"These absurd claims were completely
shattered by the chilling dashcam video that
was eventually released, an overlooked piece
of evidence whose release CPD, Chicago
Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Democratic
Party blocked for 13 months."
Chicago police officers indicted for covering up murder of Laquan
McDonald
By Alexander Fangmann
29 June 2017
29 June 2017
On Tuesday, Cook County special prosecutor Patricia Brown
Holmes announced grand jury indictments for three Chicago Police Department
(CPD) officers. The officers are being charged with conspiracy, obstruction of
justice and official misconduct for their roles in covering up the murder of
Laquan McDonald, a coverup carried out in order to protect officer Jason Van
Dyke for the unprovoked street execution of the 17-year-old in October of 2014.
The indictment accuses David March, Joseph Walsh and Thomas
Gaffney of lying to investigators immediately after and following the shooting
of McDonald, withholding or giving misleading information, filing false police
reports, failing to interview witnesses and destroying evidence.
The indictment states that in order to prevent investigators
from learning about the murder, March, Walsh and Gaffney, working closely with
Van Dyke, first invented a narrative out of whole cloth to justify Van Dyke’s
brutal killing of the youth, who was shot 16 times even though he was attempting
to flee and posed no threat to police.
The indictment states that the three officers filed a series
of reports alleging that McDonald threatened them with a knife and lunged at
Van Dyke, and that even after being shot twice, McDonald supposedly tried to
get up and brandish his knife. These absurd claims were completely
shattered by
the chilling dashcam video that
was eventually released, an overlooked piece
of
evidence whose release CPD, Chicago
Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Democratic
Party
blocked for 13 months.
The indictment also charges the officers for their
subsequent efforts to distort, ignore and falsify evidence that might have
challenged their story. In particular, the officers threatened to arrest
witnesses who might have provided a different narrative. Their efforts to erase
86 minutes of video footage from a Burger King security camera are also
mentioned in the indictment.
With the charges stemming from the officers’ roles in
concealing the facts of the shooting, the indictment is being hailed as
striking a blow at CPD’s “code of silence,” that is, the systematic
manipulation of police shooting investigations that has resulted in precisely
one murder charge against a CPD officer for an on-duty killing in nearly 35
years, that of Laquan McDonald shooter Jason Van Dyke.
Holmes took this up directly at a press conference, saying,
“[t]he indictment makes clear that it is unacceptable to obey an unofficial
code of silence.” She further stated, “[t]he indictment makes clear that these
defendants did more than merely obey an unofficial ‘code of silence,’ rather it
alleges that they lied about what occurred to prevent independent criminal
investigators from learning the truth.”
While it is clear that the cops involved are criminally
complicit in Van Dyke’s unjustified murder of
McDonald, the indictment of these
three officers,
not to mention the charges against Van Dyke
himself, will
ultimately do nothing to change the
entrenched criminality and violence
perpetrated by
the Chicago police.
Even if any of them are convicted,
which is unlikely, the top officials and politicians who set policy and who
defend the police are dead set on giving cops carte blanche to
terrorize the city’s working population in order to defend the wealth and
privileges of the financial oligarchy.
More appropriately, the present indictment should itself be
understood as a continuation of the conspiracy to cover up the shooting and
minimize its consequences, particularly for Emanuel and the Democratic Party.
When McDonald was shot, and for months after, Emanuel was in the midst of a
tight reelection race, and desperate to prevent the release of the video, which
he knew would severely hurt his chances.
Emanuel and the city council even
approved a $5 million
blood money
payment to McDonald’s family in April
of 2015, before the family
had even
filed a wrongful death lawsuit, and the
day after Emanuel won the vote
for a
second term.
It was only later in 2015 that the existence of the dashcam
video was made known by a whistleblower, corroborating suspicions of
journalists and investigators that reports connected to the McDonald shooting
were inconsistent with the official autopsy and with an anonymous eyewitness
account.
There was no push to charge any of the cops involved with
murder or anything else. Democratic Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez
only announced charges against Van Dyke on the same day that the dashcam
footage was released to the public.
Since then, all announcements of police “reforms” have been
entirely cosmetic. While Alvarez lost reelection as state’s attorney, her
replacement, Kim Foxx, has limited herself to pushing for the use of special
state prosecutors in cases of police violence. Despite this, she declined to
bring charges against CPD officer Robert Rialmo, who killed Quintonio LeGrier
and his neighbor, Bettie Jones, after LeGrier’s family called 911 seeking help
with their son’s mental health crisis.
Recently, Emanuel backed away from his previously stated
intention that CPD enter into court-ordered oversight. A yearlong Justice
Department civil rights investigation into CPD depicted in detail a police
department rife with misconduct and violence against civilians, and recommended
extensive changes.
While the election of Donald Trump likely played a role in
Emanuel’s decision, with Trump and attorney general Jeff Sessions opposing
these kinds of police consent decrees, it is also a recognition that Chicago’s
ruling elite will rely on the police more and more directly as a last line of
defense to defend their wealth and privileges. Already, Emanuel had
faced a
backlash from Chicago police, many of
whom voted for Trump, and who recently
elected a
new Fraternal Order of Police president resolutely
opposed to even
the mildest of reforms.
ILLINOIS GOES UNDER $$$$
CALIFORNIA TEETERS ON THE EDGE OF FISCAL ARMAGEDDON BUT STILL HANDS OUT $30 BILLION IN WELFARE TO MEXICANS.
….. and so goes the nation!
NOW WATCH THEM LOOT THE AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS TO FUND THEIR BAILOUTS!
EVANSTON, ILLINOIS surrenders
to LA RAZA
THE MEXICAN OCCUPATION and LA RAZA SUPREMACY EXPANDS BORDER
TO BORDER!
A
municipality just outside Chicago, Illinois has now pledged itself to be a home
for illegal aliens who want to be shielded from federal immigration law,
officially claiming the mantle as a sanctuary city.
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