“A Chicago police officer facing first-degree murder for fatally shooting a teen 16 times was released from county jail Monday evening, hours after a judge set bond at $1.5 million,” usatoday.com reporters. “Officer Jason Van Dyke had been in jail since Tuesday after prosecutors charged him with the Oct. 20, 2014, shooting of Laquan McDonald. Also on Tuesday, the city released dashcam video that shows the teen, who is black, being shot by Van Dyke, who is white.” Wait. Who said anything about the crime being racially motivated – other than USA Today? Does that mean . . .
that the left will be incensed at the mass media’s “inflammatory rhetoric” when protesters wreak havoc in The Windy City? Doubtful. Anyway, the police union’s got Van Dyke’s back.
Dean Angelo, president of the Chicago police union, said after Monday’s hearing that the union continues to stand by Van Dyke. He said that fellow officers have donated an undisclosed sum to a bail fund set up by Van Dyke’s wife.
“I think (the video shows) Officer Van Dyke steps into training mode and takes action that we believe at that time was justified,” Angelo said.
Herbert said his client feared for his life and was acting out of self-defense. He added that the video doesn’t portray the full portrait of what led to the shooting and that his client would ultimately be vindicated when all the evidence is presented at trial.
“When you see the video alone, it does not seem like a justifiable shooting,” Herbert said. “But there are certain things I know that quite frankly nobody else knows.”
We look forward to knowing what we don’t know. As if you didn’t know.