On Friday, former police officer Jason Van Dyke was sentenced to 6 years and 9 months in prison for second degree murder. While on duty, he shot 16 times at 17 year old Laquan McDonald, who was holding a three inch knife, a possible threat to the cop. Since he was charged with second degree murder, he only has to serve half of his time at the very least, so he could be out in about three years. Prosecutors wanted him to serve 18 to 20 years. His family gave statements about how he was just doing his job and how his kids have been bullied. Witnesses were called in to testify on how he handled them during arrests, and out of 22 complaints, he was not found at fault in all of them.
This article was written from an unbiased viewpoint, as the author didn't insert his opinions into it. I think the first thing that we have to acknowledge with this article is racism. We may not have Jim Crow laws anymore, but racism is still prominent in today's society. Laquan McDonald, a 17 year old, was walking away when Van Dyke shot him. He may have had a knife, but first of all, he wasn't posing a threat to the police officer, and second, he was walking away. Even more, Van Dyke shot him 16 times. Everyone has a different opinion on this, but I don't see why that was necessary in any way. Even if it was in defense, which video footage reveals it wasn't, that's still excessive. There have been multiple cases of black male teens being harassed/murdered by police officers. This needs to stop. It is dehumanizing and cruel, and as a society, we have to realize that we can't let police officers off the hook for it just because "it's their job", because their job is to protect, not harm.
https://www.npr.org/2019/01/18/686391662/former-chicago-cop-jason-van-dyke-to-be-sentenced-for-laquan-mcdonald-murder
16 shots really shows that this man has some problems that need to be dealt with
ReplyDeleteI might have had sympathy for Van Dyke if he hadn't shot McDonald 16 times. Is 6 years and 9 months all that McDonald's life is worth to America?
ReplyDeleteI agree, one shot is a huge difference rather than 16 shots... that is simply called vengeance. It should be ask questions, and then shoot, not the other way around because there is no way to know now if the victim was innocent.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that it took this long for the authorities to get this man into prison is awful like omg! I hope this man gets what he deserves because they way it looks I think he deserves worse than what he is getting. I don’t understand how people think in these awful ways. - Joziah German
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