{"id":212831,"date":"2015-12-31T03:33:26","date_gmt":"2015-12-31T03:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/the-days-of-lying-to-protect-killer-cops-are-numbered\/"},"modified":"2015-12-31T03:33:26","modified_gmt":"2015-12-31T03:33:26","slug":"the-days-of-lying-to-protect-killer-cops-are-numbered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/the-days-of-lying-to-protect-killer-cops-are-numbered\/","title":{"rendered":"The Days of Lying to Protect Killer Cops Are Numbered"},"content":{"rendered":"

Right around Thanksgiving, the city of\u00a0Chicago\u00a0released a dash-cam video showing the cold-blooded murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald at the hands of a\u00a0Chicago\u00a0Police Department officer.<\/p>\n

The very next day, the\u00a0Chicago\u00a0Urban League \u2013 supported by my organization, the National Urban League \u2013 formally requested that the Department of Justice investigate the Chicago police. This long-sought probe will investigate racial disparities in how our nation’s second-largest police department uses force. And it will scrutinize the city’s ability to handle allegations of misconduct and discipline rogue officers.<\/p>\n

The discrepancies between police accounts of the October 2014 shooting of the black teen and what’s actually seen in the video are stark and disturbing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Police claimed McDonald moved toward the officers just before the shooting. The video, however, shows him jogging away from the police. Police claimed McDonald continued moving toward the officers even after he fell. The video shows Officer Jason Van Dyke firing shots into McDonald\u2019s motionless body. Police claimed the knife the teen\u00a0held was in the open position. State\u2019s Attorney Anita Alvarez said the blade was closed.<\/p>\n

\"Seeing<\/a><\/p>\n

Seeing No Evil, Chicago Edition, an OtherWords cartoon by Khalil Bendib<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In other words, the police lied \u2013 repeatedly.<\/p>\n

The police conspiracy to conceal the truth of what happened that night speaks to a long-standing grievance \u2013 particularly among the city\u2019s African-American communities \u2013 that many police officers believe they’re above the communities and laws they’re sworn to protect and serve.<\/p>\n

Van Dyke, who shot 16 bullets into\u00a0McDonald \u2013 most of them while he was already lying on the ground \u2013 had 18 citizen complaints<\/a> filed against him. But the police officer had never been disciplined.<\/p>\n

McDonald\u2019s unnecessary and tragic death has pushed aside the dark veil of police department unaccountability. In 97 percent of citizen complaints<\/a> filed from 2011 to 2015,\u00a0The<\/em> New York Times <\/em>reports, not one officer was punished.<\/p>\n

Enough is enough. Lies and cover-ups can never be the norm in our nation\u2019s police departments.<\/p>\n

No one is served when the police and citizens look at each other with distrust, fear, and hostility. To effectively fight crime, citizens and police officers must be partners in that effort \u2013 and that can\u2019t happen if suspicion and anger stand in between that vital, life-saving partnership.<\/p>\n

We need to understand more than how the police handled this specific case. We also need to know if this outrage points to a pattern of systemic abuse and lies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mixed message of purported concern yet muted response \u2013 or even denial \u2013 we\u2019ve seen from [the department’s] top management highlights the lack of transparency and due process when it comes to officer-involved shootings,\u201d said Chicago\u00a0Urban League interim president and CEO Shari Runner. \u201cIt is imperative that the Department of Justice step in and correct this conduct before there is any more loss of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

As long as organizations like ours, community groups, and the citizens of\u00a0Chicago\u00a0and beyond continue to demand that police departments respect the civil rights of everyone they protect and serve, the days of lies and cover-ups to protect killer cops are numbered.<\/p>\n

The post The Days of Lying to Protect Killer Cops Are Numbered<\/a> appeared first on OtherWords<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This piece was reprinted from Other Words<\/a> by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Right around Thanksgiving, the city of\u00a0Chicago\u00a0released a dash-cam video showing the cold-blooded murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald at the hands of a\u00a0Chicago\u00a0Police Department officer. The very next day, the\u00a0Chicago\u00a0Urban League \u2013 supported by my organization, the National Urban League \u2013 formally requested that the Department of Justice investigate the Chicago police. This long-sought probe will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":212832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-212831","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}