Activists, politicians, and Laquan McDonald’s grandmother want more.
On Jan. 28, in a press conference, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said of Van Dyke’s release, “The justice system isn’t always just, and I do not think that the outcome of the sentencing of Jason Van Dyke was proper,” Pritzker said. “I am disappointed, and I would have rather seen a different outcome. But this is where we are.”
In a rare display of empathy, Mayor Lori Lightfoot released a statement on Feb. 3, saying, “while the jury reached the correct guilty verdict, the judge’s decision to sentence Van Dyke to only 81 months was and remained a supreme disappointment. I understand why this continues to feel like a miscarriage of justice, especially when many Black and brown men get sentenced to so much more prison time for having committed far lesser crimes. It’s these distortions in the criminal justice system, historically, that has made it so hard to build trust.”
Organizers ranging across generations agree. GoodKids MadCity (GKMC) organizer Reina Torres, 17, and Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) lead field organizer, Frank Chapman, 79; both helped to lead the Feb. 3 protest and press conference, where they delivered a letter from the coalition to the U.S. Department of Justice.
“He is a free man even though he killed an innocent Black man,” Torres said about Van Dyke. “We want to incentivize peace. We want this ongoing system to be abolished. We are tired of Black and Brown people being overlooked and being killed by those who are supposed to serve and protect them.”
Of the many people gathered at the protest, nine protestors were arrested by US Marshals after locking arms inside the federal building. According to news reports, the group included former mayoral candidate Ja’Mal Green, activist and former aldermanic candidate William Calloway and Justin Blake, the uncle of Jacob Blake. He was shot and permanently injured by a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August 2020.
“There was some arrest at a peaceful protest, but as always, it is cops agitating, cops starting it,” Torres said. She was at the protest for about four hours that day, ensuring that everyone got home safely, using a buddy system and ride-shares if needed.
Chapman echoed the sentiments of McDonald’s grandmother, Tracie Hunter. At a press conference at St. Sabina on Jan. 27, she called for Van Dyke not to be released from prison.
“Our marker of success is Van Dyke back in jail,” Chapman said. “He murdered a teenager execution-style. After the first two shots, Laquan was on the ground. He fired 14 more times. I was there at the trial when they showed us the video. They showed us all those 16 shots — that was a lynching.