Chicago is enduring a second night of protests after the release of police video showing the minutes leading up to the 2014 shooting of an African-American teen. Wednesday night, a second video has been released, showing video from the cruiser of the officer who fired the 16 fatal shots that killed the teen.
Protests erupted in Chicago on Tuesday after the CPD spent nearly a year avoiding the release of the dashcam video from the November 20, 2014, fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.
Now a second video of the incident has been released, showing an additional viewpoint filmed before Officer Van Dyke shot McDonald.
The second video was taken by Officer Van Dyke’s police cruiser and shows him driving through a Burger King parking lot as the teenager runs out in front of him before running down the street. It appears that the video shows the small knife clutched in the teen’s hand.
The video also reveals a malfunction, of sorts. Other police video shows that Officer Jason Van Dyke had turned off his police lights, which usually shuts off the dashcam, but for some reason the camera continues to roll, showing the moment the officer arrived at the scene and jumped out of his cruiser.
The city was rocked by a second wave of protests Wednesday night, 24 hours after the original dashcam video was released in compliance with a court order.
The same day the original video was released, State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez said of the footage, “It is graphic. It is violent. It is chilling. This video will tear at the hearts of all Chicagoans.”
At the same time, Alvarez also announced that she was charging Officer Van Dyke with first degree murder.
Still, some feel that the year that officials spent dragging their feet over the release of the video smacks of political calculations. Some even say the year-long delay was meant to help Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel get re-elected earlier this year.
Others are calling for State’s Attorney Alvarez to resign for failing to indict Officer Van Dyke for an entire year.
It seems clear that political repercussions are still developing over the shooting and how it has been handled.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston, or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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