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CHICAGO – Somewhere in the Cook County Jail, Jason Van Dyke, a white police officer from Chicago, is waiting to find out how long he will be in jail for the murder of Laquan McDonald, a black teenager. But even after the officer's conviction for second-degree murder last week, this city is still waiting for more verdicts.
Laquan's death was only generally indignant when she turned to the 16 bullets that officer Van Dyke shot at him that night. Demonstrations, political upheavals and promises of reform were also motivated by a one-year effort to keep a video of the shootings out of public view and by what many people saw as hiding from top to bottom.
Three other Chicago police officers – David March, Joseph Walsh and Thomas Gaffney – never fired a shot on the night of Laquan's death, but they are accused of lying on the shooting and conspiring to maintain the agent Van Dyke in trouble. Their cases are considered a rare and crucial test of a so-called code of silence that is often said to be rooted in police services.
"This has been the routine of the Chicago Police Department," said William Calloway, an activist who called for the release of McDonald's video in 2015 as city authorities resisted. "We must make an example of these officers."
On October 20, 2014, the night of Laquan's death, officer Gaffney and several other officers had dragged the teenager to the block. These officers sought the help of a colleague with a Taser and followed Laquan by far, even as he was taking out the tire from a police vehicle with a three-inch pocket knife that he wore and cut off the windshield of the vehicle. Laquan was away from the officers when Agent Van Dyke arrived and started firing. The shots continued as Laquan collapsed on the ground.
Almost immediately after the shooting stopped, prosecutors announced, a camouflage operation began.
"As part of the plot," prosecutors wrote in a document filed last week in an undisclosed file, officers "have not reported or corrected false information in official police reports" and "concealed the real facts that surrounded the murder of Laquan McDonald ".
At the scene, the police did not interview the witnesses of the shooting, prosecutors said. Later in the night, the police huddled at the police station and then dubiously reported that the shots were almost identical. A story appeared, contradicted by the video, of Laquan trying to stab three officers, then trying to get up from the ground after being clubbed with bullets.
A few days later, a sergeant assigned to the case sent an email to Officer Van Dyke, in which he criticized those who had questioned him about his actions. He added that the "offender chose his fate" and that it was "probably a suicide by the police".
"The policeman did exactly what he was trained for," wrote the sergeant, who was not charged with a crime, in an e-mail posted by prosecutors. "We should applaud it, not guess it."
Nine other officers were on the scene when Constable Van Dyke shot Laquan and the police The officials then dismissed seven officers who had given suspicious reports. The grand jurors refused to charge other officers.
In 2014, Laquan's death received little attention, even though shootings against police in cities such as Ferguson, Mo. and Milwaukee led to major protests. In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel was elected for a second term and the city council agreed to pay a $ 5 million settlement to the Laquan family even before a lawsuit was opened. But as the months went by, rumor ran that city officials had detained an overwhelming dashboard video, citing a criminal investigation underway for secrecy.
Thirteen months after the shooting, a judge ordered that the video be made public and, a few hours before its broadcast, in November 2015, the agent Van Dyke had been accused of murder.
In the following weeks, protesters marched through the city several times, chanting "16 shots and concealment!" The Superintendent of Police has been dismissed. The rules applicable when officers can fire have been tightened. Mr. Emanuel, who resisted calls at the start but recently decided not to seek another term, acknowledged the existence of a "code of silence" among officers.
This sentence was repeated when Patricia Brown Holmes, a special prosecutor, last year announced charges of conspiracy, malpractice and obstruction of justice against Gaffney, March and Walsh agents. Mr. March, the detective who investigated the shooting, and Mr. Walsh, Agent Van Dyke's partner that night, resigned from the police department while under investigation .
"These defendants lied about what happened during a shootout involving the police to prevent independent criminal investigators from learning the truth," said Ms. Brown Holmes at # 39; era. "The indictment clearly states that it is unacceptable to obey an unofficial code of silence."
The union leaders of the police defended the three officers and suggested that their prosecution was politically motivated. The men pleaded not guilty and their case will be decided by a judge, not a jury, in a trial that must open on November 26. A court order prevents lawyers involved in the case from talking in detail about the charges.
"These accusations are, in our mind, unfounded. Our officers become scapegoats, "said Kevin Graham, president of the police union, after the announcement of the charges. "How the special prosecutor can interpret a theory of" code of silence "challenges any belief."
But for some who have been protesting for years against Laquan's death, the pending charges are seen as an impeachment of the code of silence itself, an unwritten policy that would have long undermined the relationship between the police and the Chicagoians.
"They are as guilty as Jason Van Dyke, if not worse," said Reverend Ira Acree, West Side Minister and critic of the police department. "Because they wanted to conceal a crime and that they were sworn to protect and serve."
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