Judge deciding whether to reveal police shooting video

[southsider2k5]

More at link

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columni...110-column.html

 

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.

[LittleHurt05]

Judge orders video to be released.

 

s***'s about to hit the fan

[bigruss]

Shot 16 times? The f***?

[Swingandalongonetoleft]

Judge orders video to be released.

 

s***'s about to hit the fan

The victim's mother thinks so, too. She opposed the release.

[StrangeSox]

Hadn't heard anything about this case before this post, but apparently cpd offered the family a $5m settlement when they hadn't even filed suit? That doesn't bode well.

[lord chas]

This will be trouble

[LittleHurt05]

The police officer is supposedly due in court tommorrow to face a first degree murder charge. The timing can't be a coincidence with the video due to be released by Wednesday.

[Jenksismyhero]

Couple thoughts here:

 

1) Why did it take over a year to charge this guy if the video is so damning?

 

2) Why is Rahm coming out and giving his opinion on it before the trial starts? We complain all the time about narratives being formed in these cases. And then it becomes incredibly difficult if not impossible to change them after the facts come out (e.g., Michael Brown with his hands up), so why is a public figure aiding that process?

 

3) I'm curious of the judge in the criminal case will quash the video from being released for fear of not being able to get an unprejudiced jury. Very long shot, but I wonder if the defendant makes that argument.

 

4) No matter how egregious this killing was, it pales in comparison to the 9 year old getting executed and the sperm donor father refusing to cooperate with the police. Where were the riots then? I'm sure the responses from the black community in Chicago, Pfleger, etc. will be the same.

Edited November 24, 2015 by Jenksismybitch

[Kyyle23]

Couple thoughts here:

 

1) Why did it take over a year to charge this guy if the video is so damning?

 

2) Why is Rahm coming out and giving his opinion on it before the trial starts? We complain all the time about narratives being formed in these cases. And then it becomes incredibly difficult if not impossible to change them after the facts come out (e.g., Michael Brown with his hands up), so why is a public figure aiding that process?

 

3) I'm curious of the judge in the criminal case will quash the video from being released for fear of not being able to get an unprejudiced jury. Very long shot, but I wonder if the defendant makes that argument.

 

4) No matter how egregious this killing was, it pales in comparison to the 9 year old getting executed and the sperm donor father refusing to cooperate with the police. Where were the riots then? I'm sure the responses from the black community in Chicago, Pfleger, etc. will be the same.

 

The family got paid with the quickness by the city to hush it, and they(the family) didnt want the video released. Outside influence got the video released, and now they have to act on it.

 

Which is absolutely terrible

[StrangeSox]

The inability to understand why people get more upset by violence from the state than some random (though still terrible!) murder is pretty amazing.

[Jenksismyhero]

The inability to understand why people get more upset by violence from the state than some random (though still terrible!) murder is pretty amazing.

 

9 year old shot execution style and the community, including the father, does nothing about it.

 

Adult on PCP wielding a knife gets shot and its greatest crime in Chicago history that will result in protests and probably some riot behavior.

 

It's the lack of being upset at the former that bothers me. Not that some get more upset with the latter.

[Jenksismyhero]

Heard every cop in the city is on call for Thursday. Cops are not happy about it.

[StrangeSox]

The 9 year old's killer is being quickly charged. Nobody is calling this "greatest crime in chicago history." The assumption of "some riot behavior" is pretty terrible. The assumption that there aren't community groups that work to reduce violence is silly (this is the same refrain every time there's a scenario like this--just because you don't look and don't know doesn't mean people aren't out there). The continued lack of understanding why people don't protest over a horrific murder but do when agents of the state kill a member of the community and rarely get charged for it remains pretty amazing.

[cabiness42]

Only one cop opened fire

 

How many cops were there? If there were a dozen or more, and only one of them thought to shoot, that looks pretty bad. Going to be hard to argue that he was justified.

 

If there were only a few there, it still could very well not be justified but he at least has a better argument.

[StrangeSox]

How many cops were there? If there were a dozen or more, and only one of them thought to shoot, that looks pretty bad. Going to be hard to argue that he was justified.

 

If there were only a few there, it still could very well not be justified but he at least has a better argument.

Six including Van Dyke

[Jenksismyhero]

The 9 year old's killer is being quickly charged. Nobody is calling this "greatest crime in chicago history." The assumption of "some riot behavior" is pretty terrible. The assumption that there aren't community groups that work to reduce violence is silly (this is the same refrain every time there's a scenario like this--just because you don't look and don't know doesn't mean people aren't out there). The continued lack of understanding why people don't protest over a horrific murder but do when agents of the state kill a member of the community and rarely get charged for it remains pretty amazing.

 

You don't think there will be some riot behavior? You're saying that prediction is terrible? Why? You know everyone in City Hall has that exact expectation right?

 

edit: re the bolded, we don't know and don't hear about it BECAUSE THE RESPONSE ISN'T AS BIG. That's precisely the point here.

Edited November 24, 2015 by Jenksismybitch

[cabiness42]

Six including Van Dyke

 

OK, less than a dozen, but I think it's going to be hard for one guy to justify shooting when none of the other five did.

[StrangeSox]

OK, less than a dozen, but I think it's going to be hard for one guy to justify shooting when none of the other five did.

 

from the trib:

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/b...1124-story.html

Cook County prosecutors said in court Tuesday that a Chicago police officer charged with first-degree murder opened fire six seconds after exiting his squad car as 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was walking away from him.

 

Officer Jason Van Dyke fired 16 rounds at McDonald in about 14 seconds and was reloading when another officer told him to hold his fire, prosecutors said in bond court.

[Jenksismyhero]

OK, less than a dozen, but I think it's going to be hard for one guy to justify shooting when none of the other five did.

 

All reports thus far seem to indicate that the guy overreacted, so i'm not saying this in his defense. But just because other cops didn't shoot doesn't mean anything really.

[bmags]

9 year old shot execution style and the community, including the father, does nothing about it.

 

Adult on PCP wielding a knife gets shot and its greatest crime in Chicago history that will result in protests and probably some riot behavior.

 

It's the lack of being upset at the former that bothers me. Not that some get more upset with the latter.

 

http://homicides.suntimes.com/2015/11/10/f...its-conscience/

 

You switch in and out of community its hard to tell about what you are ever directing things at. I'm curious to know if you've ever thought about why police violence would mobilize so easily across neighborhoods and ages?

[Jenksismyhero]

http://homicides.suntimes.com/2015/11/10/f...its-conscience/

 

You switch in and out of community its hard to tell about what you are ever directing things at. I'm curious to know if you've ever thought about why police violence would mobilize so easily across neighborhoods and ages?

 

The same people who are going to protest and probably riot this week. The same people who traveled to Ferguson to riot. Why can't those people do the same types of things to the awful people that execute 9 year olds in alleys over a stupid group dispute? Or that kill little kids playing in parks?

 

I was speaking a bit in hyperbole earlier when I said the community does NOTHING. Obviously families do. Obviously churches and community groups care. But its not on the same level. There's not the massive outcry. The City isn't mobilizing its police force over a holiday to be on duty with riot gear in their cars for fear of what may happen in response.

 

 

[bmags]

I'm not sure rioting after a funeral is any better. Preferably riots will not happen in either case.

 

But, this idea that mass groups of people may act differently to different crimes isn't restricted to any one American group.

 

Look at any school or mass shooting, and imagine if the same act were done by a Daesh affiliate, or Al Qaeda. The hypothetical scenario may mobilize a war, cause national panic.

 

But if its just one random white guy it gets some hot topics on gun control and then people move on and are generally not scared for their lives.

 

Why is the reaction so different? The violence done by a radical group can make people feel like they are under attack, have war declared on them. Where the other just seems kind of random and isolated.

 

I get more freaked out by Paris than Sandy Hook. But there is much more likely chance that a sandy hook will happen again in the next 5 years than a Paris (in the US). So, I know I'm wrong, but I still feel that way.

 

When applying that to police violence in the black community, its clear there is a different experience there, and I don't think the appropriate response is just deflecting the responses we've seen with "how come you don't act the same way for everything that is bad in the world". That's an impossible expectation.

[StrangeSox]

I was speaking a bit in hyperbole earlier when I said the community does NOTHING. Obviously families do. Obviously churches and community groups care. But its not on the same level. There's not the massive outcry. The City isn't mobilizing its police force over a holiday to be on duty with riot gear in their cars for fear of what may happen in response.

 

You know, maybe part of what a lot of communities are getting fed up with are this assumption of criminality that needs to be met with militarized police forces?

[Jenksismyhero]

You know, maybe part of what a lot of communities are getting fed up with are this assumption of criminality that needs to be met with militarized police forces?

 

So the City should ignore recent examples like Baltimore and Ferguson and just hope nothing bad happens? They shouldn't be prepared for the worst?

 

[StrangeSox]

The officer in this case has been charged. The lack of charges is what sparked those other incidents.

 

And, like bmags has tried to express, it's just fundamentally a different sort of thing. Random citizen killing a child and then quickly getting charged is not the same thing as a police officer killing someone. Not charging a police officer comes down to policies and decisions by publicly accountable people and institutions.