This was handled badly from the start.

And right before the start of the Holliday Season.

Protesters march in Chicago after video showing police officer shooting black teen released

Protesters largely honored calls for restraint Tuesday after the release of a dash-cam video showing a a white Chicago police officer shooting and killing a black teenager, with few arrests reported and only brief disruptions to city traffic.

City officials and community leaders had long braced for the footage of the death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald at the hands of Officer Jason Van Dyke, who was charged with murder earlier Tuesday. They feared the kind of turmoil that occurred in cities such as Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri, after young black men were slain by police or died in police custody.

Shortly after the video's release, protesters began marching through city streets. Several hundred people blocked traffic on the near West Side. Some circled police cars in an intersection and chanted "16 shots."

Demonstrators, at times numbering in the hundreds, streamed through streets in the downtown and near South Side areas, gathering at one point outside the police department's District 1 headquarters.

Later, along Michigan Avenue, at least one person was detained, which led to a tense moment as protesters tried to prevent police from taking him away. Some threw plastic water bottles at officers and sat behind a police vehicle, refusing to move. Officers pulled them away, and the vehicle sped off. The Chicago Tribune reported that at least three people were detained by police, while one officer was taken to an ambulance with minor injuries.


The biggest group had mostly dissipated by 11 p.m., with a few dozen returning to the District 1 building. Another group of at least 50 people briefly blocked a busy expressway before walking toward a lakefront park.

Among the protesters was Justin Taylor, an 18-year-old University of Iowa student who returned home to Chicago for Thanksgiving.

"It's powerful we're coming together," Taylor said. "Things like this happen too often."

Protest groups are expected to stage more demonstrations in the days ahead, including one at City Hall scheduled for Wednesday and another seeking to block Michigan Avenue during Friday's holiday shopping bonanza.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel said residents will "have to make an important judgment about our city and ourselves and go forward." He referred to the episode as a potential "moment of understanding and learning."

The relevant portion of the video runs for less than 40 seconds and has no audio.

McDonald swings into view on a four-lane street where police vehicles are stopped in the middle of the roadway. As he jogs down an empty lane, he appears to pull up his pants and then slows to a brisk walk, veering away from two officers who are emerging from a vehicle and drawing their guns.

Almost immediately, one of the officers appears to fire from close range. McDonald spins around and collapses on the pavement.

The car with the camera continues to roll forward until the officers are out of the frame. Then McDonald can be seen lying on the ground, moving occasionally. At least two small puffs of smoke are seen coming off his body as the officer continues firing.

In the final moments, an officer kicks something out of McDonald's hands.

Police have said the teen had a knife. Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said Tuesday that a 3-inch knife with its blade folded into the handle was recovered from the scene.

"It is graphic. It is violent. It is chilling," Alvarez said of the video. "To watch a 17-year-old young man die in such a violent manner is deeply disturbing. I have absolutely no doubt that this video will tear at the hearts of all Chicagoans."

But she also defended the 13 months it took to charge Van Dyke, insisting that she made a decision "weeks ago" to charge him and the video's ordered release did not influence that.

Months after McDonald's death, the city agreed to a $5 million settlement with his family, even before relatives filed a lawsuit, a move that also drew deep skepticism from the community.

At the time of McDonald's death, police were responding to complaints about someone breaking into cars and stealing radios.

Van Dyke, who was denied bond on Tuesday, was the only officer of the several who were on the scene to open fire.

Alvarez said the officer was on the scene for just 30 seconds before he started shooting. She said he opened fire just six seconds after getting out of his vehicle and kept firing even though McDonald dropped to the ground after the initial shots.

At Tuesday's hearing, Assistant State's Attorney Bill Delaney said the shooting lasted 14 or 15 seconds and that McDonald was on the ground for 13 of those seconds.

An autopsy report showed that McDonald was shot at least twice in his back and PCP, a hallucinogenic drug, was found in his system.

Van Dyke's attorney, Dan Herbert, maintains his client feared for his life and acted lawfully and that the video does not tell the whole story.

After the shooting, Van Dyke was stripped of his police powers and assigned to desk duty.

Herbert said the case needs to be tried in a courtroom and "can't be tried in the streets, can't be tried on social media and can't be tried on Facebook."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

I have just seen the video and it looks like murder to me!

Thinskin

 

Yep
murder plain n simple.

He was not moving toward the officer ,
not moving in any threataning manner ,
not close enough to the officer to inflict harm , even if he wanted.
no gun
no open knife even

Maybe a closed pocket knufe , and walking past , more away from than towards the police.

No justification for shooting him once ,
never mind emptying his gun .

If the cop really felt "threatened" ,
he's a coward ,
and he is in the wrong job.

 

Mistakes happen.

What we need in the United States is more vigorous law enforcement, including race profiling. This will lead to more mistakes. I would rather the police kill a young black man now and then, than have a young black man kill me.

Young black men are out of control, and have been since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed. I want them to be slapped down hard.

 

What pisses me off is this story and the fact that black police officers have murdered white people and a news article on the whites being murdered can hardly be found. A murder is a murder period. The media tripping over themselves to hurry up and make and issue out of black victims and trying to help hide and refuse to report on white victims is nauseating because racism against whites is not only allowed to go on in america but it is encouraged, especially by the media and government. I guess white lives don't matter

 

You need to check the batteries in your CO monitor.

 

There's this one::
Free man for now: Marksville deputy marshal accused in murder of 6 year old out on bail

One deputy marshal is still in jail. The free officer is the one who wanted a date with the dead boy's mother. He's probably not going to call her.

 

He may call her, stranger things have happened. They wouldn't need a baby sitter now.

 

"Yes, I was in fear for my life of a man running away from me, and that fear forced me to shoot him in the back repeatedly even after he was down!"

 

This is Louisiana. We know the race of people either by their name or their address. In this case, the State Police came in and reviewed body cam video taken by another officer on the scene. Arrest warrants for murder were issued the next day. This isn't Chicago.

 

Did this yahoo think he was the Cavalry or something? He drove up into a situation flooded with cops. This one definitely justifies outrage. (Ferguson didn't.)

 

Sure, a jury will likely decide that this "cop" belongs behind bars.

Some do. Some do.

But this incident happened last year.

There have been 435 murders in Chicago so far this year.

Yet this is what people are demonstrating over.

Black Lives Matter (yawn)

Hands Up Don't Shoot (yawn)

It must really suck that ISIS is taking all their free publicity.

 

They thrive on racism and the attention it brings, they don't really give a shit about the murders. Murder of one man does not mean shit, hollering racism, now you're talking. By hollering racism they can torch the whole town without punishment, loot everything in sight, and beat up white women and children without any punishment. All that free shit, violence, and destruction is like pouring gas (petrol for you europeans) on a fire.

 

This cop had many complaints against him. Issues of violence and racism. This did happen last year, typical Chicago judicial system.
The media in Chicago thrives on this. The news opens with these BIG stories, and everything else gets a little blurb. They are definitely the cause of racial tension in this city.
I don't think these idiots should be able to call themselves protesters anymore. They are violent and destructive, nothing more then looters and rioters. They have ripped lights of Christmas trees and destroyed decorations from day one. Today they tried to stop shopping on Michigan Avenue, and this accomplishes what? I wish Jesse Jackon, Jr. would do something illegal again, it would shut his father up for a while.

 

How is it bad?

 

Are you really that clueless???

 

It's murder, despicable outrageous murder, but let's get some sense of perspective here. This is just one of many murders in Chicago, one that the #blacklivesmatter brigade have decided to cherry pick to get angry about. What about the hundreds of dead black people in Chicago that were murdered by other black people? Selective outrage is a rather odd, modern phenomenon.

Also cops kill a lot of white people, more white people than black people, we don't have #whitelivesmatter protests. It's not that cops are inherently racist. It's just that positions of power will always attract sadists and bullies. There is also the fact that being a police officer in certain neighbourhoods is a highly stressful job that some people can't cope with, high tension, high stress, long awkward hours, throw guns into the mix and casualties will inevitably crop up. Now I know that as a percentage of the population, more black people die in police hands, but this is because black people, as a whole, commit more crime, thus as a whole, come into contact with the police more often. Which is why the number of deaths may seem disproportionate. But more white are people are killed, so let's not presume it's because the cops are all racist.

As for people getting angry, blacks kill whites at a rate so much greater than the reverse that you wouldn't believe me if I told you, even if you saw the the statistics yourselves. But more important if you're a #blacklivesmatter activist, please be aware that black people kill other black people at a rate 80x times greater than white people killing black people. Where is the outrage ?

 

Those are dangerous thoughts, deviousdave.

 

I live here, I know what's going on....

 

This is why I know what's going on here... Yeah, it was handled badly. Very badly.