Jason Van Dyke has been held accountable by a jury for shooting Laquan McDonald 16 times and unnecessarily killing him. Laquan McDonald should still be alive today. We continue to grieve for the McDonald family and broader community, which lost this young man too soon. We also remember the many families who have lost loved ones to excessive force by police officers who have not yet received justice. This burden falls disproportionately across the City—96% of people shot by the Chicago police are Black or Latinx.
No one believes that the conviction of this individual officer repairs the problems in policing – not in Chicago nor in our country. While Mr. Van Dyke will face accountability for his actions, it is critical that the rest of us do not yet look away from the Chicago Police Department. In the aftermath of this verdict, no community should suffer abuse or neglect.
The ACLU of Illinois remains committed to working with our community partners to mend the broken system that has allowed excessive force to happen and made the kind of accountability we see today so rare. We must continue to follow through with the reforms of the CPD that the video of his actions helped catalyze, and which must bring systemic change to how police officers serve Chicagoans.