Laquan McDonald's Death: Tragic In So Many Ways Pt. 2

I'm as frustrated as anyone about the shooting death of Laquan McDonald.  It's unnerving to watch a police officer shoot a person 16 times, especially when there is no exchange of gunfire. And then there's the matter of the time it took to bring charges against Officer Van Dyke, who was allowed to remain on the job, but off the street, for over a year after the shooting. It sends a bad message that no one in authority thought is was worth it to keep the public informed about the process in this highly controversial case. Which is pretty ironic since everyone talks about transparency, but this case appears to be anything but.  Ufortunately when something like this happens, it only serves to whittle away the public's trust just a little more.

But the fact of the matter is, Officer Van Dyke has been charged and was taken into custody.  Cook County Criminal Court Associate Judge Donald Panarese, Jr. set bail at $1.5 million dollars. On Monday, Van Dyke posted bail--$150,000.00, ten percent of the amount set by the judge--and was released. Some believe there has been a miscarriage of justice because Officer Van Dyke was granted bail, made bail and has been released.  Like it or not, Van Dyke is legally presumed to be innocent and is entitled to due process. It's the judge's decision if bail will be set and for how much. There are cases when bail is not allowed, but if the judge, after considering several factors, including they type of crime and the defendant's background, decides to grant bail, there is no miscarriage of justice

In part one of this post, I said there were other aspects of this case that were also tragic, and here's a brief rundown of those things:

Lequan McDonald's Death: Tragic In So Many Ways Pt. 1

During the week of October 19-25, 2014, five black males were killed in Chicago.  One of them happened to be 17-year-old Laquan McDonald who was killed on Monday, October 20th in a hail of bullets discharged from the gun of Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke. The shooting has drawn national attention because of the apparent excessive use of force to stop McDonald, who had a weapon, a knife, not a gun, but a weapon none the less.

This case essentially remained dormant in the public space, because the State's Attorney, Anita Alvarez did not bring charges against Van Dyke for over a year.  Alvarez has stated that she wanted to take time to navigate the legal labyrinth to ensure a first degree murder charge and nothing less in the case against Van Dyke.  However, many legal experts have expressed doubts of Alvarez's claims that a year was needed to ensure that the case met legal standard for first degree murder charges. On the other hand, juries are usually reluctant to second-guess police officers making split-second, life or death decisions in tense situations.

Let me clearly state that this is a very tragic situation.  Laquan McDonald lived a very short and difficult life.  He was a ward of the state.  In his short life, he spent 14 years being shuffled between