all of us to look inside ourselves and see this moment as a potential to do something that we have talked about and discussed, but for reasons have not actually endeavored to journey on.”
DNAinfo Chicago columnist Mark Konkol, however, had questions. A lot of questions.
“It was as if Emanuel’s administration called reporters together to hear a divine and indisputable passage from the Gospel according to Rahm,” writes Konkol. “I had no idea what that was supposed to mean.
“So I asked the mayor if his speech was a pledge to strengthen his administration’s commitment to rebuild the poverty-stricken neighborhoods plagued by gun violence and free people from the fear that holds entire communities captive.
“Emanuel, as he is wont to do, didn’t really answer the question ...”
WHERE IS THE JUSTICE?
For a year, the police dashboard camera video was kept from public scrutiny. Journalist Brandon Smith and his lawyer deserve the credit for prying the video loose, enabling the world to see how Laquan McDonald died.
“The lack of sound, and the cold way the officers moved and behaved, made a horrifying act seem almost mundane,” writes Brandon Smith in The Guardian. “The tape shows Jason Van Dyke, the officer now charged with Laquan’s murder, leaving his police car. A few short seconds elapse with Van Dyke’s gun drawn and, before Laquan has a chance to say anything, the teen falls to the ground. That’s it. To the world, Laquan died quietly. Officers stand around, not helping the boy, seemingly securing the scene from an invisible threat. ...
“Mayor Rahm Emanuel keeps implying that this incident is a one-off situation. But that’s wrong. And Emanuel hasn’t mentioned that others acted improperly that night, too.”
WHERE IS THE ACCOUNTABILITY?
Before a lawsuit was even filed, the mayor offered $5 million to Laquan McDonald’s family. Because what’s wrong is so obvious. Then he spent a lot more money trying to keep the public from seeing this video. Because, again, what’s wrong is so obvious.
“There may be efforts to make Laquan McDonald, 17 and with PCP in his system, into some kind of icon as the protesters begin to make noise. It’s part of the script that has been used before. I won’t do that,” writes columnist John Kass in the Tribune. “But I will tell you this. He was a troubled young man who didn’t deserve what happened to him. And he didn’t deserve what the cop took from him, which was everything.
“If you see the video, and if you’re honest with yourself, this isn’t self-defense.”
QUESTIONS FOR OUR NATION?
Hillary Clinton is the first presidential candidate to express an opinion on the Laquan McDonald shooting.
“The family of Laquan McDonald and the people of Chicago deserve justice and accountability. As criminal charges proceed in this case, we also have to grapple as a country with broader questions about ensuring that all our citizens and communities are protected and respected. The mothers I met recently in Chicago are right: we cannot go on like this,” she said.
» read more in Hillary Clinton Says Laquan McDonald’s Family ‘Deserves Justice’ (DNAinfo Chicago)
Also on Patch
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.