You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Former Chicago Cop Who Murdered Laquan McDonald Won’t Face Federal Charges

HeadlineApr 19, 2022

A U.S. attorney’s office in Illinois said Monday it will not bring federal charges against the former Chicago police officer who murdered Black teenager Laquan McDonald in 2014. Jason Van Dyke, who is white, was released from prison in February for good behavior, serving just 40 months — less than half his nearly seven-year prison sentence for killing McDonald. Dash camera video of the murder shows Van Dyke shot McDonald 16 times. The Chicago Police Department attempted to cover up the events with the help of then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Chicago gun violence prevention advocate and Democratic congressional candidate Kina Collins said in a statement, “Once again, our words have been ignored. And once again, our nation’s criminal justice system is proving to be more criminal and less just. It’s once again telling Black Chicagoans that our lives — and our deaths — do not matter.”

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top