Democracy in America | A shooting in Chicago

Obama "deeply disturbed" by death of black teenager

By M.S.R.

THE IMAGES, released by Chicago police on November 24th, are appalling. A young man, 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, jogs along the middle of a road at night and slows to a brisk walk as he sees two police cars that have stopped ahead of him. He swerves away from the two policemen who emerge from one of them, then briefly turns to them; whereupon one fires, and the young man staggers and falls to the ground.

Spasmodic clouds of dust rise as more bullets—making 16 in all—are pumped into his writhing body. Having emptied his entire magazine, Officer Jason Van Dyke, it has since transpired, made to reload. His partner suggested he stop firing. Mr McDonald, who was black and had been spotted earlier that evening trying to break into parked cars, and was carrying a small knife, died in an ambulance soon after.

Mr McDonald was killed on October 20th, 2014, barely two months after the explosion of protest that followed the killing of another black teenager, Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri. His death was less widely publicised, partly because investigators in Chicago had sought to delay release of the video, which was filmed from the dashboard of another police car. But if that was one reason for the more modest protests that followed its release, the main one is that Mr Van Dyke seems likely to be held accountable for his actions. Shortly before the video’s release, he was charged with murder.

In the court of political opinion, he appears to have been convicted already. According to Rahm Emanual, Chicago’s mayor: “We hold our police officers to high standards and obviously in this case Jason Van Dyke violated … basic moral standards that bind our community together”. Barack Obama has also weighed in: “Like many Americans, I was deeply disturbed by the footage of the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald”, he wrote. So has Hillary Clinton: “We cannot go on like this,” she said.

It is thankful that Mr Van Dyke will be held to account for Mr McDonald’s killing. But it is seems reasonable to ask why this police officer of 14 years, had not been sanctioned before. Data from the University of Chicago and Invisible Institute, an NGO, shows Mr Van Dyke had previously been the subject of 18 civilian complaints, an unusually high number, though none had led to a penalty.

After he killed Mr McDonald, his police bosses initially suggested he had acted in self-defence, after the dead man lunged at Mr Van Dyke with a knife. The video suggested that was false.

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