BALTIMORE II? Open season on law and order in Chicago.

Rabidly gun-hating Democrat Cook Count States’ Attorney Anita Alvarez yesterday dropped charges against two arrested for the most blatant violence against police in unrest since the release of the video showing the shooting death of PCP-addled, knife-wielding 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.

Chicago (Sun-Times) – Saying it was in the “best interest” of the city, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office dropped charges Wednesday against a poet and community activist who was arrested during a protest on Tuesday.

Malcolm X. London had been accused of punching a Chicago Police officer in the face during protests tied to the deadly shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.

“You are free to go,” Judge Peggy Chiampas told London.

…Assistant State’s Attorney Lorraine Scaduto offered no reasoning why prosecutors had decided not to pursue the case against London, 22.

She offered no reasoning, but everyday Americans see the blatant politics here.  Release men who violently attack police, while charging peace officers who maintain law-and-order in the wild, wild inner city that is Chicago.

Did this violent thug learn his lesson from his brief stint in jail?

“Staying in this jail cell with the people that come from the places I come from, and the cats who are locked up in there, only made me realize how much harder we have to fight.” he said.

The “poet” (fancy word for unemployed hoodlum) injured the cop, giving him a black eye.

As for comprehensive analysis of the Laquan McDonald video, Attorney Andrew Branca does a bang-up job analyzing it dispassionately.  It’s clear that rabidly anti-gun Democrat Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez is playing politics with this prosecution, and may in fact the dabbling in prosecutorial misconduct.  It’s almost as if we’ve got a hybrid of the worst of rabidly anti-gun Democrat State’s Attorney Michael Nifong from the Duke Lacrosse rape case with the worst of rabidly anti-gun Democrat State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby from the Baltimore Freddy Gray fiasco.

From Legal Insurrection:

Laquan McDonald Video Not Dispositive of Police Criminal Misconduct

About 13 months ago, on October 20, 2014, Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old 180-pound black male who was non-compliant with police orders and threatening Chicago police officers with a knife, was shot and killed by officer Jason Van Dyke, a white man.

Yesterday Chicago authorities, under orders from a judge, finally released some dash cam footage of the shooting. Concurrent with that impending release, prosecutors arrested Van Dyke and charged him with first degree murder. He is currently being denied bail.

Here’s the relevant portion of the police dash cam video that captured that shooting:

The release of the video has triggered the kind of hyperbole we’ve long since come to expect. I’m sure we can all recall the Ferguson narrative, later proven utterly false, of Mike Brown being shot dead by Officer Darren Wilson while Brown was on his knees, arms raised in surrender, begging for his life.

…In fact, based on the available evidence–the dash cam video and the autopsy report–it is simply impossible to definitely conclude that Officer Van Dyke committed the crime of murder in the first degree.  Indeed, both the video and the autopsy report are entirely consistent with the lawful use of force by Van Dyke.

…Every police officer who confronted the knife-wielding Laquan McDonald on that Chicago street would have knowledge of the Tueller Drill and thus would have recognized that McDonald was well within range to constitute an imminent deadly threat to the officers.

They would also have been aware, through both training and experience, of how deadly a knife can be even against gun-armed police officers fully prepared for a physical confrontation…

The Laquan McDonald Dash Cam Video in Context

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the dash cam video of the interaction between the Chicago police, especially Officer Van Dyke, and Laquan McDonald.  As you do I want to suggest you keep a few points in mind:

(1) McDonald was brandishing a knife in his right hand as he walked down the middle of the street while facing numerous police officers.  It must be assumed that he was being non-compliant with lawful orders to drop the knife, get on the ground, and the usual law enforcement protocols for such circumstances.  Note that the police have a legal duty to enforce public safety, and cannot simply allow a knife-wielding PCP addict to wander up and down the public streets.  Only one person was making a free choice that evening, and that was McDonald.  He chose, as they say, poorly.

(2) McDonald does not walk directly away from the officers, but rather angles no more than necessary to keep a distance of 10-12 feet (typical width of a car lane) between the officers and himself.   This is well within the 21 foot distance that these officers would have been taught as part of their Tueller Drill training.  At a distance of 10-12 feet the knife armed McDonald could be on the officers stabbing them with his knife in well under a second. Officer Van Dyke would be well aware of both this fact and the grievous injuries that a knife can cause.

(3) The moment before the first shot appears to be fired McDonald is walking down the dashed-white line of the road, thus parallel to the officers, and he suddenly blades his upper body towards the officers. This movement would be consistent with an intent to charge at the officers with his knife.  It is quite possibly this threatening movement, knife still in McDonald’s hand, that induced Van Dyke to begin firing.

(4) Officers are taught to continue firing at a deadly threat until the threat has been neutralized.  Even after McDonald fell to the ground he was still in control of his movements and he still possessed the knife, thus he was still an imminent threat of death or grave bodily harm to any officer who got close enough.

(5) Neither I nor the outraged activists can possibly know, based solely on that dash cam video, whether an officer was close enough to McDonald to be in imminent danger of his knife because the angle of the dash cam changed such as to obscure the entire scene of the incident where the police were located.  An officer could have been within two feet of the still-armed McDonald, perhaps approaching to handcuff the suspect, when the last pistol round was fired at McDonald.  We just don’t know, not from this video.

(6) At some point an officer approaches close enough to McDonald to finally kick the knife away from the suspect.  This is the first time in the encounter that McDonald has been disarmed of his deadly weapon.  There is no evidence that any additional rounds were fired after the moment that McDonald was finally divested of his deadly weapon.

There’s more…  including a damning indictment of rabidly anti-gun Cook County States’ Attorney Anita Alvarez.

The Dog That Didn’t Bark in the Night

As an aside I also note the curious sudden statements by Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez. Yesterday she was citing the dash cam video as dispositive evidence that Officer Van Dyke acted unlawfully.

It is notable that Attorney Alvarez has been the Cook County State’s Attorney since 2008. While the dash cam video showing McDonald’s shooting may be new to the general public, it was certainly accessible to Attorney Alvarez in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, more than a year ago.

Given the political dynamics of any incident in which a white officer shoots a black suspect, especially one who is not yet a legal adult, it is unimaginable that Attorney Alvarez did not bother to look at the dash cam video until yesterday. Assuming she did view the video as long as a year ago, for the past year Alvarez has perceived no reason to bring any criminal charges whatever against Officer Van Dyke.

Until yesterday, when she charged him with 1st degree murder, 13 months after the event.

Things that make you go hmmmm.

Who is Andrew Branca?

Attorney Andrew Branca and his firm Law of Self Defense have been providing internationally-recognized expertise in American self-defense law for almost 20 years in the form of blogging, books, live seminars & online training (both accredited for CLE), public speaking engagements, and individualized legal consultation.

In the face of what seems to be “open season” on police by not only mobs of trouble-makers, but also the police chief and the states’ attorney, Chicago cops are becoming increasingly disillusioned.  Second City Cop, an influential police blog in Chicago, is calling for the resignation of Alvarez and McCarthy.  They are also calling for “hands-off” policing, effective immediately.  None of this is good for the law-abiding residents of Chicago, nor those who come to visit as businessmen or tourists.

So open season on the police, courtesy of Anita Alvarez. We thought McCarthy had said something about people were free to march, free to exercise Freedom of Speech, but not free to break the law. Battery is breaking the law. Something changed?

We’re going to have to call on McCarthy to resign. He’s lost the confidence of the Department. Same for Anita and her failure to even appear to be even-handed. The FOP is mysteriously silent, too. Nothing on their website, no quotes in the media.

It’s time to stop policing. Chicago doesn’t want you to be the police. Rahm has his cameras. Garry is a product of a corrupt CompStat system that lies regularly. The FOP has surrendered the field to the politicos, working hand-in-hand to screw the membership over 10-hour days, slow-walking grievances, surrendering contract protections.

All you young kids, stop. Just stop. Respond to your calls, write a report, return to service. You don’t need to worry about the system destroying you. The reason we retirees ended up old dogs is because we were smart enough to see which way the wind was blowing.