“This is the ultimate illustration that Black lives don't matter as much as other lives.'
FILE - Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke, left, attends his sentencing hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago, for the 2014 shooting of Laquan McDonald, Jan. 18, 2019. Van Dyke is scheduled to be released from prison on Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022, after he served less than half of his 81-month sentence. CHICAGO — The 2018 conviction of former police Officer Jason Van Dyke for the killing of Black teenager Laquan McDonald marked an important moment in Chicago's history.
But reforms have come slower than expected and the city has struggled to meet some of the consent decree's deadlines. Not only that, but just as then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel fought the release of the McDonald video, Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration tried to prevent a TV station from airing video of a botched police raid in which an innocent Black woman was handcuffed while naked.
Hatch's anger stems in part from a sense that the criminal justice system came tantalizingly close to finally working for a Black victim of police violence before the judge called a legal audible by sentencing Van Dyke only for second-degree murder — a charge that allows defendants to serve half their sentences if they behave in prison — and not any of theThe battery charge carries a sentence of six to 30 years in prison and those convicted of it must serve at least 85% of the term they...
And although McDonald’s great uncle, the Rev. Marvin Hunter, believes the sentence was woefully inadequate, he said it doesn't take away from the significance of the case.
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