Posted on 11/12/2015 1:07:14 PM PST by Kaslin
There is a video that could tear Chicago apart.
It will go viral if released, and the world will see something ugly and frightening on the Southwest Side.
It comes from a police dashboard camera. City Hall worries that political hell may be on the way. Activists are primed. The politics of race and police use of force are at hand.
And a court hearing is scheduled for next week on whether it should be released to the public.
All this is going on just below the surface. All the players know what's at stake, so I thought you should know about it, too.
The video, without sound, is said to show Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old African-American reportedly with PCP in his system, holding a small knife. He was shot to death by a white Chicago police officer, Jason Van Dyke, on the night of Oct. 20, 2014, at 41st and Pulaski on the Southwest Side.
City officials said police, responding to a call of a man slashing tires, followed McDonald carefully and calmly as he wandered. They called for backup and Tasers. Then McDonald walked out onto Pulaski Road.
Only one cop opened fire, shooting 16 times in all, and the video is said to show the rounds hitting McDonald in the back, the legs, arms, neck and head, the bullets making the body jump again and again.
On Nov. 19, Cook County Judge Franklin Valderrama is expected to rule whether the video should be released.
The FBI is investigating. Officer Van Dyke, who has not been charged with any crime, has been stripped of his police powers and has been reassigned to desk duty.
Attorney Jeff Neslund, a former prosecutor, helped quickly secure a $5 million settlement from the city for McDonald's family. I figure Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel did not want the video shaping his mayoral-runoff election campaign.
"It shocks the conscience," Neslund told me. "The video was disturbing. It was described accurately by one of the witnesses as an execution. He was on the ground, and the police officer kept shooting."
One man who said he has talked to federal authorities told me on Tuesday he'd been driving his son to the hospital and saw it all. The police union version was that McDonald "lunged" at the officer. The witness's account differs markedly.
"I was there, I saw it," he said. "He (McDonald) wasn't attacking anybody. He was looking for a way out. He was just trying to turn away. The kid turned away, was dropped at the first shot or two, and the police kept shooting and shooting. You could see his body moving.
"It freaked me out. It freaked my son out."
Reading or hearing about 16 shots pumped into the body of a young man isn't the same thing as seeing it.
If the video is released, many won't care about the drugs or the knife. Here's what will be seared on the American mind: the black body flinching with bullet after bullet from a white cop's gun.
I have not seen the video. "It's worse than anything that's come out this summer on police cases anywhere," said a source who has seen it. "He starts walking away from the officers. The first shot, he spins and falls to the ground. Then the officer continues to shoot, and intermittently, you see the body twitching and jerking from the rounds."
The Emanuel administration continues to fight the release of the video.
"Ensuring our officers are accountable for their actions is critical to building trust between residents and the Police Department," said the mayor's press secretary, Kelley Quinn. "There are federal and state criminal investigations into this specific incident, and we have to respect that process. So their work isn't compromised, we cannot comment on the case specifically, and we are following common practice in not releasing the evidence of an ongoing investigation."
Chicago Ald. Danny Solis, 25th, understands this city of tribes. He voted for the settlement and warned against the video's release.
"My position is, if it doesn't serve a purpose to help heal, or make things better for our people, I suggest caution," Solis said. "If it's not going to help this most American of American cities, then let's be very, very careful what we do."
After the city settled with the family, freelance journalist Brandon Smith filed a Freedom of Information request with Chicago police for the dash-cam video.
Usually, investigators request that evidence, like the video, be withheld pending the completion of the case. But no such affidavits have been filed in the case as yet, and Smith's attorneys expect a ruling next week.
"The video should be released," the witness told me. "The people have to see what actually happened. I watched the news. Everything they said about how (McDonald) 'lunged' didn't happen. He (the officer) just emptied his gun into him."
Keeping the video secret serves the politics of City Hall. Releasing it serves the interests of activists and police critics who will make McDonald a martyr, and perhaps fashion him into a political club to hammer police and the mayor.
But the people deserve to see what happened. And once they see it, then the people can decide what to do about it. It's their city.
Well, that sucks.
On Fridays and Saturday sometimes at night I listen to the Chicago Police dispatcher on an internet scanner. It’s a war zone. Sickening.
Possibly. My guess is it will get out.
If O still has his puppet strings on Rahm, that is.
Besides, more agitation is their goal. (I’m not picking a side with that, just saying if it could cause more rioting, I think they’d do it).
The video will be released, so as to drive blacks to the polls in 2016. And that will be the only reason it is released.
That Chicago and other major cities will burn, is worth the votes, in the calculations of the rats.
My basic litmus, what would the star do to me, if I did what the cop did?
They would fry me.
Kid enters store, pulse knife, I shoot and kid falls to floor on 2nd shot. I then shoot 14 more times into his body.
Yea, they’d fry me.
I’m not conspiracy-minded or paranoid but I’m beginning to wonder.
Shooting someone sixteen times is not doing your job. It’s an absurd act of sheer violence.
-—==+==-—
PCP
Yep
GTH U SOB M I!
There, fixed.
Defusing will happen if wanted. The time is not right. When will they need it?
Please refer to my tagline.
Re: Rahm on Obama’s puppet strings:
Several weeks ago a WaPo reporter got into a closed meeting with various levels of law enforcement and big city officials on the post-Ferguson/Youtube-era depolicing trend.
Rahm sounded scared, from the comments attributed to him. He KNOWS he’s sitting on top of a power keg with a lit fuse. And he can’t count on his own police force to roll over and take hits for him.
Interesting......
I think it undermines Rahm to have not prosecuted the cop.
I’m not trying protect him, as I think he should go, but we can do without the civil unrest that would result from the video getting out.
True. I’d like to see counter protester to tthis false narrative show up with signs bearing pictures of Whites murdered by blacks, much more than an everyday occurence.
Geez. I’m thinking of my .45 which has 7 rounds in it. My mistake.
You are correct if you leave Calif out of America.
Which might help us all.
Also the Peoples Republic of Maryland. ..
In general, I agree. There would be wanton destruction.
Regardless, if the cop was truly in the wrong, he should get fully prosecuted.
I don’t know; since we may never see it.
If true, nail the cop and expect riots.
If not true, nail the cop and expect riots.
Life is simple under Obama rules.
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