The Cop Shooting So Horrific It Cost $5 Million To Hide

gamble said:

The thing that always keeps me tripping the most is the comments after the fact. The callousness that these people show towards Black life is demonic. These are the same people that you work with who smile in your face daily & you conveniently know way more about than you ever cared to know. It's trippy. If it's one thing I know for sure its that I know who my enemy is.

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Hand2HandKing said:

cops prolly intimidated the family

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JsindaA said:

Sooooo, no mention of the firing of the police chief, or the officer out on bond? Interesting.

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yepitsme said:

in my eyes every single one of these situations is just two ******s crossing paths... why can't anyone just stop and take one second to think

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Elpablo21 said:

Rahm trying to wash his hands clean

Probably too late for that.

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CashBanks said:

1. Reported
2. Your opinion is ****

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[h1]  Officer that killed Laquan McDonald now getting paychecks as a police union janitor[/h1]
Chicago Police Officer Jason Van **** was the officer who shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in 2014. He's been condemned by his department and is awaiting trial for first degree murder, but the police union still has his back.

Officer Van **** has been charged with first-degree murder and has been suspended without pay while awaiting trial. In the meantime, Van **** has been hired by the Fraternal Order of Police union as a janitor, and many people aren’t happy about it.

The head of the FOP, Dean Angelo, confirmed to the Chicago Sun-Times that Van **** was working a $12-an-hour job with the union because he couldn’t find work. [...] “We’ve probably had 100 people in no-pay status who we got jobs or hired at the hall. This is nothing new.”

Well, at least they're not giving him a gun. I presume, anyway. Still, the news that the police union still refuses to cut Van **** lose—even after the horrific dashcam video of the incident was made public, last November, showing McDonald posing no immediate threat to Van **** before being shot 16 times and killed—has been taken by some activists to be yet another insult in a long string of them.

"Not only is it insulting and outrageous, but it is a slap in the face. It is the reason we have this continued breakdown between law enforcement and community," the Rev. Michael L. Pfleger, a community activist in Chicago, told ABC News.

What can we say: a police union making sure that even a suspended officer charged with murder still gets a steady paycheck looks a wee bit crass to some people. Yeah, go figure.

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A Cook County judge on Wednesday quashed a subpoena that sought to force independent journalist Jamie Kalven to testify about his reporting on the fatal 2014 shooting of Laquan McDonald by a Chicago police officer.

Judge Vincent Gaughan said attorneys for Officer Jason Van **** did not adequately show that the testimony was relevant to their case.

“To uphold the subpoena of Jamie Kalven would be nothing more than a fishing expedition in search of information that the timeline of events, discovery documents and testimony suggest simply does not exist,” Gaughan said in a written order.

Gaughan’s decision was largely based on the inadequacies of the subpoena itself rather than Kalven’s legally protected status as a reporter, he said. But he acknowledged that reporters can be compelled to testify about sources only under extraordinary circumstances.

Kalven, the first journalist to report on the 17-year-old’s fatal shooting, expressed relief after the hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. He had been prepared to face jail time rather than reveal his sources, he said.

“I think it’s part of the job description to uphold a covenant with sources,” Kalven, wearing his press identification card around his neck, told reporters. “The real hero in this case is a source within law enforcement who provided information ... that enabled me and others to report on it. We have kind of a sacred trust with sources.”

The fight over the subpoena stemmed from a lengthy battle waged by Van ****’s legal team for much of the summer and fall over which material prosecutors can access to build their case. Longstanding legal precedent holds that certain statements Van **** gave to investigators after the shooting cannot be used against him in a criminal case.

Van ****’s lead attorney, Daniel Herbert, alleged that Kalven was leaked documents that included such protected statements and then used that information to aid him in interviewing a witness, thus influencing that witness’ statements to authorities and tainting the case against Van ****.

But Gaughan ruled that he found no evidence that Kalven was ever given such protected material in the first place — and besides, the witness in question spoke to investigators before ever talking to Kalven.

Gaughan also noted that Kalven could have gotten his information from multiple legitimate sources.

Without evidence that Kalven ever obtained Van ****'s protected statements, the source of the reporter’s information was irrelevant, the judge wrote.

At a hearing last week, Herbert argued extensively for his bid to force Kalven’s testimony, even comparing the allegedly improper use of Van ****’s protected statements to a 1930s case in which three black men were tortured into confessing to murder.

The comparison appeared surprising given the racial overtone of the white officer’s shooting of the black teen — a case that shined a bright light on the African-American community’s widespread distrust of the police.

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which along with 18 news organizations, including the Chicago Tribune, filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the dispute, applauded the judge’s decision, saying that “Kalven’s reporting in this case was essential to telling the full story of Laquan McDonald’s death.”

Many of the accusations that Herbert levied came as a surprise to Kalven, he said Wednesday.

“It was kind of an adventure to read their pleadings, in terms of what was alleged,” he said.

In addition, Herbert had sought to paint Kalven as an activist rather than a journalist, calling his reporting slanted and biased against police.

On Wednesday, Kalven said his reporting spoke for itself.

“The whole effort was to find out what happened to Laquan McDonald,” he told reporters. “I think if you look at the consequences of the reporting and not just my reporting, in this case, it’s contributed to a moment, an opportunity in Chicago for really fundamental change, police reform and I think even more broadly a kind of social change around basic issues of race.”

Van ****, who is suspended without pay, has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder. Video showed the on-duty officer shoot McDonald 16 times as the black teen walked away with a knife, contrary to what Van **** and other officers reported.

The court-ordered release of the video more than a year after the October 2014 shooting sparked weeks of protests, the firing of the police superintendent and a scathing report by the U.S. Department of Justice on police practices.

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Jury selection begins Wednesday in the murder trial for Chicago police officer Jason Van ****. The officer, who is white, is accused of killing 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, who is black, as he walked down the middle of a city street holding a knife.

The case has come to embody many of the political and racial tensions that grip the city, and the massive distrust between communities of color and police. In fact, one protest chant has become a mantra in the case: "Sixteen shots and a cover-up."

It references the 2014 shooting of McDonald and the city's delayed response to questions about what happened.

The city released a graphic, silent police dash cam video a year after the shooting. It shows Officer Van **** opening fire a few seconds after he exits his police car. He shoots McDonald 16 times.


Recording from a police dash cam, with additional information from WBEZ Chicago.
WBEZ/Chicago Police YouTube

"I never would have done this if I didn't believe my life or someone's life was in danger," Van **** said in an interview last week with a local Fox-TV news affiliate. He said he was following the training he received from the Chicago Police Department. Police contend McDonald lunged at officers with a knife. Van ****'s defense team and police contend he acted in self defense.

Critics charge that Mayor Rahm Emanuel tried to keep the video under wraps during a tough re-election campaign. The mayor, who announced Tuesday that he won't seek a third term, always denied that charge.

Three years ago during a city council meeting, he apologized for McDonald's death. "What happened on Oct. 20, 2014 should never have happened," the mayor said. "Supervision and leadership in the police department and the oversight agencies that were in place failed. And that has to change."

There are about a thousand fatal police shootings every year, says Bowling Green State University criminologist Philip Stinson. Most are deemed justifiable.

"Since 2005, only 93 officers has been charged in one of those cases," Stinson says. "Out of those 93, about a third have been convicted."

It was just a week ago in Texas that a jury took that rare step — convicting a police officer of murder and sentencing him to prison for fatally shooting a unarmed teenage passenger in a car.

In Chicago, it has been decades since a police officer faced a murder charge for an on-duty fatality. Van ****'s attorney has long argued that his client can't get a fair trial because of all the publicity. He calls the case a tragedy — not a cause for a murder charge.

After an earlier court hearing, Laquan McDonald's great uncle, Marvin Hunter, said his nephew's death was indeed a tragedy — an all too familiar one for African-Americans during encounters with police: "We need to change a corrupt culture that allowed this to happen in the first place," Hunter said.

Many believe the outcome of this case, on the heels of the Texas conviction, could signal that reform efforts are taking hold.

There's been plenty of local political fall out: Mayor Emanuel's announcement on Tuesday that he's not running again, a police superintendent ousted, a county prosecutor losing her re-election bid. There also have been sweeping police reforms that include de-escalation training for cops, considered critical when looking for alternatives to deadly force.

Some of the changes occurred following a scathing report by the U.S. Department of Justice. The report found that Chicago police often used unnecessary and deadly force, especially against minorities, and called for federal oversight.

That's something the police union adamantly opposes, says Fraternal Order of Police President Kevin Graham. He called it "illegal and invalid," and says they'll challenge it in court.

Christy Lopez is a former Justice Department attorney who helped lead the investigation. She says the recommendations in a draft consent decree that would mandate reforms are a milestone.

"What this consent decree does is it attempts to address each of those components that allowed the Laquan McDonald (shooting) and so many other problematic incidents to occur," Lopez says.

Components like training, discipline, recruitment and accountability — all things she says that must be addressed in order to change the culture of a police department.

While those recommendations are a start, Maria Hernandez says the consent decree doesn't go far enough. Hernandez is an organizer with Black Lives Matter.

"We need to convict Van ****," she said. "We need this consent decree to reflect the demands of the people most impacted."

Protests are expected as the trial for Van **** gets underway.

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The great uncle of slain teen Laquan McDonald is calling for action days after Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and special prosecutors announced they are “reviewing” a possible legal challenge to the sentence of former Chicago police Officer Jason Van ****.

In an open letter penned on behalf of the Rev. Marvin Hunter and 21 community-based organizations, attorneys from several legal groups say Van **** received an “illegal” sentence based on reasoning that “cannot be reconciled with clearly established Illinois law.”

“The sentence imposed upon Jason Van **** suggests that Illinois criminal law requires relative leniency for a white police officer who murdered a Black teenager,” the letter states. “Of course, the law does no such thing. Your offices now have the opportunity to ensure fair and equal application of our laws.”


Document: Read the full letter

Van **** shot McDonald 16 times after responding to a police call for assistance in October 2014.

Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan earlier this month sentenced Van **** to 81 months in prison after he was found guilty last year of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm for that shooting. He’ll likely have to serve about half that time.

Because Gaughan determined Van **** was convicted on multiple charges stemming from the same physical act, the judge could only sentence Van **** on either the murder or the aggravated battery charges, depending on which he deemed more serious.

He ultimately ruled second-degree murder represented the more serious charge, despite the fact it carries a lesser sentencing range than aggravated battery. (The battery charges are Class X felonies carrying a six- to 30-year range. Second-degree murder is a Class 1 felony with a four- to 20-year range, but it’s also probationable.)

Raoul and special prosecutor Joseph McMahon both announced last week they would be reviewing whether Gaughan’s decision fit with state sentencing guidelines.

Both offices can petition the Illinois Supreme Court to review the sentence and issue a “writ of mandamus,” which is an order from the high court compelling the judge to act in accordance with state sentencing guidelines.

If the state Supreme Court were to analyze the case and decide Gaughan misapplied the law in sentencing Van **** on the second-degree murder charge, it could issue the writ and order him to resentence Van ****.

https://news.wttw.com/sites/default/files/article/image-non-gallery/CT Van-****-sentencing-39.jpg
Former Chicago police Officer Jason Van **** and his attorney Daniel Herbert, right, listen as the judge describes how he’ll be sentenced on Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune / Pool)

Hunter and the various organizations are asking both Raoul and McMahon to file motions before Gaughan seeking a new sentence. If that doesn’t work, they ask that the respective offices seek mandamus action.

The letter – which was drafted by attorneys with the MacArthur Justice Center, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, the Civil Rights & Police Accountability Project, University of Chicago Law School, Samuels & Associates and the Law Offices of Jeffery J. Neslund – claims the 16 aggravated battery counts should be treated as individual counts, each requiring individual sentences.

Referencing McMahon’s sentencing recommendations, the letter states the minimum lawful sentence Van **** could receive is 18 years, based on the argument that two of the bullets fired caused McDonald “severe bodily injury.” Under this logic, Van **** could receive consecutive six-year sentences for those two shots, plus an additional six years to encompass the other 14 shots.

Additionally, if Van **** were to be sentenced on Class X felony charges, he would have to serve at least 85 percent of his time.

“Jason Van **** must be required to serve the sentence that Illinois law demands,” the letter states. “Make no mistake. If the tables were turned and Laquan McDonald were to have been convicted of multiple counts of armed violence against a Chicago Police officer, the court would have found no difficulty in imposing consecutive sentences that would have sent him to the penitentiary for decades.”

Van ****’s lead defense attorney Daniel Herbert last week criticized the decision to review the sentence, claiming Raoul was exploiting McDonald’s death for his own political gain.

“This is about politics not the law,” he said. “The judge in this case carefully considered the arguments made and issued the correct ruling under the law. What is more, the judge in this case had the benefit of reading thousands of pages of defense motions which contained substantial mitigation which was not part of the trial record but properly factored into the sentence in this case.”

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Jason Van **** was only sentenced to only 81 months in prison (fewer than seven years) two years of mandatory supervised release for killing Laquan McDonald. Now, the Illinois attorney general’s office has announced it is reviewing his sentence and there is a chance of more prison time.

“We are going to do a careful review of the record and the law and make a determination based on our review,” Maura Possley, a spokesperson for the Illinois attorney general’s office, said in a statement.

It is rare for the attorney general’s office to review a sentence. Legal experts told the Chicago Tribune, “the attorney general might be considering whether to petition the Illinois Supreme Court to order the trial judge to sentence Van **** again — only under tougher guidelines this time.”

The former Chicago police officer convicted of murdering the unarmed Black teenager in 2014 was sentenced Jan. 18. The verdict came nearly five years after McDonald was gunned down in a hail of excessive and unnecessary bullets.

The horrific video of the killing showed Van **** fire at McDonald 16 times within 14 seconds. The video was released one year after McDonald’s death and showed the teen walking away instead of confronting officers, contradicting Van ****’s account. McDonald continued to be shot at even after he fell to the ground from the initial bullets. During the sentencing hearing, a parade of Black men who said they were victimized by Van **** while he was a police officer claimed the former cop “used racial slurs and excessive force during traffic stops in the years before the 2014 killing that was captured on a shocking dashcam video,” the Associated Press reported.

Two police officers and one detective were acquitted of trying to cover up the shooting for Van ****. The three men all said Van ****, who was convicted in October, was justified in shooting the teenager 16 times within 14 seconds. Van ****’s partner the night of the shooting, even said: “McDonald was walking toward Van **** and with his arms raised when he was shot.” The video would later contradict that account, showing Van ****’s partner lied. Still, he and his co-defendants were acquitted.

Let’s hope Jason Van **** gets the prison time he deserves.

Rest in power, Laquan McDonald.

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CHICAGO — Former Chicago Police Officer Jason Van ****, who was convicted of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald, has been moved out of an Illinois prison and taken to Connecticut.

Van ****, 40, is in the low security Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Conn., about an hour outside of New York City, as he serves his six-year and nine-month sentence for the fatal shooting.

Those close to Van **** said he was beaten up at the Connecticut facility. Sources said the beating happened within three hours of him arriving at the facility. No further information was immediately provided on the incident.

WGN has not been able to confirm why the former officer was transferred to Connecticut.

Since October, Van **** was being held at Rock Island County Jail near the Illinois-Iowa border. At the time, Cara Smith, the chief police officer for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said he was transferred after it was “determined this was the best housing assignment for him and the jail compound as a whole.”

While Van **** has long been considered a "high profile detainee" there have also been other notable inmates who have spent time in a Danbury prison cell.

Leona Helmsley, the hotel tycoon who got 21 months for tax evasion back in the 90s, was an inmate at the prison. In 1985, Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the Unification Church, was there for under a year for tax troubles. Grammy award winning singer and actress Lauryn Hill got three months at the FCI Danbury for not filing taxes at all at one point.

About 1,000 inmates reside at the Danbury facility.

Van ****'s wife, Tiffany Van ****, said her greatest fear was that her husband would not survive the prison system, and that he would be targeted, potentially by other inmates, because he was a white cop who shot a black teen 16 times.

A press conference will be held Thursday with more information about the incident.

Van **** was convicted in October 2018 of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery in the October 2014 slaying of McDonald.

He was the first Chicago police officer in 50 years to be charged with murder for an on-duty incident. He shot McDonald 16 times after a truck driver called 911 to report McDonald in a locked truck lot near 41st Street and Pulaski Road. The 17-year-old was armed with a 3-inch knife and high on PCP.

Video of the shooting, which was released via court order in November 2015, sparked massive protests and prompted federal and local investigations.

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