Analysis Of ' Death Of Laquan Mcdonald '

The brutality of the police force has been a long worldwide problem, but especially between the years of 2012-2016. Black people are being unjustly beaten and shot in plain sight for doing nothing while being unarmed. Journal of African American Studies “Blacks are viewed as deserving of harsh treatment in the criminal justice system” (482). “Black males with more “Afrocentric” features may receive longer sentences than blacks with less Afrocentric features like lighter skin and straighter hair”(482). Nowadays it is important to know about the police force. It’s important to know our rights as citizens and be careful around cops. Not everybody is good, but not everybody is bad also. In The New York Amsterdam News 21 people were killed by Chicago police in 2008. Entire families were being attacked. They believe it’s because of their skin color and how they are different. The year of racism started off with the world seeing the police murder of Oscar Grant. “The media have pushed people away from hearing the issue of police brutality, and it has fallen off of the radar screen.”(2) “You can’t give in. They will try to make an example out of you, try to break your spirit!”(2) African Americans say do not trust the cops with anything. “They will ruin you.”(2)

When an ethical dilemma turns to lies. On Oct. 20, 2014, Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald sixteen times. Once the tape was released thirteen month later, the relationship between the community, the mayor, and the Chicago Police Department was shattered.

In recent years and in light of recent tragedies, police actions, specifically police brutality, has come into view of a large, public and rather critical eye. The power to take life rests in the final stage of the criminal justice system. However, the controversy lies where due process does not. While the use of deadly force is defined and limited by departmental policies, it remains an act guided chiefly by the judgment of individual officers in pressure situations. (Goldkamp 1976, 169). Many current studies have emphasized the racial disparities in minority deaths, primarily black Americans, killed by police through means of deadly force. The history of occurrences reveals the forlorn truth that police reforms only receive attention in wake of highly publicized episodes of police misconduct. The notorious 1992 Los Angeles riots brought the matter to mass public attention and prompted improved law enforcement policy. Significant local reforms resulted, for instance, ending the policy of lifetime terms for police chiefs. Additionally, on a broader platform, in 1994, Congress approved provisions to the Crime Control Act in effort to tackle police abuse in a more structured way.

Despite the important racial progresss our society has made since Emmett Till’s death, from the civil rights era, to present increase of police brutality has still left the Black/African American community in shadows of segregation. The second most recent shooting of teenager Michael Brown has left citizens in ongoing battles with law enforcement officers of Ferguson, Missouri. New Statement (2014) reports, Missouri police similarly attempted to retain control of the narrative, claiming Brown had stolen cigars, and then paying for them, and then claiming he was a bad child and attacked the officer who shot him” (New Statement, 21). Brown autopsy reveals he was gun less and shot six times. Police brutality is not solely about Ferguson, Emmett Till, or the civil rights movement, but it is simply about the history of capitalism and police brutality in America and having many forms of it.

“Officer Jeronimo Yanez, charged with second-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of Philando Castile, a 32-year-old black Minneapolis man” (Capecchi). “Brian Encinia, former Texas trooper charged with misdemeanor perjury stemming from his arrest of Sandra Bland, a black woman who was later found dead in a county jail” (Almasy). “Sgt. Kizzy Adonis, charged with failure to supervise in connection with the 2014 death of Eric Garner, a 43-year-old black Staten Island man who died after police to administered a controversial choke hold” (Eversley). These are a few examples of the mistreatment suffered by young black citizens at the hands of police officers that resulted in the death of a suspect. Throughout the nation, the mishandling of the authority given to police officers has increased and is not merely coincidentally occurring.

Over the last two years in the United States the African-American people have been fighting a war within our own backyards. The Washington Post reports that since January 2015, the police have shot and killed over 175 young black men ranging from ages 18-29; 24 of them were unarmed. On the flip side 172 young white men were killed, only 18 being unarmed. With these statistics there are similarities in the numbers but, blacks were killed at rates disproportional to their percentage of U.S population (1.Washington Post). Of all unarmed people shot and killed by police in 2015. With 40% being black men make up just 6% of the nation’s populations. In the wake of the killings of Mike Brown, Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling, and many more the world has been made more publicly aware of injustices black people have to handle when dealing with law enforcement. Crime in the black community is nothing new in the black community or should I say black on black crime. There is a bad stereotype that has been put on black people since slavery times that I believe has help fueled the violence between the police and my people.

This case provides the story of the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald (17 years) in Chicago by Police Officer Jason Van Dyke on or about October 21, 2014. McDonald died after having been shot 16 times late on that evening by Van Dyke as he and others responded to a report of a man armed with a knife breaking into vehicles in a truck yard (CQ Research, 2016). McDonald, who had a record of juvenile arrests, allegedly refused the officers’ demands to drop his knife (CQ Research, 2016). After 400 days of the incident, the video from a police vehicle showed that McDonald, who was holding a knife was walking parallel, but away from the officers when he was shot 16 times by Van Dyke (Police Charges, 2015). The public has a right to know as much as possible about the rules governing the police and about investigations into allegations of police misconduct. Transparency holds police accountable and accountability builds trust in Police Department.

Police shootings are unfortunate events but whenever there is a shooting, the topic of race emerges. Police shootings have always been the highlights on news channels and there is always the racially biased narrative that keeps repeating itself yet no one seems to dispute this narrative. However, did you know that studies show a police officer is eighteen and a half times more likely to be killed by a African American male than an unarmed African American male is to be killed by a police officer? In fact, a recent “deadly force” study by Washington State University researcher Lois James found that police officers were actually less likely to shoot an unarmed black suspect than unarmed Caucasian or Hispanic suspect in simulated threat scenarios. Some would argue that there are still police shootings all over America and they occur when police officers

A young man’s brutal death at the hands of the police is found justified in a court of law due to his “suspicious” appearance: a black hoodie and his hands in his pocket. An elderly woman is fatally shot in her home for her relation to a suspected criminal. A married man with two toddlers is choked to death after a minor traffic stop by an officer who later claimed that his unarmed victim was wielding a gun. These people all have a few commonalities: the color of their skin, their presumed guilt at first sight, and their ultimate unjustified death administered by the law force. These are not uncommon occurrences. Due to the staggeringly disproportionate rate of African-Americans killed by the police, and the underlying rampant racial profiling, police brutality towards blacks in America must be called to light.

Being that, on October 20, 2014 in Chicago where 17 year old African-American Laquan McDonald was shot brutally and excessively by officer Jason Van Dyke the boy was shot sixteen times the first shots where to his back then he collapsed on the floor the officer kept shooting till McDonald hit the concrete and the officer still shot at him. The Chicago community was outraged about the officer shooting the teenager. Even today police brutality is still out there this is a perfect example of police brutality shooting someone with a full magazine of bullets is crazy and for having a Swiss army knife. The officer will be facing chargers for first degree murder.

You are a single mom with one kid who is out drinking at a bar for the night. You get a call on the phone. Your son is in the hospital with gruesome wounds and broken bones….from the police.. USA police alone have killed over 5,000 citizens since the 9/11 incident with most of them being black males. Most recently, Freddie Gray was terribly injured by the Baltimore police who arrested him for weapon violations. Freddie gray later died in police custody from a severed spinal cord that he received from the police’s horrible treatment toward him. Riots broke out in Baltimore against Freddie’s terrible treatment. The riots cost the city of Baltimore $9,000,000 in repairs for all of the damage. Research also says that the knife that Freddie Gray

A great deal of society views law enforcement officers as heroic and honorable individuals, whose main purpose is to protect and serve the community. For many officers, this description is accurate, however for others; violence and brutality against innocent citizens is part of getting the job done. For years, minorities have fallen victim to police brutality based on racial profiling, stereotypes and other

Excessive force and police brutality have become common terms for anyone keeping up with today’s current events. In 2014, the media covered numerous cases of excessive force that resulted in the deaths of several people of color (Nelson & Staff, 2014). The most widely covered cases by the media in 2014 were of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black male shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri; and Eric Garner, a 43-year-old black male in Staten Island, New York who was put into a choke by police officer Daniel Pantaleo until he lost consciousness and stopped breathing (Nelson & Staff, 2014). These cases brought attention to the seriousness of police brutality and the curiosity of how often it occurs (Brown, 2015).

Police violence is a very large and controversial topic in today’s society, however, it is an unavoidable fact that people of color are

There have been adjustments that have been made to change to inner workings of the system regarding the creation of laws and regulations to address crime and to keep citizens safe. However, research demonstrates that often times men of color are treated punitively, which advances the development of negative perceptions held by police officers. The recent shootings that have occurred in the areas of Baton Rouge, Falcon Heights, and Dallas have subjected many people and their families to incidents of police brutality (Anderson, 1995). These types of incidents remind us that, as a society, there is effort that needs to be put into consistently improving the relationship between police and community. Incidents involving police brutality have been