Jason Van Dyke, the Chicago police officer who murdered Laquon McDonald and whose actions were captured in a much-publicized video, has been sentenced to 81 months in prison following his conviction for murder with extenuating circumstances. From ABC 7 Chicago:
CHICAGO (WLS) — Jason Van Dyke, the Chicago police officer convicted of murdering 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, was sentenced to 81 months, or 6 years and 9 months, in prison and two years mandatory supervised release.
Judge Vincent Gaughan said he considered the most serious charge to be the second degree murder charge, not the 16 aggravated battery charges, and made his sentencing decision on that murder charge.
“I’ve been told time and time again that the citizenry of the county of Cook is not going to be satisfied with a sentence that’s anything south of 20 years,” said Pastor Marvin Hunter, McDonald’s great uncle. “However I want to say to everyone – everyone in the city of Chicago and across this country – that if they had sentenced him to 1 minute, it is a victory. It is a victory because what has happened in this courtroom today has never happened in the history of this county and it sets a precedent and it sends a strong message to unjust police officers that now you can and will go to jail if you’re caught lying, if you’re caught breaking the law.”
I found Pastor Hunter’s statement strong and reasoned but it’s not clear to me what would have satisifed Laquon McDonald’s family or, as he put it, “the citizenry of the county of Cook”. A maximum sentence? A death sentence? He may well have received that.
What concerns me about the entire sorry matter is that not enough attention has been paid to what motivated Mr. Van Dyke. Did he think he was invulnerable? Did he think he was defending himself? Is that, indeed, what he was trained to do? I think that much more has been on trial here than Jason Van Dyke and however harsh or lenient you may feel Van Dyke’s sentence has been the Chicago Police Department and the whole system of justice has been given a slap on the hand.
I realize that I am late, but help me understand.
The president of the US has engaged in “fake but true” behavior, and you are whining about a young black man killed by a white police officer.
Do you wear your MAGA hat while trying to divert attention from President Trump’s impending impeachment.
Perhaps you need to be sent to the OTB re-education camp. The Skipper, Gilligan, and the Professor, too, will get your mind right.
I’d really like to believe otherwise, but If I were the parent of a Black teen boy in the big city, I’d advise him to run like hell away from police, even if innocent.