Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Protests: police murder of black teen (video)

Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval (editors), Wisdom Quarterly; Ashley Fantz, Bill Kirkos (CNN, Nov. 23, 2015); AP (White Chicago cop charged with murder of black teen) UPDATED
WARNING: Extremely distressing needless police execution! Dashcam video shows Officer Jason Van Dyke executing black teen Laquan McDonald. This evidence was suppressed by Chicago Police Dept. to protect the murder until a judge demanded its release.

Chicago leaders urge calm before police shooting video released.
  • Ashley Fantz-Profile-Image
    Ashley Fantz (CNN)
    "We're hoping that these protests and demonstrations will be peaceful. We know they are coming," says Chicago pastor.
  • A judge has ordered the city of Chicago to release the video of the murder of Laquan McDonald by Officer Jason Van Dyke by November 25.
  • The 17-year-old was shot 16 times by an officer who just arrived on the scene six seconds before after other police already had him corralled while he was holding a knife and walking away.
I'm willing to murder blacks and protesters.
CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) Leaders in Chicago are calling for calm ahead of the expected release of a video that reportedly shows a white police officer shooting a black teenager 16 times [most of them while he was paralyzed and bleeding on the ground].

Laquan McDonald was walking down a Chicago street the night of October 20, 2014, carrying a 4-inch knife and behaving erratically [i.e., disobediently], authorities said.
 
A police state keeps me working.
A police officer told the 17-year-old to drop the knife, but he didn't listen and the officer [sought to murder him so] fired on him [using the catchall after-the-fact excuse that it was] out of fear for his life, according to a police union spokesman. 
 
On Thursday, a judge in Chicago ordered the city to release by this Wednesday the police dashcam video that shows the shooting. For months, the city has fought attempts to have the video released to the public, saying it could jeopardize any ongoing investigation [by having the truth out while we're busy trying to cover it up to protect our officers from successful prosecution].
  
Our silence would be complicity with racist police crimes (dontshootstl.org).
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They'll never convict, so suck it.
"Chicago is on the tipping point," the Rev. Roosevelt Watkins said, according to CNN affiliate WLS. "We could be just like Ferguson."
 
Watkins was referring to Ferguson, Missouri, which imploded in protests and riots after a white police officer shot to death unarmed black teen Michael Brown in 2014. Unrest in the St. Louis suburb lasted for weeks.

Remember the Ferguson or Fergistan protests? (Tom Tomorrow/ThisModernWorld.com)
 
Initially Chicago city officials tried to prevent the release of the video. But Cook County Judge Franklin Valderrama denied a request by the city's attorneys to issue a stay in his decision while they appeal to the Illinois Appellate Court.
 
The officer who shot McDonald, Jason Van Dyke, has not faced charges and still [gets paid by] the police department in a "limited duty position."

"Protests are imminent"
Anti-Ferguson police brutality demonstration, Berkeley (Dec. 6, 2014/AP).
 
On Monday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel met with various activists and community leaders to discuss the release of the video and what it might mean for the city.
 
His office has not released details on when or how it plans to release the video. But some in the city are bracing for protests and unrest. More + updated video of protests
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