This is part of an ongoing series through the end of the year where LXBN members reflect on the biggest legal development of the past five years. Today’s comes to us from Shawn Collins, author on Pollution Law Watch.
Improbably, the November 19, 2015 order of a relatively unknown Chicago judge –granting a private citizen’s request under Illinois’ Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) – may turn out to have launched one of the most consequential civil rights initiatives in the history of American justice.
Photo Credit: Michael Kappel cc
The issue before state court Judge Franklin Valderrama was whether the Chicago Police Department had adequate reason under FOIA to continue to keep secret from the public a police video showing the fatal shooting some 13 months earlier by a white Chicago police officer of a 17-year old African American named Laquan McDonald. The police argued to the Judge that the release of the video would threaten an on-going investigation of the shooting; plaintiff Brandon Smith – a freelance journalist – argued that the police weren’t even doing an investigation of the shooting, and that the release of the video wouldn’t threaten any legitimate investigation that was still on-going, anyway. Judge Valderrama decided that Smith was right, explaining in civics textbook-style that the “full and complete disclosure of the affairs of government…is necessary to enable the people to fulfill their duties to monitor government.” The Judge ordered the video publicly released “on or before November 25, 2015.” (Judge Valderrama’s Memorandum Opinion and Order found here).
The 6-minute-long video horrified the public. It showed that, on the night of October 20, 2014, Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke fired 16 shots into McDonald – the first two of them even though McDonald was peacefully walking away from Van Dyke, and the last of them after McDonald was lying motionless in the street, moments away from death. (Police Video found here). The savagery of Van Dyne’s bullets piercing the prone, utterly defenseless McDonald was corroborated by the autopsy report’s clinical notation that nine of Van Dyne’s bullets had struck McDonald “at a downward angle.” (Cook County Medical Examiner’s Autopsy Report found here).
The video images of McDonald’s killing tore the last thin scab off the decades-old wound of abuse of African Americans by Chicago’s police. It also exposed a dirty conspiracy among not only the police – who were proven by the video to have spread a chilling series of lies to protect Van Dyke – but also Chicago’s elected and law enforcement officials, who went to great lengths to try to make sure the public did not learn the truth. As growing crowds of protestors gathered in downtown Chicago to express their sadness and rage over what the video revealed, Chicago and America learned the depths of the cover-up that had been planned in the expectation that no Chicago judge would ever order the video released:
In official reports prepared shortly after McDonald’s killing, at least five of Van Dyke’s fellow officers lied to make McDonald appear the aggressor, and his fatal shooting therefore justified. These officers falsely reported, for example, that: “McDonald came toward [Van Dyke] with a knife in his hand;” McDonald was “trying to kill [Van Dyke]. In defense of his life, [Van Dyke] backpedaled + fired”; “McDonald committed aggravated assault against three officers, finally forcing Officer Van Dyke, in defense of his life, to shoot and kill McDonald.” (Officer Reports found here).
- Police supervisors reviewed the evidence, and falsely concluded that McDonald’s killing was a “justifiable homicide,” finding that “Officer Van Dyke fired his weapon in fear of his life.” (Tactical Response Report found here).
- The Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) – charged with investigating allegations of police misconduct – refused to reach a conclusion on Van Dyke’s behavior, despite having the video for 13 months after McDonald’s killing.
- Van Dyke remained a police officer, with full salary and benefits.
- Van Dyke was a well-protected cop. At least 20 complaints had previously been lodged against him, including one for the violent treatment of a citizen that resulted in an award to Van Dyke’s victim of over $500,000. But Van Dyke has never been disciplined. (Van Dyke’s Complaint Database found here).
- On the eve of his April, 2015 re-election – which would require many African American votes – Chicago’s Mayor helped buy the silence of McDonald’s family, by seeing to it that the City made a $5 million “settlement” with the family, even though it had filed no lawsuit. The settlement received the unanimous support of the City’s 50 aldermen. (News Report found here).
- County prosecutor Anita Alvarez had the video for 13 months before its ordered release, yet made no criminal charges against Van Dyke during that time. Moments before the video was released, however, and wary of the public’s certain anger after it saw the video, Alvarez scrambled to charge Van Dyke with first degree murder. (News Report found here).
In short, the video’s release proved that everyone whose job it was to protect Laquan McDonald was far more interested in protecting his killer, fully confident that the video would remain a secret, and never unmask their deceit. The result of the video’s publication, however, is that, now and at long last, the United States Department of Justice has launched an investigation of the Chicago Police Department, a ritualized abuser of African Americans. It is no stretch to believe that a federal judge will soon appoint an independent over-seer to monitor the behavior of the department, until a thorough review can be accomplished, and meaningful reforms implemented.
When a police officer wrongfully kills a citizen, we often console ourselves with the common refrain that “the great majority of cops are good cops, and the act of one rogue cop shouldn’t be held against them all.” But the problem in Chicago is that Jason Van Dyke is not a “rogue” cop. A “rogue” cop would not have had every one of his colleagues that night so willing to lie for him in official reports; or have been allowed to keep his job; or have been charged with a crime only because the prosecutor was shamed into charging him by the impending release of the video; or have had elected officials spend $5 million of taxpayer money to try to ensure that his crime would never be discovered.
Even by Chicago standards, the duplicity is stunning: the City’s police were officially concluding that there was no crime, while City officials were so certain that a crime had been committed that they were anxious to pay millions to cover it up.
No, sadly, in Chicago, Jason Van Dyke is no “rogue” cop. He kills a defenseless black teenager, and suddenly he’s got allies at the highest level of City government. He’s a cop that everyone lines up to help.
The seemingly simple order of Judge Franklin Valderrama has allowed us to see this systematized, official racism for what it is, and allowed us to hope for a day when African American citizens of Chicago will be able to walk the streets and not fear the people paid to protect them.