Protest and progress in Chicago

US Rep Bobby Rush (D - ILL), left, and Rev. Jesse Jackson protest on Black Friday, November 27, 2015 in Chicago ( Credit: NBC News).

Protesters took to the streets on Chicago's Magnificent Mile along the famous Michigan Avenue to protest, what they feel to be, a year long cover-up by city officials and the Chicago Police Department, in the shooting death of 17 year old Laquan McDonald. McDonald was killed last year after CPD officer Jason Van Dyke shot him 16 times while McDonald was in the middle of the street with a knife in his hand. Van Dyke was rightfully charged with first degree murder.

I already know the argument -- "If he didn't do this...", "If he didn't have the knife in the hand...", "If he wasn't being a thug..." It's the usual inductive reasoning that generally follows the vast majority of fatal confrontations between cop and suspect. At the end of the day, the real question that should be asked was whether or not that level of aggression was absolutely necessary. After all, Van Dyke fired most of the shots after McDonald was already laying on the ground.

But officials did not do themselves any favors. The dash cam video basically contradicted the story that CPD told the media 13 months ago. The city paid the family a multi-million settlement (without a law suit) a few months ago in the hopes of sweeping this under the rug in the wake of an election. And the city still tried to prevent the release of the video until they were virtually forced to.

Anyway, protesters demanded, among other things, resignations of key city and Cook County officials, including mayor Rahm Emanuel, CPD superintendent Garry McCarthy, and State Attorney Anita Alvarez. All three more or less said that they weren't resigning, McCarthy being the most adamant, citing the fact he never quit on anything and he has the full support of Emanuel. The City Council Black Caucus also said it would seek a vote of no confidence against McCarthy. In addition, protesters, led by Rev. Jesse Jackson and U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL), also demanded a Department of Justice inquiry into, not only the shooting, but the entire Chicago Police Department.

This is the latest chapter between the ugly relationship between the black communities of Chicago and the police department of the nation's third largest city. Really, this is the latest chapter in the mediocre relationship that seems to commonly exist between black communities and law enforcement. But what makes today so...interesting, is what also happened roughly at the same time the protests were taking place.

Chicago Police announced that they have arrested Corey Morgan in connection to the gang war slaying of 9 year old Tyshawn Lee, who was killed on November 2 after being led into an alley by a group of men and shot at point blank range. Morgan is currently being held without bond as prosecutors argued that Morgan would be a continued threat to society, mentioning that he would be willing to kill grandparents, parents, and kids in relation to a shooting weeks earlier that killed his brother and wounded his mother.

McCarthy noted that Morgan committed this act "in concert" with two others -- one who was already in custody but declined to name, and the other being Kevin Edwards, who is still at large. Lee's father, who is a suspected gang member in one of the feuding gangs in Lee's Auburn-Gresham neighborhood, has not been very cooperative with police, even though he denied to the Chicago Tribune some of the allegations against him levied by police -- but stopped short of denying gang membership.

Tyshawn Lee (Credit: ABC7-Chicago)

Chicago has been plagued this year by retaliatory violence, a key reason why Chicago is on pace to surpass last year's homicide numbers. A social commentator on CNN pointed to the cut in funding to Ceasefire Illinois, an anti-violence organization made famous by The Interrupters documentary that relied on employees -- many whom were ex-felons -- to go into the streets as mediators to prevent beefs from becoming deadly. While Northwestern University did note that that violence prevention programs helped curb gun violence in Chicago's neighborhoods, the program has been under considerable scrutiny in recent years due to criminal charges being filed by some of its employees. Chicago Police wasn't too fond of the program either -- McCarthy, in ending its relationship with the organization, cited the fact that the group didn't work close enough to law enforcement.

McCarthy made strong statements at the press conference, saying that the gang has signed their own death warrant and promised an aggressive campaign to wipe out both gangs. Lee's death is widely seen as a new low in Chicago, a city where violence is common as gangs wage war over turf and drug corners in many areas of the city, including the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood on Chicago's south side that is regarded as one of the city's most violent.

I found the juxtaposition fascinating, and I use that term with the utmost neutrality. Tensions between black communities and law enforcement led to a purported "code of silence", in which people will not talk to police out of fear and/or distrust, even if talking would put heinous individuals behind bars. But people, according to McCarthy, did talk to police and he credited the outreach for allowing CPD to arrest Morgan.

Yesterday, we saw two things:

Chicagoan blacks see the McDonald case as a reinforcement of their distrust of the Chicago Police Department and understandably took to the streets to protest what really did amount to a cover-up.

On the other hand, we also saw a glimpse of what can happen when these communities, as slighted as they feel, work with the police to help them capture vile human beings like Morgan that are willing to exact revenge against another gang member by slaying a child.

In the end, however, there has to be honesty on both sides.

Chicago Police and the City of Chicago has to be honest with the public when one of their officers egregiously fucks up and hold him responsible because it is the right thing to do, not because an obvious cover-up unraveled. This is especially true when in many of these black neighborhoods, as Crain's Chicago Business Rich Miller wrote, will see police officers (with guns) more often than their city councilman. CPD must do everything in its power to establish a cooperative relationship with the communities of their police beats -- both rich and poor. In addition, politicians cannot afford to choke off funding for, nor can CPD dismiss the value of, vital anti-violence and violence prevention programs that can make a difference in these communities.

On the other hand, protesters, as angry as they may be, need to understand that they too must do what they can to encourage their communities to cooperate with the police, especially in regards to violence. "Snitches get stitches" or "snitches end up in ditches"... I get that and it is a lot easier said than done. There's also a whole argument to be had about the socioeconomic environment of this poor neighborhoods that facilitates the cycle of violence, but that's a completely different story for a different post. But a positive relationship (well, at least better than the current state of it which is just absolute shit) only works if it's facilitated on both sides.