Update (11/30/15, 6:50 PM): The officer, Jason Van Dyke, has been released on bond.

***

Shoot 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.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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