Laquan McDonald was walking down the middle of South Pulaski Road when he was murdered— 16 shots fired into his body in 13 seconds. The police officer, Jason Van Dyke, who killed him, emptied every bullet his firearm held into the young teenager’s body. Van Dyke shot until he couldn’t shoot anymore.

This tragic situation began with cops responding to a call about Laquan trying to break into a car and possibly threatening someone; when police confronted him, he used his 3-inch knife to slice a tire on one of the patrol cars.

The first responding officer said he did not see the need to use force.

In the released video, you can clearly see Laquan walking away from the cops when he was murdered. He held absolutely no threat to the lives of any police officers, yet 16 hot bullets were blasted into his body.

Walking away from the police. 16 shots. 13 seconds.

Let that sink in for a moment.

A 17-year-old kid has the cops called on him. He’s hurt no one. While moving away from the police, posing them NO THREAT, he’s shot SIXTEEN times in THIRTEEN seconds.

Jason Van Dyke murdered that kid in cold blood.

He shot when he didn’t need to, and he shot to kill.

From Fox26,

"[Van Dyke] should be giving him verbal commands, asking him to stop, since he wants to interview him," said Former IPRA Investigator Lorenzo Davis. Almost immediately, Van Dyke appears to fire from close range. McDonald spins around and crumples to the pavement. The second officer simultaneously lowers his weapon. "If he had rushed toward the officer, then you could say, that's a split second decision. He has to decide, this guy's rushing toward me,... do I fire? Here you don't have that.”

This is an officer with 18 complaints against him, but never disciplined for any of them.

Cops are supposed to protect and serve, yet again and again and again and again, our police officers kill un-armed black people in sickeningly extreme uses of force.

And again and again and again, justice is not served.

Laquan was murdered last October.

That was 13 months ago.

The only reason charges are being filed now is because activists fought for months to have the video of his murder released.

From Vox,

The charges against Van Dyke were filed 13 months after he shot McDonald, and it's likely the video played some role in landing those charges. The video was released after months of pressure by activists and journalists, eventually pushing Cook County Judge Franklin Valderrama to order the city to release the footage by Wednesday.

From NBC Chicago,

Hours before the video was released, Officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder for the fatal shooting.

Van Dyke wasn’t charged for over a year. Right before the video was released, he was.

Without an outcry from the people, justice would likely never have been served.

This is an abominable way for our criminal justice system to operate.

It is no wonder the people are angry.

Last night protestors demonstrated in the streets of Chicago, and their march is hair-raising. Hundreds of people shouting, “Who do you serve! Who do you protect!” advancing down the streets of Chicago, their voices raised together, powerful in their anger and heartbreak.

From NBC News,

Hundreds of protesters closed a major Chicago intersection Tuesday night after authorities released a… video of the moment a cop shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times last year. City and state police walked alongside demonstrators, who largely remained peaceful as they clogged the intersection of Roosevelt Road and Michigan Avenue in the South Loop. The protest started when 30 to 40 people met in an art gallery after City Hall released the graphic video, saying they were there to reflect and to discuss their emotions. As more people joined, they marched about a block to Roosevelt Road, chanting "16 shots!" and "Is this a joke? They think it's a joke!" "If we want young people to believe in the system, the system has got to work," said Michael Pfleger, senior pastor of St. Sabina Church and a prominent Chicago activist. Protesters remained on the streets at 1:30 a.m. local time (2:30 a.m. ET) but police declined to comment on whether arrests had been made.

Too many lives have been lost, too much innocent blood spilled, for us not to stand up.

I urge you, fight for these young black men! Fight for these families who have lost their loved ones to the hatred and fear of the police force! If you believe in justice, truth, and freedom, fight for black rights!

This is not an issue of “a few bad apples.” It is systemic, rooted in police training and the continued racism of the American people.

From The Atlantic,

There are deep racial tensions in law enforcement that will only be healed through a long-term, sustained commitment to cooperative policing and community engagement. We need to rethink the many legal, structural, and social impediments to investigating officer-involved violence and the institutional reluctance to accept independent oversight, particularly civilian review. The path to real and lasting change is daunting, and it will involve many years and many steps. One of those steps must be changing the way police officers are trained.

We must change this country.

We must look deep within our souls to challenge the hatred of racism that’s poisoned us since this country was founded.

We must demand recognition that black lives matter, because, right now, in this country, they do not.

We must understand crime happens for a reason — unequal education and low wage jobs — instead of reaching for demonization and hatred.

We must understand the evil plight of black people in this country, because, right now, the disease of white supremacy infects and oppresses the lives of millions, every second of every day.

I am white, and I am ashamed.

Black bodies lie dead on the street, with no justice brought to their grieving families, hundreds of thousands of black and brown men are thrown behind bars at a crippling rate, children who happen to have darker skin are punished far more than their peers who happen to be lighter, our schools are segregated and unequally funded based on the made-up construction of race, police training teaches officers to fear the citizens they are supposed to protect, four times as many babies with more melanin are born into poverty than babies with less, black men with no criminal record are treated the same by prospective employers as white convicts, laws are passed to stop Americans with darker skin from voting, women are constantly portrayed as stereotypes in the media, college students have racial epithets hurled at them just for existing —

No wonder black Americans are angry.

NO MATTER WHO YOU ARE, YOU SHOULD BE, TOO.

We must stand together, we must unite in solidarity—

Or innocent blood will only continue to spill.