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Emails Reveal Scramble by Chicago Officials Over Laquan McDonald Video

2 minute read
Rev. Jesse Jackson helps to lead demonstrators calling for an end to gun violence as they march through downtown Chicago on Dec. 31, 2015. The shooting deaths by police of a 19-year-old college student Quintonio LeGrier and his 55-year-old neighbor Bettie Jones and a recently released video showing the shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald by Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke have sparked dozens of protests in the city.
Rev. Jesse Jackson helps to lead demonstrators calling for an end to gun violence as they march through downtown Chicago on Dec. 31, 2015. The shooting deaths by police of a 19-year-old college student Quintonio LeGrier and his 55-year-old neighbor Bettie Jones and a recently released video showing the shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald by Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke have sparked dozens of protests in the city.Scott Olson—Getty Images
By Josh Sanburn

Recently released emails are providing insight into how Chicago officials handled the police dash cam video of the shooting of Laquan McDonald, the black 17-year-old who was shot 16 times in October 2014 by Jason Van Dyke, a white Chicago police officer.

On New Year’s Eve the city of Chicago released more than 3,000 e-mails related to McDonald’s death, many of which show a concerted effort by city attorneys to keep the video from public view.

The cache of emails includes an exchange between a city of Chicago attorney and an attorney for McDonald’s family, in which the family’s lawyer criticized as “entirely unreasonable” a proposal in a settlement offer by the city that the video remain hidden for years, according to the Daily Beast, which reviewed the released e-mails. The city would go on to pay the McDonald family $5 million to keep the video confidential.

These messages occurred in April as Rahm Emanuel was in a heated election run-off to remain as mayor. Protesters have called for Emanuel to step down, saying he suppressed the recording and tried to keep it from being released to stay in office.

Van Dyke has been charged with first-degree murder in McDonald’s death and has pleaded not guilty.

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