Description

Neal sits down with Shaun to share his reaction to the October 5 guilty verdict in the Jason Van Dyke case. The Chicago police officer was convicted of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery in the 2014 shooting of Laquan McDonald. It marked the first time in almost five decades that a city police officer was convicted of murder in an on-duty shooting. Neal talks about the impact that the McDonald case had on its decision to run for office and looks ahead to the work that still needs to be done in public safety and police accountability.

Show Notes

• The Chicago Tribune’s timeline of the murder of Laquan McDonald through the October 5, 2018 verdict in Jason Van Dyke’s trial 
• Van Dyke was found guilty of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery, one for each shot. This Chicago Sun-Times story has interviews with the jurors about their decision-making process. (1:18)
• The release of the video in November 2015 revealed that the shooting happened much differently than the narrative that police initially provided to local media. (2:23)
• Chicago paid $5 million to the McDonald family in April 2015. (3:05)
• Several Chicago police officers are facing a separate trial over accusations that they lied in their reports about what happened during the shooting. (6:01)
• Garry McCarthy, who was fired as Chicago police superintendent after the release of the video, is running for mayor. (6:39)
• Neal’s platform on public safety (10:02)
• Chicago police union contracts have come under intense scrutiny, particularly officers’ right to amend past statements to investigators. (12:30)
• 181,000 black Chicagoans left the city between 2000 and 2010. (15:42)