About 3,000 protesters shut down the "Magnificent Mile" in Chicago on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year, and they have now been protesting five straight days over the police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.
Last year, the Chicago Tribune reported 435 homicides in the city. This year, there will be even more. That's a lot of dead, mostly young, black men. Yet few care. But when a white cop does the killing – close Macy's!
The McDonald shooting does have some unique aspects, which may be related to the infamous political corruption in the windy city.
McDonald was killed in October 2014 (more than a year ago), yet the video of the shooting was just released this week, after Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder to pacify the gathering mob. Police dash-cam video shows Officer Van Dyke shooting McDonald 16 times. McDonald was reportedly brandishing a knife but moving away from Van Dyke when he was shot.
Many of Chicago's worst took part in Friday's protest, including the Nation of Islam, RevCom (the Revolutionary Communist Party) and Jesse Jackson's Rainbow PUSH coalition.
They don't care about the thug, McDonald. But they do care about attacking cops –especially white ones. Contrast their reaction to the McDonald shooting to another case in the news:
Nine-year-old Tyshawn Lee was murdered on Nov. 2 by cold-blooded black gang members as retaliation against Tyshawn's father. Two suspects are now in custody for the slaying, with one still at large. Young Tyshawn was reportedly lured into an alley and shot multiple times. Yet nobody tried to close down Michigan Avenue over it.
Compared to Tyshawn, Laquan McDonald was far from innocent.
According to the Chicago Tribune, on the night of McDonald's death, officers followed him after he allegedly tried to break into vehicles in a trucking yard. The caller reporting the attempted break-ins told police that McDonald had a knife and had threatened him with it. McDonald also reportedly punctured the tire of a police van that was following him and struck the van's windshield. An autopsy report later said small amounts of PCP were found in his system.
McDonald's background and home life were no surprise:
The Huffington Post reported that, according to Illinois Department of Children and Family Services' records, McDonald was taken from his mother at age three because the agency decided that she hadn't provided her son with adequate supervision. He was placed in a foster home, and later moved into his great-grandmother's, before being returned to his mother in 2002. But the state again took McDonald away, citing physical abuse from the mother's then boyfriend. From around age six to 16, he lived with his great-grandmother and then stayed in the same house with an uncle after his great-grandmother died in 2014.
McDonald was arrested for possession of marijuana in January 2014, DCFS records indicate. Following his arrest, he was in juvenile detention until May 2014. The Chicago Tribune reported that McDonald had an "extensive juvenile record."
McDonald family attorney Michael Robbins said McDonald grew up without his father involved in his life. There it is, the most important single fact in this tragedy, and that of so many other boys and girls in the black community.
The facts of the case will soon enough come to light. The officer will have his day in court, although with a first-degree murder charge facing him, it's hard to imagine him getting a fair trial in Chicago.
The number of shots (16) Officer Van Dyke took will continue to be questioned.
The delay between the shooting, and the charging of Van Dyke and release of the police video will likely be probed. Did Chicago Democrat Mayor Rahm Emanuel influence this delay until after his re-election, much as his ex-boss Barack Obama lied about the true nature of the Benghazi terrorist attacks to help ensure his own re-election?
Did Rahm's police department delete surveillance footage from a Burger King restaurant near the crime scene as its manager claimed?
These and other questions will continue to be asked. The important thing is that we don't take our eyes off the ball. What is the ball? Almost every wayward young thug has in his background one glaring, missing piece – his father. I write about this extensively in my brand new book, "The Antidote: Healing America from the Poison of Hate, Blame and Victimhood."
The end result of all the drama will likely be the same as in all the previous hyped race incidents: Many blacks will have put far more energy into destroying their own city than in raising their children properly and working a job. Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan and a few others will get some publicity, power and money. Many blacks will feel more justified in their hatred of whites. And whites will shake their heads and go buy more guns.
The alternative is for complaining black folks to realize they're their own worst enemies, and for whites – especially those who call themselves Christians – to have enough courage to tell the truth to blacks, thereby providing a hand up to those who seek a better life.
Media wishing to interview Jesse Lee Peterson, please contact [email protected].
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