RSN: Saudi Arabia Can't Get Enough, Kills 17 More Yemeni Civilians, Freedom Square Encampment Thrives in One of Chicago's Most Neglected Areas, America's Journalistic Hypocrites

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Robert Parry | America's Journalistic Hypocrites 
 
Robert Parry, Consortium News 
Parry writes: "The U.S. news media flip-flops on whether international law is inviolate or can be brushed aside at America's whim - and similarly whether killing civilians is justified or not depending on who's doing the killing." 
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Smoking Gun? Aetna Threatened to Quit Obamacare If the Government Blocked Its Humana Merger 
Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times 
Hiltzik writes: "Aetna's announcement this week that it was pulling out of most of the states where it was serving the Obamacare individual exchanges was a head-scratcher; after all, just three months earlier, Chief Executive Mark Bertolini was calling its participation in the market 'a good investment,' despite near-term losses." 
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Serb Who Inspired Ethnic Cleansing of Bosnia Leads "Vote Trump" Rally in Belgrade 
Robert Mackey, The Intercept 
Mackey writes: "The activists, led by the head of Serbia's ultranationalist Radical Party, Vojislav Seselj, chanted 'Donald Trump!' and marched outside the country's Parliament wearing T-shirts bearing the name and likeness of the American candidate." 
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Transgender Woman Found Dead in Prison During Legal Battle With Corrections Officials 
Carimah Townes, ThinkProgress 
Townes writes: "A family in Florida is demanding answers about why a transgender woman doing time in a men's prison was found dead in her solitary cell earlier this month. At the time of her death, the woman, Stacy Lorraine Naber, was fighting the Florida Department of Corrections to legally change her name from the one she was born with." 
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Freedom Square Encampment Thrives in One of Chicago's Most Neglected Areas 
Kevin Gosztola, Shadowproof 
Gosztola writes: "For more than three weeks, an encampment has flourished across from Homan Square, a secretive police compound which has come to symbolize police repression in Chicago. It was launched by organizers from Black Youth Project 100, who chained and locked themselves to ladders and shut down the the entrance and exit to the facility on July 20." 
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Saudi Arabia Can't Get Enough, Kills 17 More Yemeni Civilians 
teleSUR 
Excerpt: "After killing at least 18 people in two separate airstrikes over the past three days, the Saudi coalition killed at least 17 more civilians Tuesday, most of them women and children, in two airstrikes on a family home in the east of the capital Sanaa." 
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Navajo Nation Sues EPA Over Metal Sludge From Colorado Mine Spill 
Reuters 
Excerpt: "The Navajo Nation sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday, one year after 3 million gallons of toxic wastewater spilled into three states from an abandoned Colorado gold mine." 
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Intrepid Report: Week of April 11, 2016: FOIA documents reveal Gitmo in Chicago torture and abuse, Washington continues to destroy Latin American reformers, President Killary Would the world survive President Hillary?

Intrepid Report Newsletter
We cannot keep publishing without your help. We rely on you to help us pay our monthly expenses. So please Donate Monday Overturning inverted totalitarianism By Michael Hasty Perhaps the most important result so far of the Bernie Sanders insurgency is how starkly it has exposed the truly totalitarian nature of the 21st century American state. ‘Cherry picking’ leaked documents: a CIA art form By Wayne Madsen The US Central Intelligence Agency, rather than attempt to deter massive leaks of sensitive documents, including classified US government materials, has figured out it is much more advantageous to “cherry pick” certain information and then release it as “major news” to a corporate media eager and willing to run with what they are handed. Such has been the case with the so-called “Panama Papers.“ Neither America nor the world deserve Hillary Clinton’s inevitability By Ben Tanosborn Who, one might ask, better to understand, advocate, and take action on US interests around the world than the former secretary of state? Doesn’t Ms. Clinton’s background as past head of the State Department for Barack Obama round out her other training in domestic affairs as the perfect US Head of State, better described in our hawkish-lexicon as commander-in-chief? Isn’t that the way our forefathers did see the proper, and noble, political training demanded from anyone who aspires to become president of this nation, the United States of America? The shame of our country By Ed Dunphy Recently, I viewed a special on PBS which featured an old acquaintance. I feel more like a friend since he was such an influence during the sixties. However, I was more in tune with him then he was with me. In actuality it was honestly a very casual acquaintance. I guess in my mind it was more, since it was such brush with greatness. Here, there, everywhere, nowhere By Missy Comley Beattie Maybe it wasn’t the lure of adventure motivating my decision to sell the condo. Remember my telling you that when someone asks where I want to live, I say, “Nowhere.” I’ve been examining the simplicity (or complexity) of that response. Tuesday Trans-Atlantic & Trans-Pacific ‘Partnerships’ complete corporate world takeover’ By Paul Craig Roberts As I have emphasized since these “partnerships” were first announced, their purpose is to give corporations immunity from the laws in the countries in which they do business. The principle mechanism of this immunity is the granting of the right to corporations to sue governments and agencies of governments that have laws or regulations that impinge on corporate profits. For example, France’s prohibitions of GMO foods are, under the “partnerships,” restraints on trade that impinge on corporate profits. Should Hillary have the leading role? By Richard John Stapleton Hillary Clinton is a wonderful leader, so some memes tell us on Facebook and some pundits tell us in mainstream media. Anti-labor law protests in France By Stephen Lendman Small-scale protests last month grew to much larger ones—in Paris and numerous other French cities. ‘The most successful president in U.S. history’ By Dave Alpert The past couple of days, I’ve noticed postings on Facebook calling President Obama “the most successful president in U.S. history.” TSA mocks blind man By Lisa Simeone No matter how often we hear these stories, one after another after another after another, for years now, each new outrage is still infuriating. No matter how low you think the TSA can go, it always goes lower. Wednesday The war on savings: The Panama Papers, bail-ins, and the push to go cashless By Ellen Brown The bombshell publication of the “Panama Papers,” leaked from a Panama law firm specializing in shell companies, has triggered both outrage and skepticism. In an April 3 article, titled “Corporate Media Gatekeepers Protect Western 1% From Panama Leak,” UK blogger Craig Murray writes that the whistleblower no doubt had good intentions; but he made the mistake of leaking his 11.5 million documents to the corporate-controlled Western media, which released only those few documents incriminating opponents of Western financial interests. Washington continues to destroy Latin American reformers By Paul Craig Roberts Currently, Washington is conducting operations against Latin American presidents who tried to represent their own peoples instead of American business interests and Washington’s foreign policy. Washington is trying to unseat and indict President Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, President Evo Morales in Bolivia, President Rafael Correa in Ecuador, and President Dilma Rousseff in Brazil. Washington has succeeded in getting the president of Argentina, Cristina Kirchner, out of office, and is now seeking to have her indicted. To round off its attack on Brazil’s reformist political party, Washington is orchestrating crimes with which to tar and indict Rousseff’s predecessor, Lula da Silva. America’s money controlled political process By Stephen Lendman From inception, America was never beautiful or democratic. Rich and powerful interests run things exclusively for their own benefit, ordinary people entirely shut out. Are you ready for President Paul Ryan? Why we desperately need a Plan C By Harvey Wasserman The Democratic party is teetering on the brink. The green/peace/social justice community needs a Plan C. The Republicans have one. The Democrats don’t. The impacts could be catastrophic. It’s not £30,000 in Cameron’s offshore account, it’s at least £2 million By Wayne Madsen British Prime Minister David Cameron tried to fend off criticism of an offshore trust maintained in the Bahamas by his father Ian Cameron and which he inherited upon his father’s death in 2010. The details of the trust were contained in the massive tranche of documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, which were leaked to the media by the dubious International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), an operation funded by George Soros, the CIA-connected U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Ford Foundation. Thursday President Killary Would the world survive President Hillary? By Paul Craig Roberts Hillary Clinton is proving to be the “Teflon candidate.” In her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, she has escaped damage from major scandals, any one of which would destroy a politician. Hillary has accepted massive bribes in the form of speaking fees from financial organizations and corporations. She is under investigation for misuse of classified data, an offense for which a number of whistleblowers are in prison. Hillary has survived the bombing of Libya, her creation of a failed Libyan state that is today a major source of terrorist jihadists, and the Benghazi controversy. She has survived charges that as secretary of state she arranged favors for foreign interests in exchange for donations to the Clintons’ foundation. And, of course, there is a long list of previous scandals: Whitewater, Travelgate, Filegate. Diana Johnstone’s book, Queen of Chaos, describes Hillary Clinton as “the top salesperson for the ruling oligarchy.” Freedom Rider: Barack, Hillary and the Libya crime By Margaret Kimberley Barack Obama’s last nine months in office will provide plenty of opportunity for him to spoon feed his scribes in the corporate media. Under the pretense of writing history, they will serve as one collective pro-Obama mouthpiece between now and January 20, 2017. The process is a delicate one however. The president will also have to explain those policies that did not produce the outcomes he wanted. Such is the case with any discussion of his role in destroying Libya. Rove backing Cruz and Hillary at same time By Wayne Madsen According to longtime Republican Party insiders, chief GOP strategist Karl Rove, dubbed “Bush’s brain” during his long service for George W. Bush, is providing campaign advice for both GOP candidate Ted Cruz and leading Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Rove, who backed the aborted campaign of former Florida governor Jeb Bush, is doing everything necessary to deny the GOP nomination to Donald Trump. FOIA documents reveal Gitmo in Chicago torture and abuse By Stephen Lendman London’s Guardian published information gotten from its FOIA lawsuit, documented evidence of “how Chicago police used punches, baton blows and Tasers at [its] off-the-books (Homan Square) interrogation site”—largely terrorizing Blacks. Pharma giant Pfizer blocked from tax evasion New Treasury Department rules helped scrap the alleged tax-dodging giant's attempt to merge with overseas firm. By Martha Rosenberg Big Pharma received $127 billion of our tax dollars in 2014 through the federal programs Medicare, Medicaid, VA, and TRICARE. But just because they live on our tax dollars, doesn’t mean Pharma companies want to pay taxes. Increasingly, they seek tax inversions, reincorporating in countries like Britain, Ireland or the Netherlands, often merging with a European entity to duck U.S. taxes. Friday Is our citizens learning? By Bev Conover Okay, I paraphrased George W. Bush’s awful grammar in this surrealistic electoral season of the Republican clown car and the Hillary & Bernie fracas. Is reform enough or do we need a revolution? By Dave Alpert Bernie Sanders calls his candidacy a “political revolution;” hundreds of people get arrested while demonstrating in Washington, DC, to get the money out of the electoral system and to make the election process more democratic. Canadian politicians controlled by the transnational oligarchy? By Mark Taliano Canada is being colonized by a Washington-led, transnational oligarchy. As with any colony, we are losing our political and economic self-determination and sovereignty. If Americans elect Hillary president, the One Percent’s control will be complete By Paul Craig Roberts Richard C. Cook thinks that Bernie Sanders could become the next president. Fleecing the American taxpayer: The profit incentives driving the police state By John W. Whitehead If there is an absolute maxim by which the federal government seems to operate, it is that the American taxpayer always gets ripped off.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanual's Police State, Black Hole & Torture Chamber

Chicago is reminiscent of the words of Pastor Martin Niemöller: 

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Democratic Party Darling, failed to address many issues surrounding the Chicago Police Department and is deserving of condemnation.  

The revelations regarding Homan Square's Black Hole and Torture sent a Loud and Clear message, never mind the MILLIONS spent settling cases of Chicago Police Killing Unarmed Blacks. 

Has ANYONE in a position of authority met with protesters? attempted to explain how the SYSTEM will change? Is there any transparency? Where there any prosecutions for Homan Square? 

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel continues to exhibit HOW NOT TO GOVERN! 

Boston may not be perfect, but the Mayor, Police Commissioner, Community Leaders are doing their best to be proactive and avoid the missteps of Chicago.

To those folks inclined to be defensive about their local police departments, please do your homework about HOMAN SQUARE!   

RSN: Chicago Cop Beat Wife in Homan Square 'Black Site,' Document Shows

RSN: Rahm Emanuel, the Face of Democratic Fascism, Deserves to Lose

The Disappeared: Chicago Police Detain Americans at Abuse-Laden 'Black Site' 
Spencer Ackerman, The Guardian 
Ackerman writes: "The Chicago police department operates an off-the-books interrogation compound, rendering Americans unable to be found by family or attorneys while locked inside what lawyers say is the domestic equivalent of a CIA black site." 
READ MORE

FOCUS: Charles Pierce | Shoot the Kid 16 Times


Chicago Police Commander Nicholas Roti went to work for Illinois state police [ISP]? 
He didn't know about the TORTURE? 

Chicago police commander resigns in wake of Homan Square revelations

A senior Chicago police commander in charge of a major unit operating out of the controversial Homan Square police warehouse has resigned, the Guardian has confirmed.

The news came as attorneys for three Homan Square victims announced that they would file the first civil rights lawsuit over the facility with the aim of shutting down the complex likened by attorneys and activists to the domestic law enforcement equivalent of a CIA “black site.”

 NIcholas Roti. Photograph: Chicago Bureau of Organized Crime

Nicholas Roti, the chief of the bureau of organized crime, resigned from the Chicago police department last week, Chicago police public affairs officer Mike Sullivan told the Guardian.

In an emailed reply to the Guardian on Thursday night, Martin Maloney of the Chicago police said:

Chief Roti left CPD to become the chief of staff for the Illinois state police [ISP], where he will work for another recently departed senior CPD official who was appointed to be the director of ISP. It’s been in the works for some time.

The organized crime unit, according to its website, is tasked with confronting illegal narcotics, gang activity and vice in Chicago, operations that numerous people formerly held at Homan Square believe led to their incommunicado detentions there.

Roti took charge of the organized crime division in 2010, the Chicago Sun-Timesreported; and led the bureau through a command reorganization in 2011. Published reports indicate Roti is a 27-year veteran police officer.

The Guardian exposed a series of incommunicado detention and abuse at the Chicago police facility, including people being held for extensive periods of time without public notifications to their families or access to attorneys.

Sullivan said that Roti himself did not operate out of Homan Square, but out of police headquarters.

Yet the organized crime bureau was cited by the Chicago police “fact sheet” released on 1 March, attempting to refute the Guardian’s reporting about a complex where 11 people thus far have told the Guardian they were effectively disappeared.

“[S]ensitive units housed at the [Homan Square] facility include the Bureau of Organized Crime (including the narcotics unit),” the fact sheet reads.

Eleven people, seven of them black and Hispanic Chicagoans, have thus far told the Guardian that they have been held at Homan Square. Their detentions most often concerned drug suspicions. On several occasions, while in custody, police interrogators attempted to get detained men and women to either inform on others or deliver guns to the police, sometimes using the prospect of freedom as an enticement. The Chicago police say there is nothing untoward about Homan Square.

According to Chicago city data, Roti’s annual salary was $176,532. A local website cited Roti in 2014 as the 16th highest-paid public official in Chicago. The superintendent of police, cited as the highest paid Chicago public servant, is listed as making $260,000 annually. Mayor Rahm Emanuel makes $216, 210.

The civil rights lawsuit, expected to be filed on Thursday evening in the US district court for the northern district of Illinois, comes on behalf of two Homan Square victims the Guardian wrote about on 4 March: John Vergara and Jose Garcia. They are joined by another man held at Homan Square with them in the same September 2011 incident, Carlos Ruiz, whom the Guardian did not interview.

Vergara and Garcia told the Guardian that masked police police officers “kidnapped” them from a Humboldt Park deli; held them and three others in a Homan Square “cage” without booking or access to counsel for eight to nine hours; and released four of them that evening without charge after Vergara threatened to tell a civil rights attorney what the police had done.

“The plaintiffs would like the facility to be shut down,” said attorney Blake Horwitz, who is representing Vergara, Garcia and Ruiz.

“They’ll be seeking compensation for their injuries, and they’ll be asking that the officers be held liable and responsible for their actions, and for the officers to be punished.”

The lawsuit comes a day after US congressman Danny Davis and Cook County commissioner Richard Boykin hand delivered a letter to US attorney general Eric Holder requesting a Justice Department investigation into Homan Square.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/19/senior-chicago-police-commander-resigns-homan-square

Chicago Drops Legal Objection to Release Video of 2013 Fatal Shooting 
Brady Dennis, The Washington Post 
Dennis writes: "In a stark reversal Wednesday, Chicago city officials asked a federal judge to rescind a protective order and make public a video that shows a white police officer fatally shooting a black teenager suspected of car theft in 2013." 
READ MORE


Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel. (photo: AP

n a stark reversal Wednesday, Chicago city officials asked a federal judge to rescind a protective order and make public a video that shows a white police officer fatally shooting a black teenager suspected of car theft in 2013.

Chicago attorneys said in a court filing that the city would drop its opposition to the release of video showing the shooting of 17-year-old Cedrick Chatman, who was killed after fleeing from police in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood. The city previously had insisted the video should remain under seal while a wrongful-death suit went forward, but on Wednesday it abandoned that argument.

“The City of Chicago is working to find the right balance between the public’s interest in disclosure and the importance of protecting the integrity of investigations and the judicial process,” Steve Patton, an adviser to Mayor Rahm Emanuel and head of the city’s law department, said in a statement. “In this case, the city sought a protective order consistent with its decades-long policy. We recognize the policy needs to be updated … we are working to be as transparent as possible.”

A judge is expected to rule on the request as soon as Thursday.

The move comes roughly a month after Emanuel announced the creation of a Task Force on Police Accountability, the system of oversight and training for Chicago’s police force. One of the group’s assignments: reviewing the city’s decades-long policy not to publicly release videos and other evidence relating to alleged police misconduct until investigations surrounding them are finished. The task force is scheduled to present recommendations for any changes by the end of March.

The about-face also comes after the release last November of a dash-cam video showing a white officer firing a barrage of shots — 16, to be precise — and killing black teenager Laquan McDonald in 2014. At the time of the shooting, official accounts painted a picture of a teenager, armed with a knife he would not drop, shot and killed while approaching or lunging at officers. Only when graphic video footage of the shooting was released last fall did it become clear that the 17-year-old had been veering away from officers, and that one had opened fire on him within seconds of arriving.

More than a year after the fatal shooting of the teenager, prosecutors charged veteran police officer Jason Van Dyke with first-degree murder. The case led to public protests and a federal civil rights investigation of Chicago’s police department, as well as intense pressure on Emanuel to overhaul the city’s police force — or even to resign himself. Van Dyke’s attorney has said the officer feared for his life when he opened fire. Emanuel, however, said the shooting violated “basic moral standards that bind our community together.”

Last month, amid the ongoing uproar, Emanuel fired Chicago police superintendent, Garry F. McCarthy, saying, “He has become an issue, rather than dealing with the issue, and a distraction.”

In the video at issue in Wednesday’s filing, a high school security camera captured police chasing Chatman as he fled in 2013. The central dispute, according to an Associated Press report, is over whether Chatman had something in his hand and turned toward police before he was shot; the city says he did, Chatman family lawyers say he didn’t. The object in Chatman’s hand ultimately turned out to be a small box.

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/34599-chicago-drops-legal-objection-to-release-video-of-2013-fatal-shooting

RSN: Shoot the Kid 16 Times

In the upper left hand corner of this page is a SEARCH feature. 
Much has been written about the Chicago Police Department, Homan Square and police killings of BLACKS.

Ignorance of what has transpired in Chicago and elsewhere is simply no excuse. 
Injustice has created the SCHOOL TO PRISON PIPELINE for which we all pay. 



In many communities, members of the Police Force live locally, know their communities and take pride in their jobs, conducting themselves professionally. 

In Chicago, we know that Chicago Police operated a BLACK HOLE [Homan Square] where they tortured BLACKS into false confessions, inter alia.  

RSN: Chicago Cop Beat Wife in Homan Square 'Black Site,' Document Shows

RSN: Republicans Deserve Credit for Creating a Budget This Cruel, Bill Gates' "Charity" Org Holds $1.4 Billion in Fossil Fuel Investments

RSN: "Irresponsible & Reckless": Environmentalists Decry Obama's Arctic Drilling Approval, Homan Square Detainee: I Was Sexually Abused by Police at Chicago 'Black Site',

"Collective Psychopathology" And US Police State Methods 
By Jon V Kofas

http://www.countercurrents.org/kofas040315.htm

In February 2015, The Guardian published a couple of new stories about the connection between the Chicago police department “black site” at Homan Square and the Guantanamo prison where terror suspects have been kept as political prisoners without ever been charged. Neither the national media in the US nor the Chicago media organizations, including African-American, have pursued this story. Even after the British paper brought these issues to the attention of the public, the mainstream media in Chicago and across the US are ignoring the revelations, a subject in itself revealing about the role of the US media in a democratic society where human rights and civil rights violations occur

The disappeared: Chicago police detain Americans at abuse-laden 'black site' --Secret interrogation facility reveals aspects of war on terror in US | 24 Feb 2015 | The Chicago police department operates an off-the-books interrogation compound, rendering Americans unable to be found by family or attorneys while locked inside what lawyers say is the domestic equivalent of a CIA black site. The facility, a nondescript warehouse on Chicago's west side known as Homan Square, has long been the scene of secretive work by special police units. Interviews with local attorneys and one protester who spent the better part of a day shackled in Homan Square describe operations that deny access to basic constitutional rights. Alleged police practices at Homan Square, according to those familiar with the facility who spoke out to the Guardian after its investigation into Chicago police abuse, include: Keeping arrestees out of official booking databases. Beating by police, resulting in head wounds. Shackling for prolonged periods. Denying attorneys access to the "secure" facility. Holding people without legal counsel for between 12 and 24 hours, including people as young as 15

FOUND HERE: 

Net Neutrality: Look whose side Republicans are on! Not yours! CLG: Israel cuts off electricity to thousands of West Bank Palestinians

The Disappeared: Chicago Police Detain Americans at Abuse-Laden 'Black Site' 
Spencer Ackerman, The Guardian 
Ackerman writes: "The Chicago police department operates an off-the-books interrogation compound, rendering Americans unable to be found by family or attorneys while locked inside what lawyers say is the domestic equivalent of a CIA black site." 
READ MORE

FOUND HERE:
RSN: Science's Embarrassing Fossil Fuel Problems, Renewable Energy Skyrocketing, From Solar Mosques to Wave-Powered Naval Bases

The tapes of a recent shooting were erased. 
Witness accounts differ from Police statements and autopsy results contradict Police accounts. 




PLEASE NOTICE HOW WHITE THE CHICAGO POLICE FORCE IS. 

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FOCUS: Charles Pierce | Shoot the Kid 16 Times

Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "If you're wondering what went through the mind of Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke as he emptied his service piece into Laquan McDonald a year ago, it was confidence. The confidence that comes with being licensed to carry a gun as a defense against your fellow citizens."
READ MORE

Most of the time, when you're a white cop, you shoot the kid and nothing happens. Will that finally change?

hoot the kid.

Shoot the kid 16 times.

Shoot the kid 16 times, mostly when he's already down.

Shoot the kid 16 times.

Make the body bounce.

Shoot the kid 16 times.

Shoot the kid 16 times and know that your buddies have your back.

Shoot the kid 16 times.

Shoot the kid 16 times and know that your buddies will grab the tapes.

Shoot the kid 16 times.

Shoot the kid 16 times and know that your buddies will bully the witnesses.

Shoot the kid 16 times.

Shoot the kid 16 times and know that the city will settle quietly.

Shoot the kid 16 times.

Shoot the kid 16 times and know that the city will bury the case.

Shoot the kid 16 times and know that nobody ever will know that you did.

Shoot the kid.

Shoot the kid 16 times.

If you're wondering what went through the mind of Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke as he emptied his service piece into Laquan McDonald a year ago, it was confidence. The confidence that comes with being licensed to carry a gun as a defense against your fellow citizens. The confidence that comes with the knowledge that almost every powerful institution in your city will come to your aid if every powerless individual in the city is outraged by what you've done. The confidence that comes with knowing that the tapes will always be taken care of, the autopsy buried, and the official story spread far and wide before the truth ever is known, assuming that it ever is. The confidence that comes with being a white police officer in a major city in a terrified country. That was the spirit in which Jason Van Dyke allegedly fired his last rounds into what soon became the dead body of Laquan McDonald.

But the rules changed on Van Dyke. They changed in Ferguson, and on Staten Island, and in Tulsa, and, most recently, in Minneapolis. Dogged local reporting dug out the autopsy report, which showed that Laquan McDonald had taken 16 bullets. Dogged local reporting, and an overwhelming public outcry, forced the release on Tuesday of the dashcam video. The videotape was proof enough. Jason Van Dyke stands charged with first-degree murder in the death of Laquan McDonald, whom he shot 16 times.

It's hard to know whether this story will end well or not. Truth be told, the first-degree murder charge may be very hard to sustain in this case against a Chicago police officer. At least one juror likely will have imbibed the line that Van Dyke's life was endangered by McDonald because that juror has been fed a steady diet of black criminality on the news, on the radio, and by his favorite television pundits. This is not an easy prosecution, but the fact that it is being brought at all is something of a small miracle. That is, of course, very easy for me to say. I am not the threat, walking down the street with my Skittles and my iced tea. I am not the threat, peddling my loosies on the sidewalk. I am not the threat, acting bizarrely outside the Burger King. I am not the threat.

Shoot the kid.

Shoot the kid 16 times.

Shoot the kid 16 times, and see what happens next.


 http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/33773-focus-shoot-the-kid-16-times