[Chicago News\Police Bruatlity]
Chicago Inspector General report on Laquan McDonald murder: “Van Dyke’s statements can be seen as a deliberate attempt to establish the false narrative that a back-pedaling Van Dyke shot an onrushing McDonald in response to McDonald’s potentially deadly knife attack. 813R’s dashcam video puts a lie to Van Dyke’s narrative and proves it has little basis in reality.”
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The Chicago Inspector General’s report, relating to the killing of Laquan McDonald, on October 20, 2014, by former officer Jason Van Dyke, was finally publicly released after the Chicago City Council passed a new law regarding the release of such reports.
The report was done by Inspector General Joseph Ferguson. The Fraternal Order of Police vigorously sought to keep this report confidential.
The report documents around a dozen Chicago Police Department officers engaging in trying to coverup for Officer Van Dyke, who was found guilty of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery, in October, 2018—for the sixteen shots he pumped into McDonald’s body. Van Dyke was given a light sentence of six years and nine months for this cold-blooded murder.
The report shows Van Dyke “violated CPD Rules and Regulations” and made “numerous false statements and material omissions during his subsequent interviews with CPD and the Independent Police Review Authority.” It further says, “Van Dyke’s false reports, false statements, and material omissions all served to exaggerate the threat McDonald posed.”
The report also found “Notably, all of Van Dyke’s false statements served to materially exaggerate the danger McDonald posed to Van Dyke…In this context, Van Dyke’s statements can be seen as a deliberate attempt to establish the false narrative that a back-pedaling Van Dyke shot an onrushing McDonald in response to McDonald’s potentially deadly knife attack. 813R’s dashcam video puts a lie to Van Dyke’s narrative and proves it has little basis in reality.”
These findings should lead to a longer prison sentence for Van Dyke—as Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has requested since entering into office this year. It should also lead to the dismissal of other officers.
The report itself says several officers aided officer Van Dyke in covering up this act of murder. It recommended 11 other officers be fired. Only four were fired.
Five officers accused of involvement are still working in the Chicago Police Department.
These officers are accused of helping Van Dyke in lying and falsifying official reports and likely doctoring crucial pieces of evidence, video evidence in particular. They backed Van Dyke’s lies even when police dashcam videos disproved the false claim that McDonald was an advancing threat to officers. McDonald is clearly shown walking away from the cops.
Three former officers, Officer Thomas Gaffney, former Officer Joseph Walsh, and ex-Detective David March, were all tried, but acquitted, in a conspiracy case stemming from the coverup of this crime last January. Former police lieutenant Anthony Wojcik was cited in the report of destroying the notes of three civilian witnesses and signing off on false statements.
The report says “Wojcik made false statements and misleading characterizations in CPD reports he authored and approved, which served to exaggerate the threat McDonald posed. Additionally, Wojcik improperly disposed of three original general progress reports containing CPD detectives’ handwritten notes of the statements three civilian witnesses made the night of the shooting. Prior to disposing of the original reports, which disposal he failed to document, Wojcik personally recreated the reports. However, Wojcik did not ask the detectives who had taken the statements to review the recreated reports for accuracy and did not inform them of his recreation of their original reports until several months after CPD officially closed its investigation of the shooting.”
Another officer identified in the report, who is still working in the Chicago Police Department, is officer Dora Fontaine.
Officer Fontaine apparently lied in her initial statements where she “heard the officers repeatedly order McDonald to ‘Drop the knife!’ McDonald ignored the verbal direction and instead, raised his right arm toward Officer Van Dyke, as if attacking Van Dyke.” She later admitted the lie saying, “the statement that McDonald raised his arm as if attacking Van Dyke was not accurate.”
Four other officers Sgt. Steven Franko, Officer Janet Mondragon, Officer Daphne Sebastian, and Officer Ricardo Viramontes were all fired last July for their involvement in covering-up for Van Dyke. These officers have filed a lawsuit challenging their firings.
The report notes that “Throughout [Sgt.] Franko’s OIG interview, he attempted to deny or minimize his role on the scene and at Area Central. His denial is not credible in light of multiple witnesses stating they believed Franko was involved in the creation of the TRRs and OBRs.” It also found that “Franko’s endorsement of those false statements served to establish the false narrative that McDonald initiated an attack on Van Dyke and Walsh.”
Another officer, Sergeant Daniel Gallagher, was said to “exaggerate the threat posed by McDonald.” The report also notes that “Gallagher was directly involved in the creation of the report” that falsified the supposed “threat” posed by McDonald.
The released Chicago Inspector General report, in the Laquan McDonald case, should be further examined as a document of how the Blue Wall of Silence actually works. The report details the lies and coverup that are, all too often, the standard operating procedures for far too many police departments in America—especially when the victim of the police abuse is Black.
