Original subtitles

♪eerie minimal drone♪

Anyone riding with Robert?

Yeah, uh... Got him walking away from me.

He's got a knife in his hand.

I had never met a police officer that

woke up in the morning with the intentions of

"I'm gonna go out and have to shoot somebody today."

Male caught breaking into

a church and stealing radios.

Armed with knife.

Chicago Police Department averages

maybe 30 police shootings a year.

Do you know the vehicle?

Zero dark thirty some time.

-The wee hours of the morning. -Anybody close yet?

You get the call, get up and get dressed,

drive from here to 48th and Pulaski.

Let's shut down all of Pulaski.

Let's shut down all traffic.

I'm a God-fearing person. I would say -- prayer

for the offender,

but I'd also pray for the officer.

-Five. -Fired by police!

16 shots! 16 shots! 16 shots! 16 shots!

16 shots!

10-33. In the area. Be right over there.

Sure, Pat Camden, sp-- spokesperson,

Fraternal Order of Police, Chicago, Lodge Seven.

Uh, there was a call of a individual

trying to break into some vehicles.

Officers responded and there was an individual with a knife

I don't know what his mental state was,

but he wasn't dropping the knife and he was

coming at the officer.

And the officers are responding to somebody with a knife

in a-- a crazed condition,

you obviously aren't going to sit down and have

a cup of coffee with him. He is a very serious threat

to the officers and he leaves them

no choice at that point but to defend themselves.

No, no. Just the -- just the offender.

Thank you for your time. Appreciate it.

- You're welcome, buddy.

I always wanted to be the police.

As a young kid, I wanted to be part of that thin blue line

that separates normal life from chaos.

I still feel I'm part of the Chicago Police Department.

Even though I'm retired,

that loyalty that I have for the police department i-is...

...is -- is very, very strong.

I'll take it to my grave with me.

I was the spokesperson for the Fraternal Order of Police,

for FOP.

I've covered well over 500 police-involved shootings.

Pat, I understand we had a police shooting here tonight.

Can you tell me what happened?

Officers responded to a call of a suspicious person.

The individual raised his gun,

putting the officer into fear of his life.

The offender raised a gun, putting both officers

in fear of their life. In defense of his

partner's life and his life,

the police had to shoot the offenders.

I'm not even gonna get into that.

You don't have any comment on that at all?

A police department has to be first

in the media.

It is incumbent that they are the ones that are putting out

the information.

Breaking news from Chicago's Southwest side.

A 17-year-old boy is shot and killed by police.

Chicago police say they had no choice

but to shoot a 17-year-old boy

who threatened them with a knife.

The teen suffered a gunshot wound to the chest.

He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition

and that is where he died. Fraternal Order of Police

spokesman Pat Camden says he lunged at one of them with the

knife, and as soon as that happened, they shot him.

Police say this was a clear-cut case

of self-defense.

I think it's a level of people being desensitized

from the violence.

That's what we've been seeing for so many years.

Like, why protest? Nothing's gonna change.

Why go after this? Nothing's gonna change.

The morning after, from my understanding, it was just

a black man that lunged at the Chicago police

and was shot and killed.

I didn't even know his name was Laquan.

Laquan was...

...a young black child from the West side of Chicago...

...who ended up being murdered on the South side of Chicago.

I come from the same background Laquan came from.

I was a ward of the state,

I was birthed by a 15-year-old mother,

I was in and out the ID home as a juvenile.

He had a troubled life.

Never in a million years I would've thought

it would've had this type of effect

on the city or on the country.

Never.

♪eerie drone music♪

I'm sitting in my office...

...and my niece...

...knocks on this church door.

And she's crying.

She says to me, "They killed my baby

and it ain't right."

My heart, you know, drops, of course,

'cause, you know, I know who this kid is.

His name was Laquan McDonald.

Laquan was my great nephew.

He was a happy-go-lucky kid.

Kind of kid that wanted to make everybody laugh.

A jokester.

I didn't spend a lot of time with him,

but my heart is broke because this mother's heart is broke,

and I just knew that there was something wrong.

But at this point, in my mind,

I'm thinking there ain't nothing that we can do.

Finally, the coroner released the body to the funeral home.

After that, I get a phone call on my cell.

What Mr. Camden had said on television,

that ain't what happened.

This boy been shot

and it's a lot of bullet holes in him.

I tell the funeral home,

"When you get the body, take pictures."

So they took the pictures of the body.

The body tells a totally different story

than what the local news had put out there:

that he's shot one time in the chest.

The family wanted privacy from the media

and justice for Laquan.

♪intensifying drone beat♪

The initial meeting was more about

"Well, what -- what happened here? Is there a case?"

'Cause you never really know.

Someone from the funeral home,

at their request, took a bunch of photographs,

and they really weren't too clear.

But they knew he was shot multiple times.

We agreed to take it to look into it

to see what really happened.

We sent out probate subpoenas

and then we received police reports.

So we have five units on the scene,

and there was only one officer that discharged his weapon.

Nobody else fired a shot.

And we also saw that there were three eye witnesses

that were taken from the Burger King drive-thru

to the police station.

And according to the police reports,

they're questioned for hours.

If this was a regular murder case,

you would have eye witness statements

that were either videotaped or written-out by a prosecutor.

And instead, you had these little summaries that said,

"Oh, I saw nothing."

We thought, "This is very odd."

Initially, we thought the shooting happened

in the drive-thru of the Burger King.

so we sent this wave of probate subpoenas

to the Burger King.

And the Burger King people were very receptive.

They said, "Come on down, we'll show you what we have."

But what was really odd

and what the Burger King people were upset about

was the way the police came to their restaurant

and just demanded access to their video equipment.

They didn't have a subpoena, they didn't have a warrant.

And all I know for sure is that now there's 86 minutes

that are missing.

And so that gets your radar up.

But when you look at the police reports

that were signed-off on, again, by lieutenants

and sergeants and detectives, it's a justified shooting.

It's justified.

I remember reading a story of a young man

shot and killed on the Southwest side of Chicago.

I, as a Chicagoan, somebody who...

...writes about these issues, is immersed in them,

I did what everybody does: I turned the page.

About a week after the incident,

a close colleague of mine received a call

from somebody close to the investigation who said,

"There is video, police dash cam video,

that completely contradicts the official story

of what happened.

It's horrific."

The implication of the call was

"This is gonna be deep-sixed, the video.

Made disappear."

So I began to investigate.

But these investigations are long-shots.

They're huge long-shots,

and you can just never get to the point where

you have sufficient evidence to

bring the story to the public.

♪dramatic synth build up♪

There's probably never been a more important time

in policing than right now.

Some people would say that, you know,

now is not the time to be a police officer.

I say exactly the opposite.

It's probably the most fulfilling thing

that you can do with your life.

I've been a police officer for 35 years.

And my dad was a police officer, so I have a --

a little context going back to 1947 in New York City.

Things have changed dramatically.

Police departments are not what they were years ago.

Police officers are not what they were years ago.

I guess it was the day after the shooting occurred.

I had an in-depth, uh, briefing on the case.

I saw the video.

I didn't say it was murder.

Because I don't know what officer Van Dyke saw,

I don't know what was in his mind.

Those were questions that I couldn't answer at the time.

I took on Jason Van Dyke's case, um,

really from the early stages.

It was just an administrative case.

After the shooting, the video and the reports

were reviewed by the top command staff members

and everybody, to a man, concluded that

this is a, um, a proper shooting.

It was essentially approved.

Once we knew officer Jason Van Dyke's name,

we were able to piece together his record.

By the time Van Dyke shot Laquan McDonald,

he had already been the target of more than 20 allegations

of misconduct.

But in the course of his 13-year career,

he had never once been disciplined.

There was little reason to believe the McDonald case

would end any differently.

The police said the shooting was justified,

and McDonald's family wasn't speaking to the press.

I was all-in on the story,

but at that point, I had one source with information

about the dash cam video,

unwilling to be publicly named

because of concerns about retaliation.

So I asked a source if she could find out about

the content of the autopsy.

♪repetitive drums thumping♪

And I went out for a run quite late in the evening

and she pulled up in her vehicle.

She was visibly shaken.

And almost immediately, she said,

"16 shots.

Front and back."

♪eerie drone music♪

A total of 16 bullets struck the body.

Two in the back, one in the left upper back here,

and one in the right lower back.

Each wound gets a detailed paragraph.

Two wounds on the anterior right leg.

There's a graze on the head,

a gunshot wound through the left side of the front of the neck,

which would be a serious wound in that it

went through the trachea.

And then all the rest of the wounds are through the arms.

Autopsies are extraordinary documents.

They're the victim testifying.

The closest we have to Laquan McDonald giving an account

of what happened to him is the autopsy.

Seven bullets were recovered from the body,

which means, uh, nine would've passed through the body,

including the graze.

Small probable projectile fragments

recovered from the mouth,

that could be from a bullet which might have

impacted on the ground near the body

and could've caused some shrapnel, which could've

gotten up into the mouth.

Given the other things we knew,

what the autopsy suggested was the boy on the ground,

rolling around in pain,

and bullets entering at different points

from the same -- from the same shooter.

The autopsy utterly impeached the official narrative

that the city had been promoting.

Young man with a knife, aggressive,

lunges a police officer, policer officer shoots

in self-defense.

It simply couldn't be true.

But the autopsy didn't provide a counter-narrative.

For that, it was critical to talk to

civilian witnesses to the shooting.

After a series of dead ends and wrong addresses,

I showed up at the doorstep of Jose Torres

and his son, Xavier.

When Jamie came to my door, I freaked out.

I'm looking behind him, looking around, to see if --

I'm thinking it's the police is here to get me.

I don't wanna talk bad about all police officers,

'cause they're not all bad. I have a lot of friends

that are police officers. But, um...

...you know, after seeing this,

I lost pretty much the trust in --

in the police.

We were traveling North-bound on Pulaski.

I was actually the first car that pulled up at the scene.

I had just barely come off from from work.

I was headed to Burger King.

I see a guy running next -- on my window.

He was getting chased by the cops.

They were chasing him.

We had the street light, so we were able to, you know,

get a good view of what was going on.

There were a lot of police officers.

And it just seemed like he was just trying to

get away from -- from what was going on.

Those first shots came in and he dropped.

Shots and saw him drop.

He literally dropped.

And there was a small pause.

I see Laquan McDonald move.

I--It didn't seem like he was getting up.

it just seemed like he was in pain.

But that's when other shots start coming in.

He was on the ground, and still,

more shots came at him.

When the gunshots were going in,

his just body kept jumping.

It -- You could tell it was --

He didn't have no life in there no more.

And the next thing I remember

is, um, yelling, "Stop shooting!

He's dead already!"

I was kind of upset and I said,

"Why the fuck are they still shooting him?

He's on the ground."

From what we see, he wasn't posing any type of threat.

The detectives call me over

and they took us to the precinct.

They separated us in three different rooms.

They brought me into a small office and they started

questioning me and asking me what happened.

I talked to several detectives, not one.

And they kept asking me the qu-- same questions

over and over again.

"What did you see? How many gunshots did you hear?"

And the more I kept telling them of what I saw,

they were trying to make me --

They would -- They would tell me stuff like,

"Well, we're watching the video

and your story does not match."

And, uh...

...and I said, "Well, if it doesn't match, then --

and you have a video, what am I doing here?"

And they said, "Well, you know, it's not good to lie."

They really wanted me to change the story

about how many shots I had heard.

If I didn't tell them what they wanted to hear,

I definitely thought I was gonna go to jail.

H-- He kept pushing me to say that he was trying to get up.

I'm like, "No." I'm like, "I'm not --

Why would I change my story?"

Later, a detective comes in the room

where we were all together.

One of the other guys tells him,

"We already told you,

we saw a cop execute a guy."

And the detective just blew up like,

"What? It's just another scumbag out of the street.

We did you a favor.

We did Chicago a favor."

In that moment, I was like, "No.

If I'm not being arrested, um, I'm not gonna say another word

until I have a lawyer."

Five minutes later, they told us we were free to go.

Four in the morning.

The following day, I get up in the morning

before I head to work,

and I turn on the news because I want to see

if there was anything about the shooting.

I see this spokesperson, Pat Camden.

I'm like, "No, this is wrong."

I'm like, "What they're saying is false.

He did not lunge at him.

Um, he was turning away from him at the time."

It was eating away at me.

What they were saying was a lie.

I wanted to talk to somebody,

but a few guys lived in the neighborhood

and I was worried about retaliation from the police.

As time went by, I -- I j-- I couldn't sleep.

I'm like, "What if that was one of my boys that --

that the police gunned-down like that?"

And I -- I said, "I have to come forward."

Once I had a credible civilian witness,

a precise description of a dash cam video,

and the autopsy, I was ready to publish.

Once the piece appears in Slate,

pretty much the whole story was in plain sight.

At four AM, the general counsel from the police department

sent a link to the piece to the chief lawyer for the city.

By the next morning,

the entire text was in the email boxes

of the mayor's senior staff.

How did they respond?

Silence.

They don't respond.

Jamie began clanging the bell on Laquan McDonald.

But...

Not as a defense, but these stories

are hard to investigate.

Autopsy reports can be subject to some interpretation.

Eye witness statements can be subject

to questioning in terms of accuracy

or where they were from their vantage point.

And there are other stories that people were working on.

Police do get the benefit of the doubt.

And, in most cases...

...properly so. They put their lives on the line.

We count on them to do what we don't do.

And it kind of went by the wayside.

I wouldn't say the story died,

but it was like a tree falling in the forest.

You know, who heard it?

At every point in this process,

everything works in support of the official narrative.

The machinery is actually continuing to function

until dramatically,

almost cataclysmically, and mysteriously,

it doesn't.

Good afternoon, Jeff Neslund's office.

We had heard about it,

Jamie Kalven had written articles about it,

so we sent probate subpoenas to the department,

saying "We want the dash cam videos."

And time had gone by and we hadn't received anything yet.

And so we called and the sergeant said,

"You gotta go through Internal Affairs."

So we called Internal Affairs

and Internal Affairs person said,

"We don't deal with subpoenas."

And so we called the subpoena sergeant back

and said, "They don't deal with it?

Okay, you know? Here it comes."

You know, I think this kind of went under the radar.

If somebody higher-up would've seen this,

they would've sent lawyers to probate court trying

to quash the subpoena.

So whether that person actually knew

what he was sending? I don't know.

We popped it in in my computer and we were shocked.

...a male we caught breaking into church

and stealing radios.

And what we saw was, in our opinion, uh,

a first-degree murder

♪dramatic music♪

This video was accessible and reviewed

by the police the night of the shooting,

so how do you justify this?

You come up with a bunch of excuses,

a bunch of lies about a young man,

waving the knife aggressively,

threatening us.

We know from emails that have been released

that they were on the lookout for somebody calling about

the Laquan McDonald case.

And when we finally did reach out to the city,

they knew exactly what case we were talking about.

We told them, "We've got the video."

And there was just stunned silence on the other

end of the phone that said "How'd you get the video?"

♪bagpipes playing♪

At that point, the machinery was, in some sense, working.

But the pressure is building.

It starts with the autopsy impeaching the police narrative.

It includes the civilian witnesses.

And finally, somewhat improbably,

the video is sent to the lawyers for the family.

At the same time, the national context keeps intensifying.

The shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson,

Eric Garner in New York,

Freddie Gray in Baltimore.

Protests growing nationwide,

from Oakland, California, Philadelphia, Atlanta,

and Washington D.C.

And, in response to the popular protests,

we have an increasingly active Justice Department

intervening.

The Justice Department has opened investigations

or is enforcing court-ordered changes

in 32 police departments and sheriff's offices

in 18 states.

The hope was that the public outcry about

the Laquan McDonald case would finally bring

the Department of Justice to intervene in Chicago.

I came to the Department of Justice

in the kind of Golden Era, um,

and I worked with a really amazing group of people

I investigated departments ranging from New Orleans

to Ferguson to Newark, New Jersey.

In Chicago, we opened the formal investigation

after Laquan McDonald was killed.

Chicago was the largest team we've ever had,

and we reviewed over 400 Use of Force investigations,

and that included 170 investigations

of officer-involved shootings.

There's never been the kind of wholesale change

and reform needed from within Chicago,

where you really have such strong local politics

and such a strong police department.

What we are looking at when we do one of these investigations?

"Is this behavior aberrational? Or is it part of a normal

pattern or practice?"

In Chicago, the police officers

still control the scene of a shooting

and still conduct the initial questioning.

Officers were not separated before they gave statements.

Um, officers were allowed to speak to their union reps.

They don't prohibit officers, in any way,

from cooking their stories.

The FOP responded to

the Laquan McDonald shooting as they respond

to all police-involved shootings.

So what we try to do is give the officers

the benefit of the doubt and allow them

to de-escalate, more or less.

And -- And to get some time away,

collect your thoughts, meet with counsel,

and then go forward and make their statement.

Morning after, I get a phone call.

I ask them, "How is everything?

Is everybody okay?"

"Everybody's okay." "Is it a good shoot?"

"It's a good shoot."

We're done.

They ask officers to risk their careers

when they get them all in a room together and say,

"Hey, let's all make sure we have our stories straight."

We've got a pretty good batting average.

We would be the highest-paid player in that league,

if it was salary, it was based on, uh, on wins.

There were a lot of issues we found

with officer statements in the Laquan McDonald case.

There's a saying in police work.

There's a saying in crisis management

that the first three reports from the scene

are generally wrong.

Did you know that?

It is absolutely the case that there may be

different interpretations or different...

...parts of a scenario were remembered differently

by different people.

The problem is that not only are all of these narratives

remarkably similar to each other but they're all

inconsistent with the evidence in the exact same ways.

You could weave whatever thread you want through this.

You could say that Lee Harvey Oswald was involved.

But he wasn't here.

The Laquan McDonald case was not a cover-up.

The officers say that they saw the victim lunge.

Other officers say that Laquan McDonald was behaving

in a threatening manner.

They lied. They lied from day one.

They lied about something of

fundamental human importance.

There are certain things that were put in the reports

that may not appear in all the evidence.

I would certainly acknowledge that.

There's always an effort to, you know, make the case

as good as it can be going forward to trial.

And I know that the reports were drafted

and reviewed by the command staff.

It was really the pattern and practice of --

of the police department.

♪eerie music♪

The investigation involved, arguably,

the destruction of evidence as in the --

the case of the Burger King, the falsification of reports

by multiple officers,

the intimidation of witnesses,

and the falsification of their stories.

And then, the findings go to the State's Attorney's office.

Being, uh, Cook County State's Attorney,

this is the second-largest office in the nation,

so it's -- it's quite a -- a big job.

The number one goal for a State's Attorney,

as a prosecutor, either here or anywhere in the country,

is public safety.

It's not easy.

Right now, police are under attack

and I think right now,

probably the most difficult job you can have

is to be a police officer.

And so, police officer shootings have to be handled differently,

because they're police officers

and it's not the same as one gangbanger

shooting another. It'll never be.

Here's the other reality:

It's extremely hard to convict police officers.

And if you look at the results across the nation,

it -- it's rare that we're successful.

When did you see the video?

L-- Two weeks after the -- it happened,

back in November of 2014.

And when did the mayor see it?

I would guess he saw it before I did.

Are you a registered voter in this neighborhood?

All right, have a blessed day.

What about you, brother?

-Not this neighborhood, sir. -Oh, okay.

With Laquan, it just seemed like

here's another black youth shot

by Chicago Police Department. No justice.

Yeah, you can sign right here.

Thank you so much.

But when Jamie Kelven came out with his investigation,

I found out that the video existed.

For so long, across the nation,

we never had video evidence, you know what I mean?

Like, with Trayvon Martin, with Mike Brown,

we never had real video evidence.

But now, here we are.

Video evidence.

And so I just got to researching about

how to get information released from the police department.

I had a-- a friend, he told me about FOIA.

And I didn't know at the time,

I wasn't educated on what FOIA was,

the Freedom of Information Act.

We FOIA'd for the tape, right?

Of course, the Chicago Police Department denied us,

and we filed a lawsuit, and we hired a attorney.

Part of the police department's and city's

strategy and success in maintaining a system

of impunity involves official secrecy.

The standard operating procedure of keeping things secret was

"It's under investigation."

The three words "It's under investigation"

just end all inquiry.

It's like --

It was like running into a brick wall.

I don't -- I don't really have an opposition

to the video being released.

My concern is I don't want

the case to somehow be jeopardized.

I think if you ask any prosecutor,

we don't like when all of our evidence

is out there.

So, the city and the prosecutors, um --

they knew the facts of this case, um --

from a very early-on stage.

They knew the contents of the video.

But we had a political storm that was brewing.

President Obama's former Chief of Staff,

current-Mayor Rahm Emanuel,

is in a race against Cook County Commissioner

Jesus "Chewy" Garcia.

That Emanuel even has a competitor

is a stunning setback, but his failure to win a majority

in the February election forced him into a run-off.

The run-off election was absolutely a factor in

the city's suppression of this tape.

I was -- I was ready to, you know,

"Fuck the city. Let's file this lawsuit.

Let's release this video."

But then the city called us back and said,

"We want to discuss settling it."

And so we had many meetings with

Laquan's family about what was the best way to proceed.

And that was something we agonized about.

The family, of course, has lost someone,

and they went, "Why can't this person be charged?

What's gonna -- I want him kicked off the force.

I want him in jail."

And you tell them, "We don't have the power

to charge somebody and lock somebody up

or cost them their job.

All we can do is ask the city

to compensate you for your loss."

And so, since we may not get him to go to jail...

...that settlement became one of the tools that the family had

to fight this Goliath.

We had to throw the hardest blows that we could throw.

♪unsettling drone♪

15. Standby.

In five, four, three, ready int? Two...

Tonight, NBC 5 Investigates, a Carol Marin exclusive.

Laquan McDonald died on October 20th

after being shot 16 times by one Chicago police officer.

Just six months later, the family of Laquan McDonald

agreed to a $5 million settlement with the city

prior to any lawsuit being filed.

There is a huge flag when the city,

without much argument, without much discussion,

with very little time, offers $5 million.

We've dealt with any number of city lawsuits

that linger forever.

So why this and why that fast?

That was -- That was the reddest of red flags.

The City of Chicago denies, according to the settlement

agreement, allegations of wrongdoing.

The dash cam video has not been released by the city.

What happened with the Laquan McDonald settlement

is that the family or the lawyers could not release

the video evidence to show us, in the general public,

what really happened that night.

I think Rahm Emanuel, the Mayor,

suppressed this video to be re-elected in 2015.

Without a doubt.

If this tape would've came out

when he was running for re-election,

he would've never been elected.

Thank you, Chicago!

Was this a cover-up? I think it was a cover-up.

-What do we do? -Stand up, fight back!

When black lives are under attack! What do you do?

-Rise up, fight back! -What do you do?

Rise up, fight back!

I don't need to see a video to know that

the Chicago Police Department consistently lie about things,

because that's how the department is set up.

We must love each other and protect each other.

I wasn't surprised that the City of Chicago

and Anita Alvarez, Cook County's State's Attorney,

was sitting on the video,

the Chicago Police Department was sitting

on the video, because there was a movement going on

at that time that was ready to respond.

-Who can you trust? -Not the police!

Wild afternoon on the streets here in Chicago,

and the protest ended in several arrests.

We want people to demand justice.

We want people to take to the streets.

At the time, the news about whether or not the video

would be released, it was starting to amp up.

And so, there's an escalation of --

of both tactics and an escalation of involvement

from people across the city.

-What do we want? -Justice!

-When do we want it? -Now!

-What do we want? -Justice!

-When do we want it? -Now!

We're in a tough time for policing right now.

I don't think this climate has ever existed in the history

of American policing.

And so we were being asked,

"What are your demands?"

"Fire the Superintendent,

Rahm Emanuel resign,

Anita Alvarez, we will vote you out of office."

Have you herd o-- of Kim -- Foxx?

If it don't say "Foxx," it ain't the right box.

Prior to the campaign, I served 12 years

as an Assistant State's Attorney here in Cook County.

And yes, I do believe that there's been an issue

of accountability with law enforcement here in Chicago.

How you doing, sir?

Kim Foxx, running for State's --

-I'm on my way right now. -All right. I need that vote.

I need that vote.

-God bless. -God bless you!

-How are you, ma'am? -How you doin'?

Do the right thing. Thank you, sir.

-Love you, sis. -Love you, too.

Thank you.

Chicago...

...has not had to reckon with what happens

when you don't hold folks in law enforcement

accountable for their misdeeds.

Parts of the force have acted in a way

where they're immune from any accountability

for what's happened.

My mother, when I had my children --

I have two daughters, uh -- was so grateful

that I didn't have sons.

And I thought, "Oh, you're grateful because you get

more children that look like me?

And you get to re-live having -- having a daughter?"

And she said, "No,

because I don't want you to feel what it feels like

to worry about your son in this city."

And then for so many in our communities,

that that is a real and ever-present concern

about the safety of their children,

not just by random violence but also

by the systems that are supposed to be there to protect them.

A judge is expected to decide if dash cam video

of a teenager being shot and killed by a Chicago police

officer will be released to the public.

We got together, we prayed...

...and we went in, and we sat down.

I got those jitters. You know,

"We've come this far, we might lose."

The judge, he began going through his decision letter.

I think it was about seven pages.

And...

...I just was really shocked.

The judge finds,

as we had argued and as we had showed,

that there was no legitimate or lawful basis

for the police department to withhold this video

of a state-killing of a 17-year-old boy

from the public.

Even though this is what the law required,

even though this is the right thing to do,

I don't know that I even believed that it was happening

as it was happening.

This was historic.

The videotape will be released and seen

by the public in a matter of days.

I can't wait any longer,

'cause this video's gonna be released

and we're all gonna react.

It was a tsunami that I certainly couldn't stop.

I know that the state would never have brought

murder charges in this case

but for the release of the video.

There's not a doubt in my mind.

I make my -- my -- my, um,

decisions based on facts and evidence.

And so attorneys who are out there, you know,

making money are going to, you know,

say whatever.

It is my determination

that this police officer's actions

were not justified and they were not

a proper use of deadly force.

...Why did you shoot 16 times?

Mr. Van Dyke, anxiety?

Until the video of this horrific shooting

was released...

...there was a zero chance of -- of police accountability.

That was the very first time in our history

that an on-duty Chicago police officer

had ever been charged with killing

a black man, woman, or child.

I saw the video...

...the day it was released to the public.

I -- I paused initially, um...

...because it f-- something felt really...

...perverse about a city waiting to watch

a video of a boy being killed.

And yet, you felt like you had to see it.

♪emotional piano♪

♪emotional piano♪

It wasn't about politics.

As a life-long Chicagoan,

not a candidate, not a...

I thought of my brother, I thought of my husband.

Um...

And I understood my mother's angst.

10-4. Anybody close?

Let me know when he's in custody, guys.

Shots fired by the police.

Get the ambulance over here.

What were your thoughts when you watched it?

It -- It -- it was...

That's a good question. Uh --

As -- As you look at something frame-by-frame,

again, without the emotions that are involved,

you can draw a conclusion.

My conclusion was, you know,

the officer did what he had to do

to protect himself.

I see a situation that is...

...gotten away.

I don't know...

...where everybody's head is at

in that situation.

There's a knife.

I'm sorry, but that's a threat.

If somebody gets near you, within 21 feet of you,

with an open knife,

you could die.

As you saw, and I've seen,

Laquan McDonald was murdered.

This family wants justice to be served, and justice for us

is Jason Van Dyke being convicted of the murder

of Laquan McDonald.

Officer Jason Van Dyke started shooting

six seconds after he got out of his vehicle.

McDonald was walking away from the arriving

police vehicles when the shooting happened.

The officer fired 16 shots in just 15 seconds.

The city and the unions did not tell

the truth about what happened.

The Mayor's Office lied for months about

what's in the video.

At this point, we saw the utter breakdown

of the machinery.

They don't have control of the narrative,

and so sources within the city and the police department,

who have stonewalled the press in response to every single

question about this case,

start leaking information

that is derogatory towards the victim.

McDonald was known to have been carrying knife.

This was a troubled, troubled boy.

-A ward of the state. -The tragedy of this

young man's life led to him making these bad decisions.

-It's truly not a murder case. -PCP in his system.

-PCP in his system. -PCP, which, is a

psychotic drug, whi- makes you go crazy.

You don't see anybody willing to admit that

what we have to do is go after that monster,

the guy that doesn't belong on the street with you,

with my wife, with my daughter.

This isn't an Ivy League college kid we're talkin'.

We're not talking to an Oxford Scholar.

Laquan McDonald could've had a Oxford sweatshirt on

and it wouldn't have made a difference whatsoever.

I don't care if he was on PCP.

I don't -- I don't care if Laquan McDonald was high,

if he, um, was aggitational.

He was shot 16 times.

One...

♪suspenseful music♪

...two, three...

...four...

...five...

...six, seven...

...eight, nine...

...ten, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16.

He was shot 16 times.

- 16 shots - Shut it down!

For some, he was their son,

he was their brother,

he was them.

16 shots! 16 shots!

You know how many times I ran from

the police growing up? In this city?

How many times that I was put in the position where

Chicago police pull guns on me?

So when I saw Laquan, I saw me.

-They're still shopping! -Shut it down!

Shut the stores down!

-Block the store! -Shut it down!

-Go to the store! -Protests paralyzing

-Black Friday shopping. -One of the busiest,

if not the busiest shopping day of the year.

We hit the streets hard. Very hard.

...And we stop their money

If we disrupt their money, we disrupt their politics.

We had probably one of the most powerful economic

protests this city has ever seen.

The county of Cook came together,

and they stood with this family. And they said

that this is wrong.

This is wrong.

16 shots! 16 shots!

16 shots!, 16 shots!,

16 shots!, 16 shots!, 16 shots!...

We are here today

because Chicago is facing a defining moment

on the issues of crime

and policing.

The first line of defense is denial.

The next thing is "One bad apple."

But now, the entire guts of the department were exposed.

Nothing can excuse what happened to Laquan McDonald.

Supervision and leadership in the police department...

...failed.

And that has to change.

No officer should be allowed to behave

as if they are above the law

just because they are responsible

for upholding the law.

The problem is sometimes referred to

as "the Code of Silence."

Mayor Emanuel has acknowledged a code of silence

exists in the Chicago Police Department.

- He acknowledged it. -He acknowledges a problem

that others have vehemently denied.

-We now have an admission -- -The Chief of the Police Union

declared today, "There is no 'Code of Silence' in Chicago.

After all," he said, "this is not 1950."

So you're saying that I'm a liar

because I got a police patch on my shoulder.

Or I can't be trusted when I raise my hand in court.

To ask for us to admit

that we go out of our way to conspire...

...is -- is an insult.

If there is no "Code of Silence,"

why do all the officer statements look the same?

You got me. And I gotta be honest with you now,

I do not like

the way we're going with this interview.

The Mayor said, "The 'Code of Silence'

goes through the police department."

Nonsense.

The Mayor controls the police department.

You tell me what it means.

Will you resign? Should you resign?

I'm not gonna resign. Um, and -- and

I go all day long with people coming up to me and saying,

"Stay strong. We've got your back."

Superintendent McCarthy knows that a police officer

is only as effective as when he has

the trust of those he serves.

This morning, I formally asked for his resignation.

I become accountable for things that I'm not in control of.

And accountability without authority is failure.

16 years of really strong executive leadership.

I really thought that I was going to be

one of the individuals that helped --

that would help take policing through

the most troubled time in its history.

Uh, and instead, here I am on the sidelines,

watching it. Watching it spiral out of control.

We're reaching mayhem.

♪intensifying drone♪

The Mayor announced the formation

-of a task force -- -To help restore public

trust and confidence in the police,

that are now sorely lacking.

We believe that these meetings,

uh -- serve a very valuable purpose.

We've had them all over the city,

the West side, the South side.

And we will call on those who have signed up

in advance to speak so that we can provide

as much time as possible for public comment.

Janée .

Hi, Janée. How are you?

This didn't happen

because Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times, right?

This only happened after a year of a cover-up.

Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit!...

You can never bring Laquan McDonald back.

One of the things that we can do, though, is hold people

that knew about this that covered it up accountable.

The State's Attorney, who has participated in the cover-up

of Laquan McDonald, should be held accountable.

♪suspenseful music♪

I, too, do not have confidence in Ms. Anita Alvarez.

I have it on extreme good authority

that Mayor Emanuel's strategic political advisors,

They met day -- the next day or two days after

I announced charges to discuss the fact

that they were all going to somehow

point the finger at me to distract

any kind of criticism of the Mayor.

David Axelrod, one of the chief political strategists

in this country, coming from the White House

and working with Rahm Emanuel, starts tweeting about me.

And it was so convenient now,

because he barely won his re-election,

they didn't want him to be beat up,

they didn't want him to be criticized, and suddenly,

I take the brunt of all of this,

and I get portrayed as some kind of monster.

Anita Alvarez is still leading in the polls.

I remember the election day, just, like,

wanting to throw up.

♪music building♪

My daughters were with me and my husband

and my brother was there.

And the room was packed, and it was hot.

...Kim Foxx! Kim Foxx! Kim Foxx! Kim Foxx!

And my first thought was...

Dang it. My mother and my grandmother would be so proud.

This race is not so much just about saying "Goodbye."

It's about turning the page, and I understand the

-excitement.

I understand the excitement, but let us not get lost

in the gravity of the work that is ahead of us.

My second thought was...

"Don't fuck it up."

The Black Lives movement and related protest groups

are claiming credit.

First, it was Superintendent Garry McCarthy.

Last night, Anita Alvarez.

- Two down! - One to go!

I will still hold Kim Foxx accountable

if her actions don't align with her rhetoric, for sure.

Almost overnight, the power and legitimacy

of city institutions...

...cratered.

Utterly cratered.

♪tense erratic music♪

And that creates this unprecedented opportunity

in Chicago and nationally for real police reform.

But a backlash was also building.

Repeat after me.

I, having been appointed to the office

-of the police officer... -I, having been appointed

to the office of the police officer...

-...to the City of Chicago. -...to the City of Chicago.

Police are the sheepdogs,

the protectors of the flock from the wolves

that exist in society.

...that I will support the Constitution

-of the United States. -And the Constitution

-of the State of Illinois. -The problem becomes

the sheepdog looks very much like a wolf.

They keep going after the police.

The police are the bad guys.

"Hey, we got a video. He was wrong.

Charge him with murder."

Charge him with murder?

What are you talking about?

We can jump back to Baltimore, Freddie Gray,

Ferguson...

...Eric Garner in New York.

How many people were convicted?

The grand jury has just decided not to indict

a New York City police officer over the death of Eric Garner.

All six Baltimore police officers

charged in the death of Freddie Gray

have been cleared.

There is going to be no indictment.

I'm reminded of Rodney King.

What the country needs to look at is

how it plays out in court.

Am I gonna win this case?

Come on, people. Make a hole!

I will tell you after I pick the jury

what my odds are.

It was a tense time. It was a tense time

while we was waiting.

All these cases where we've seen African-Americans

killed o-- on camera.

Alton Sterling, on-camera.

Eric Garner, on-camera.

So was I nervous? Yeah, I was nervous.

We want justice for all the names and every --

every life that was taken by Chicago Police Department.

This corruption runs deep. It runs deep.

It'll be four years since Laquan's been shot, man.

And we still haven't got any type of justice

for Laquan McDonald.

And I'm not gonna stop until we get justice.

-Say 16 shots! -16 shots!

- 16 shots! - 16 shots!

-16 shots and a cover-up! - What?

-16 shots and a cover-up! - What?

Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times

by police officer Jason Van Dyke, and he died.

That -- That happened.

Was he murdered? Or was he killed?

Did a child die? Or did a suspect die?

All of those things are dependent

on how we respond.

♪rhythmic synth♪

...going to jail,

the whole damn system is guilty as hell.

I braced myself for a "not guilty" verdict.

I didn't even think about the possibility

of any police officer being found guilty

in the killing of a black person.

We did a rally here the day before the trial.

One of the reporters had pulled me to the side.

"I want to ask you something but I want to get your

response while I ask you."

I remember just freezing.

Breaking news from City Hall,

and a bombshell announcement from Mayor Rahm Emanuel

during a news conference just moments ago.

As much as I love this job

and will always love this city and its residents,

I have decided not to seek re-election.

The announcement from Mayor Rahm Emanuel

that caught most of Chicago off-guard.

Sources close to the Mayor said they were

95% sure he would run for re-election.

Today, we saw the 5%.

Garry McCarthy gone,

Anita Alvarez gone,

now Rahm Emanuel gone.

This is the former Chief of Staff

for the 44th President of the United States.

I mean, that's heavy.

Emanuel made no mention

of the looming trial of Jason Van Dyke.

Van Dyke is charged with first-degree murder

and 16 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm,

a count for each time he shot McDonald.

There was quite a euphoric mood on the street.

The trial finally beginning and then the Mayor's announcement...

The judge and jury expected to hear

opening statements in the long-awaited trial

of Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke.

That first day, you could feel the tension in the room.

I just wanted to be there, um -- as a means of support

and to demonstrate to the officers out there

in the vehicles that somebody is

standing with this kid.

It was intense. You had one side that was

Laquan's family, community members, and supporters.

And then, you had another side, which was

Jason Van Dyke's family

and Fraternal Order of Police union members,

and supporters.

The courtroom is the stage.

It's literally a stage.

The jury is a kind of silent Greek chorus.

You knew it made history.

For a Chicago police to be on trial

in the first place for murder, number one.

And for murdering a black person, number two.

I was like, "Okay, how are they gonna perceive me?"

Since I was the only black.

It was like, oh my God...

They introduce you to the defense team,

and the prosecution team,

and you're going, "Wow, this is for real."

But it doesn't -- It didn't feel real.

It felt surreal. So many times,

it felt surreal.

This branch of the Circuit Court

of Cook County is now in session.

This courtroom was packed. It was filled.

People were stuffed in there,

and you could've heard a pin drop.

The silence was deafening.

The story in this case

is a story written,

directed, and orchestrated by one person:

Laquan McDonald.

Think about it like a horror movie.

You see the villain walking down the street.

Not very fearful, but when he stops and he turns

and makes eye contact with the victim,

then that's when the music starts to play.

Well, that's what happened here.

We filed a motion, and actually,

that motion was granted, that the prosecution

cannot refer to Laquan McDonald as a "victim."

Laquan McDonald was, uh, was an offender

in this case and was a dangerous person.

Laquan McDonald goes over to him...and attempts to stab.

I remember that Laquan was in and out of

juvenile detention, um --

had several scrapes with the law.

Um, so they were setting him up to --

to look like a -- a bad guy,

a-- a kid gone wrong.

...shows the story of a out-of-control individual

who didn't care about anyone.

It was classic putting the victim on trial.

That's all it was. It was jus--

It was classic. That's what they always do.

I didn't ever f-- think of it that way,

that he's putting the victim on trial.

I didn't think of it that way.

I just thought of it as that he was

raising serious questions and --

and hoping that maybe some of the jurors would think,

"You know, this kid was so rotten and bad,

of course he was about ready to, uh,

run after Jason."

I don't care how you twist this thing around,

how you turn it around,

Van Dyke is not the victim.

The victim is in the cemetery.

That's the victim.

I sat on the right side.

So about two rows were full of F.O.P. union members, right?

Right when they was about to call Officer McElligott

names out, the whole two rows got up and walked out.

J-O-S-E-P-H M-C-E-L-L-I-G-O-T-T.

And by whom are you employed, sir?

Chicago Police Department.

He's called to the stand and he's clearly

not happy to be there.

He's the initial responder the night of the incident.

And when he takes the stand, it's the first time the public

has heard a police officer describe what happened

-that night. -On October 20th,

did you respond to a dispatch call?

Yes.

♪suspenseful music♪

There was a 911 call that

someone's been trying to break into trucks

in a truck yard.

He took his hands out of his pockets

and he had a knife in his hand.

Did he do anything with that knife?

He just held it.

They ask the boy to drop the knife,

he doesn't respond.

As opposed to ratcheting up the encounter,

they call for a taser.

They don't ask for massive backup, they ask for a taser.

I just kept my distance.

I had my flashlight out and I had my gun out on him,

just watched his move.

There's a second video that

has not been widely seen.

It's surveillance video from a couple of blocks

from the site of the shooting.

McElligott's gotten out of the police vehicle

and is walking behind Laquan McDonald.

There's nobody else around, they're not

protecting anybody from him.

There's certainly no evidence of anything combative

on the part of Laquan McDonald,

but nor is there anything provocative about

the behavior of the officers.

Did he threaten you with the knife?

No. Uh, we walked...

...all the way to the car lot.

In fact, these officers are

accompanying Laquan McDonald towards his death.

They don't know it. He doesn't know it.

Moments later,

Van Dyke gets out of his car,

and within a matter of seconds, has shot the boy.

They're standing there witnessing

a gratuitous atrocity.

Why didn't you fire your weapon?

Um... He didn't make any direct movement at me,

and I felt like my partner was protected,

for the most part, inside the vehicle.

I mean, you're the police.

In my day, that kid never gets to Pulaski.

Never. You know?

You take him, somehow,

when he's leaving that truck yard.

He never gets that far.

So if McElligott had done his job,

none of this would have happened?

You know, what McElligott does or doesn't do

turns into what we have on Pulaski.

They look at them as a rat.

Or traitors, you know?

For not maintaining this Blue Code of Silence

inside the Chicago Police Department.

Were you surprised to see officers

breaking rank to testify?

Yeah, I was.

I was shocked.

♪sparse synth♪

The trial of a white police officer

charged with murdering a black teenager

-resumes today. -Of course, there are a lot

a lot of crucial decisions that need to be made,

including whether Jason Van Dyke will testify

-on his own behalf. -The defense still has not said

whether Van Dyke himself will take the stand.

Jason Van Dyke, taking the stand in his own defense.

It doesn't happen very often.

I mean, I was a prosecutor.

You know, I recognize the significance of

a defendant taking a witness stand.

But we knew, at that point in time,

that jury had to hear from Jason Van Dyke.

And Jason Van Dyke had to convince them

that he was not guilty of first-degree murder.

Right before Jason testified, I literally

sweat through my shirt,

because I was so nervous about his testimony.

Jason Van Dyke. V-A-N D-Y-K-E.

How old are you, Jason?

I'm 40 years old.

We were staring at each other.

He told me, he says, "You know,

I was watching you, looking at you when I was testifying."

Which kind of gave me the...

I knew he was,

but he didn't have to tell me.

You know, we were making eye contact

and he was trying to relax.

Did you see Laquan McDonald when you got

-out of the car? -Yes.

And could you see him? His face?

His face had no expression.

His eyes were just bugging out of his head.

He had just these huge...

...wide eyes just staring right through me.

He turned his torso towards me.

And what, if anything, did he do with his arm?

He waved the knife from his lower right side upwards,

across his body towards my left shoulder.

And when he did that, what did you do, officer?

I shot him.

It's crocodile tears.

For me, it was like the audacity...

...for you to get up there and act like you a victim.

For you to act like you the victim out of all of this,

the audacity.

You murdered this young man.

In cold blood.

And you have no remorse. He has no remorse.

I felt bad for him, you know?

I felt, uh, I could see him breaking up,

because he got confused a little bit.

During those six seconds, you're getting

closer to him, correct?

I now know that, yeah. I -- I took a couple

steps towards him, yeah.

Well, you took more than a couple steps,

because you go all the way up past

your squad car, correct?

The end of your squad car?

I'm not sure.

I just killed somebody.

I'm from a suburb outside Chicago

in a very non-diverse environment I grew up in.

And I come into the middle of

the most violent city in one of the most

violent neighborhoods, and you're telling me

I should've realized I stepped

forward or backward?

I could see...

You know, I could s--

I could see him starting to push up with his left hand

off the ground.

And I see his left shoulder start to come up,

and I still see him holding that -- that knife

with his right hand, not letting go of it.

And his eyes are still bugged out,

his face has got no expression on it.

What was so palpable with Jason Van Dyke was the --

the reality of his fear.

All he kind of had to stand on was his --

was his fear.

All he could coherently say about what happened that night

was that he was terrified.

Four years after the shooting,

the trial and case have taken on

huge importance in Chicago.

One of the most closely-watched trials

in the city's history.

The trial of a generation threatens to set

a match to a racial tinderbox.

Now, everyone who's watching this testimony

kind of sees all this evidence through their own lens,

but really, what's going to matter is how the jurors

are viewing this evidence.

There's never been, at least in my awareness,

a case about which, in one sense, we knew so much.

But all of those facts are in

tension and competition with another story

that is extraordinarily strong,

seeps up from the groundwater in our society,

and is based less on evidence than on fear.

Remember? We talked about this in opening.

I said, "Think about a monster movie."

When they're walking down the street,

and let's say there's... the -- the victim is

hiding in the bush, you know,

there's not much danger here.

But when that monster suddenly stops and turns

and looks right at that -- that victim in the bush,

I -- I think I said that's when the music starts to play.

That's when --

That's when the filmmakers are like, "Okay,

I got him right now." We knew that we would

never convince all the jurors.

Our plan was to strike up a rapport

with several jurors that could create a hung jury.

First-degree murder.

It's unprecedented.

It's unprecedented for a police officer,

first-degree murder?

So I'm gonna ask ya,

when you go back to the jury room,

you owe it to yourself

to make the right decision here.

We also owe it to our -- to our city,

our county, our country.

You have a very important job here.

I was convinced by the defense,

yes, Jason thought his life was being --

was being endangered so he shot.

The jury believed that he feared for his life.

Everyone is waiting for the verdict,

and right now, jurors are deciding the fate

-of Jason Van Dyke. -Police ramping up

for the Jason Van Dyke verdict. It could come

-any day now -Chicago is on high alert

this morning, bracing for the possibility

of mass protest and demonstrations.

Okay. We're ready.

Jason Van Dyke needs to go to jail. He is a murderer.

That is a high hill to climb because at this point,

nothing has ever happened to a Chicago police officer

for anything that they've done to an African-American person.

The family wanted to officially say on-record

that we are people of faith.

I went in there with faith,

but I went in there angry, wanting something to happen.

We are conscious that Laquan McDonald represents

all of the victims of, uh -- police violence

I wanted something to happen,

but I wanted it to happen within the confines of the law.

We're asking for complete peace.

We don't want any violence before, during, or after

the verdict in this trial.

I think that was the most intense time this city

has ever seen. Ever.

We was calling for a complete shut-down

of the city of Chicago

if Van Dyke was found not guilty.

Everything.

We wanted everybody to take to the streets

and shut the city completely down, and that's what we

was prepared to do.

And I'm sure others was com-- was prepared to do

more than that, but...

♪soft piano♪

This verdict is about to be read. If it is guilty,

then we're celebrating.

And if he is acquitted,

we will shut it down!

Shut it down! Shut it down! Shut it down!

- If we don't get it? - Shut it down!

If we don't get it?!

Shut it down!

A whole city is waiting for the verdict

in officer Jason Van Dyke's murder trial.

...Basically said, "Have you reached a jury?"

And they said, "We have." A woman said, "We have."

Keep coming.

And now they're waiting.

The whole city is waiting.

People all over have their radios on

and their phones close.

We are about a little less than 30 minutes away

from the verdict being read aloud in open court.

The judge has summoned everybody back to

-the courtroom. -It looks like everyone's

in court by now, ready to go...

I had a full-on panic attack.

I was sitting in-between two people in tears.

Here we go, y'all.

It is packed right now. All parties

are present. We are now at 1:48 in the afternoon.

The judge had said that the verdict will be read at 1:45,

so we are thinking that we are getting very close.

We was going back to the court room, and I couldn't stop

thinking, like, "Damn..."

Like, three and a half years, man,

for it to come down to this moment.

And I was just praying and praying and praying,

just walking back and forth and I was so -- I just felt

my chest just...

My heart beating through my chest.

I can't front, I was so scared.

Will you please read the verdict?

We, the jury, find the defendant, Jason Van Dyke...

...guilty of second-degree murder.

Man...

Man, man, man...

I think when she said that, part of me, my soul,

sort of left my body.

It's like when you hear something

you can't believe it.

Quiet!

So after she read that, she began to read aloud

all the counts of aggravated battery.

We, the jury, find the defendant, Jason Van Dyke,

guilty of aggravated battery with a firearm, first shot.

Shot one, guilty.

...Jason Van Dyke, guilty of aggravated battery.

Shot two, guilty.

Another aggravated batt.

Shot three, guilty.

Shot four, guilty.

Shot five, guilty.

Shot six, guilty.

Shot seven, guilty.

Shot eight, guilty.

Shot nine, guilty. Shot ten, guilty.

Shot 11, guilty. Shot 12, guilty.

Shot 13, guilty. Shot 14, guilty.

Shot 15, guilty.

Shot 16...

...guilty.

Everything we've been through was worth it.

Everything!

A officer was convicted for murder.

By a majority, almost all-white jury.

In front of the entire nation.

He was guilty of every count of aggravated battery

with a firearm, which carries six to 30 years per count,

which means he can be cha-- he can be given 30 years

times 16. Somebody do the math.

What's 30 years times 16? The rest of his life.

-We never get justice! -Yes!

Today, we got justice.

It gave me, being a black man, just...

...You can't do that to us. You can't --

You can't do what you've been doing these past decades...

t-- to my generation or the generations before me.

It's over. That time is over.

-Everything changes after today! -That's right.

-Everything changed today! -That's right!

And it's not done. We want the rest of those officers,

we want them convicted as well.

Justice for Laquan!

Justice for Laquan! Justice for Laquan!

Justice for Laquan! Justice for Laquan!

We love y'all! Power to the people!

God bless the family!

God bless the family.

My hope is that Laquan's family has some level of peace.

And if we talk about the movement for black lives,

this is undoubtedly one of the most important stories,

and the arc of it is -- is several years long.

Show me what Chicago looks like!

This is what Chicago looks like!

All the investigation that happened,

all the campaigns that were run around this,

the unseating of Anita Alvarez,

the decision of Rahm Emanuel to not run for re-election.

Heads rolled with this trial,

heads rolled with this verdict,

and they're continuing to roll.

We did that, so what else is possible now?

♪eerie music♪

Yeah, I guess this case has kind of shaken me,

with respect to, you know, justice.

Not only was I representing Jason Van Dyke,

I was representing law enforcement in general.

I think a lot of officers see themselves

as being the victim that Jason Van Dyke is.

As far as circling the wagons and feeling like

it's us against them, yeah, I don't think it's ever been

more prominent, uh, than it is right now.

We got a problem, folks We got a problem.

There's no place in this city that we can say

we're safe anymore.

It kind of flipped a switch for me.

I said, "I can't stand by and watch this."

My public service DNA took over,

and I jumped into this thing.

Something has to change.

The police are under attack.

They're under attack by the press, they're under attack

by elected officials, they're under attack

by community leaders.

It's fashionable to attack the police now.

I want to tell you something that's really important to me,

and I hope you guys felt it in CPD,

is -- is there's nobody more important than the troops.

The fact that young people are being encouraged

to not comply with the police

is putting the Constitution in danger.

I'm not optimistic at all.

We're reaching anarchy.

♪soft piano♪

Taken away.

As though it never happened.

The system is so -- I'm sorry, it's jacked up.

I'm glad I did my job, but I feel betrayed.

The jury verdict was 16 counts,

16 shots.

Multiple shots fired.

It was a moment of moral clarity.

But short-lived.

We're still fighting over the story.

The struggle started the moment the shots were fired.

And it's the story at the center of

our racial nightmare in this country.

I would go so far as to say that

it's a matter of life and death.

♪eerie shimmering synths♪