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