Sixteen Shots and a Conviction
Jason Van Dyke, the Chicago police officer who shot Laquan McDonald sixteen times, has been found guilty of murder. It's a major victory for Chicago activists and the broader movement against police brutality.
Demonstrators protest on September 5 outside of the Leighton Criminal Courts Building as jury selection began in the murder trial for Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke. Scott Olson / Getty
Listening to a jury spokeswoman on a local news livestream read out today’s verdict on Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke earlier today, the first shock came when she announced that Van Dyke was guilty of second-degree murder.
Then came the next charges — sixteen of them, each for aggravated battery, read one by one; “guilty,” sixteen more times. This was a different kind of shock, borne less of surprise than constant repetition. Everyone listening was agonizingly reminded that this police officer had unloaded sixteen bullets into a black teenager named Laquan McDonald on a Chicago street. Sixteen. The number boggles the mind.
Police shootings are common in America. But police convictions for wrongdoing aren’t. Not Van Dyke, though — he’s going to prison, likely for a long time.
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