In October of 2014 seventeen year old Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times and killed by police.
At the time of the shooting, the Chicago police department did not offer an account of the shooting. It was instead a
spokesman for the Fraternal Order of Police that eventually did:
The teen began walking toward Pulaski Road and ignored the officers' requests to drop the knife..
The boy allegedly lunged at the police, and one of the officers opened fire. McDonald was shot in the chest..
The medical examiners report showed however that Laquan McDonald had been shot 16 times, not just in the chest, but in the scalp, neck, elbow, legs, arms, hand, and several shots to the back.
The cop playing the aggrieved victim sufferer role here as is their standard nowadays after fatally shooting a real victim, claimed that he "feared for his life" and remained fearful until all 16 shots had been fired, several delivered after Laquan McDonald had fallen to the ground
That 16 shot revelation from the ME prompted Chris Hayes and team to file a FOIA for police dash-cam video of the shooting. The CPD rejected that request claiming that turning over the dash-cam footage would:
"Interfere with active enforcement proceedings"
Whatever that means. And that it would:
"Create a substantial likelihood that a person will be deprived of a fair trial or an impartial hearing"
Hmm.. so documentation of the actual event is what.. "prejudicial evidence" now?
Soon after that, state and federal prosecutors began conducting a criminal investigation.
But city officials have seen enough: On the advice of Corporation Counsel Stephen Patton, the City Council voted 47-0 Wednesday to pre-empt a federal lawsuit by paying McDonald's family $5 million.
The Cops dash-cam told the story
Lawyers for McDonald's family say he was walking away from police when he was shot. They were prepared to ask for $16 million.
City attorneys didn't want to gamble with a jury. Patton said video captured by a police cruiser's dashboard camera was crucial to that decision.
In order to pre-empt a federal lawsuit, Chicago city officials offered up
$ 5 million dollars to the McDonald's family.
A lawyer representing the McDonald family, Jeffrey Nesland, has seen the dash-cam footage. Here is his statement as reported by Chris Hayes & team:
"When Laquan is about twelve to fifteen feet away from the officers, the width of an entire lane of southbound traffic, one officer begins shooting. Laquan immediately spins to the ground and the video then clearly shows that the officer continues to shoot Laquan multiple times as he lays in the street.
16 seconds pass from the time Laquan hits the ground until the last visible puff of smoke rises from his torso area.
An officer then approaches Laquan, stands over him and appears to shout something as he kicks the knife out of his hand.
But the cops dash-cam wasn't the end of their cover-up troubles:
During the ongoing investigation it was discovered that over an hour of video footage that would have captured the scenes and the many potential eye witnesses in the area surrounding the shooting had disappeared from a nearby Burger King situated less than a hundred yards from where the shooting took place.
Without a warrant or subpoena several Chicago cops entered Burger King, asked to see the video footage, and spent approximately 3 hours doing so, then left.
The next day the Independent Police Review Authority (Chicago's version if internal affairs) came to the Burger King and asked to view the security footage. They discovered that a chunk of footage was missing. According to the McDonald family lawyer, 86 minutes from all 11 cameras disappeared.
Keep in mind that at one point, traffic was stopped at a traffic light during the shooting. These drivers were not interviewed by the CPD. No statements were collected and these potential witnesses were in fact instructed to keep moving.
Yet despite the missing Burger King surveilance tape, a spokesperson for the IPRA said this:
"We have no credible evidence at this time that would cause us to believe CPD purged or erased any surveillance video"
The CPD has refused to offer any statement to Chris Hayes and team.
Here the whole sordid story of police corruption continues with the McDonald family lawyer, Michael Robbins' telling of it:
Missing video in the Laquan McDonald case
Chris Hayes speaks to the McDonald family lawyer, Michael Robbins, about missing surveillance footage that may have shown moments before and after 17-year old Laquan McDonald was shot and killed by Chicago Police last October
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The second question and one that I was unaware of that seems to be at or nearby the root of the corruption, but is not getting asked is;
Why do cops that are initially charged with 1st degree murder, then subsequently have that charge reduced to manslaughter, get to choose the venue and therefore the jury pool that almost certainly played a part in that reduced charge? In some cases a 1st degree charge ending up a complete acquittal in the killing of two unarmed AA's
Here Chris Hayes talks with former public defender and author of the book 'Indefensible', David Feige, who is sympathetic to defendants seeking a new venue, but has deep reservations (putting it gently) and not a few questions as to why every day citizens rarely if ever are allowed a change of venue, yet for cops it is not uncommon. The Rodney King beating case is but one of many examples of that.
This discussion with Chris Hayes and former public defender David Feige is very illuminating and well worth a look see - imo:
Defense attorneys in Freddie Gray case seek venue change
Amid conservative backlash against Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, lawyers for the police officers indicted in the death of Freddie Gray filed a motion to have the trial moved out of Baltimore
Citizens protesting these killings have brought about some new rules in another state. I hope it spreads out. Reverend Al Sharpton reports on new guidelines for police procedures and conduct in Ohio in this video. With more on new policing rules with former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner (D).
Although it's too late for those already killed by the police, it is
not too late to look into the procedures that allow cops to pick and choose the juries that try them for murder.
Put plainly is my own translation of one bullshit excuse by the CPD spokesman @ the FOP for repeatedly refusing to release the cops dash-cam video:
[because it would]:
"Create a substantial likelihood that a person will be deprived of a fair trial or an impartial hearing"
My translation and mine alone:
1) We cops haven't yet finished fabricating a plausible story yet that will come even close to covering up what's going on here. So we won't show on the cops dash-cam what your lying eyes will tell you nor the Burger King surveillance tape that would confirm it and..
2) we can't have AA's on any jury that is deciding a cops innocence or guilt, because "those blah people' can't be trusted with the same level of impartiality required in these "serious" proceedings
Both these issues seem particularly important when added to the very real questions about video footage of a number of possible witnesses 'disappearing' in these police homicide cases and other recent manipulations of grand juries to protect guilty cops
When top law enforcement officers in the land can't tell how may people have been shot by cops and says this about it:
“It’s ridiculous that I can’t tell you how many people were shot by the police last week, last month, last year,” FBI Director James Comey told reporters in April.
We need to re-focus our nations massive data collection capabilities away from the American people and on to our entire Criminal Justice System and police forces that are tasked to "Protect and Serve" by organizing and implementing data collection that would actually prove useful as Meteor Blades has posted in this evening's Open Thread of Night Owls
(May 31, 2015):
Missing statistics make evaluating our criminal justice system harder