The Corrupt System That Killed Laquan McDonald

[Sir X]

The Corrupt System That Killed Laquan McDonald
A Chicago cop now faces murder charges—but will anyone hold his colleagues, his superiors, and elected officials accountable for their failures?


Andrew Nelles / Reuters


CONOR FRIEDERSDORF NOV 27, 2015 POLITICS
Thanks to clear video evidence, Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke was charged this week with first-degree murder for shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Nevertheless, thousands of people took to the city’s streets on Friday in protest. And that is as it should be.

The needlessness of the killing is clear and unambiguous:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/...donald/417723/

[Mosiah]

There are many quotable parts for the benefit of HL and Hortical, but I will allow them to sort them out with their own consciences.

The family should never have agreed to keeping the video confidential. They held the upper hand and they were always going to get theirs. Indeed, maybe they could have received more than $5m. Hard to be tough on the grieving family but they did the city of Chicago, particularly it's black citizens, a huge disservice by that decision.

As for other elected officials, “the City Council approved a $5 million settlement with McDonald’s family, whose attorneys had obtained the video,” the Chicago Reporter notes. “They said it showed McDonald walking away from police at the time of the shooting, contradicting the police story that he was threatening or had ‘lunged at’ cops. The settlement included a provision keeping the video confidential.”

This is typical municipal behavior, but that doesn’t make it right. If a city is going to spend $5 million in taxpayer money to compensate someone for an employee’s misconduct, the public has a right to see the evidence in question, both to judge whether such a staggering sum is justified and to be aware of whatever went so very wrong.