According to documents released this week by the city of Chicago, the FBI had warned of a threat to Chicago cops in the wake of the release of the Laquan McDonald shooting video. This past Monday, the city of Chicago released over 20,000 pages of email correspondence to and from the former police Superintendent Garry McCarthy. McCarthy was fired as a result of the backlash of the release of the graphic shooting video of Laquan McDonald by white officer Jason Van Dyke. Among the 20,000 pages was an email from the FBI dated November 24, which warned of plots by gang members against police and police employees.
According to the email, the FBI stated, “Violent rhetoric is high,due to the recent media spotlight on officer-involved deaths of minorities, there is a lot of anger in the neighborhood served by the Chicago Police Department.” The letter went on to describe in detail a plot the FBI became aware of through an informant. The informant alleged that gang members would wait near the 14th District headquarters and near Homan Square, the Chicago PD’s off book black site, for employees to walk to their cars. There they would be ambushed. The informant also stated that at this time, police and employees would be most vulnerable, most likely out of uniform and not wearing tactical or body armor.
The killing of Laquan McDonald came at a time when tempers were already flared across the country due to what seemed like a rash of police killings of either unarmed citizens or minorities. Van Dyke, the white officer who shot McDonald was initially acquitted of any wrong doing by an internal investigation, however, he was eventually charged by the state for first degree murder. Part of the state’s decision to file the charge stemmed from statements by other officers who stated they felt no need to use force against McDonald even though he was armed with a pocket knife. The judge in the Van Dyke case decided to assign a special prosecutor earlier in the month. His attorneys had no objection to a special prosecutor as they cling to the idea that McDonald’s death was a tragic incident but was not murder.
The emails were released as part of a law suit against the city by the Chicago Tribune, who found that these documents were previously missing from a court ordered release. While some disagree with his handling of the McDonald case, it is clear that action must have been taken to show the public that police inaction to murderous cops is unacceptable. Many claim that McCarthy was fired for optical reasons, and not that he had done anything wrong in his oversight.
http://abc7chicago.com/news/judge-to-appoint-special-prosecutor-in-jason-van-dyke-trial/1368036/
