Mykaela Johnson

Period 1

Laquan McDonald shooting
Jason Van Dyke, a police officer who grew up in the Chicago area, was charged with shooting 17-year old, Laquan McDonald. The officer turned himself in Tuesday, which is the same day the video of the shooting was released to the public. According to the video, McDonald was armed with a knife and with PCP in his system. Van Dyke's attorney, has told CNN multiple times that the officer feared for his life. The attorney has been defending the officer by saying that a video is always one-sided. However, JasonVan Dyke had a history of complaints over his 14-year career, one involving racial slurs.
I personally have not watched the released video of the shooting, simply because I am not into to violence, but especially on film for all to see. However, I do believe releasing the video was a smart decision. Although it may be painful for some to watch, it may help authorities come to a more clear verdict as they make their decisions on what happened and what should happen going forward. Police brutality has obviously been a major problem in the past few years. Although some blame it totally on racism, I believe some officers are just violent, bad people who were caught in a horrible situation and made the wrong decision. In this situation, I am to completely sure of motive, but thankfully thats's not my job to figure out. Having so any police officers in my life, I don't believe they're all bad people with bad intentions. However, after viewing statistics on police brutality, I've realized how bad it has become. I hope we can make a change as soon as possible. This will be the history my kids have to learn about, which saddens me.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/25/us/jason-van-dyke-previous-complaints-lawsuits/index.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/fatal-police-shootings-in-2015-approaching-400-nationwide/2015/05/30/d322256a-058e-11e5-a428-c984eb077d4e_story.html