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Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke listens right during the second day of his trial for the murder of Laquan McDonald in 2014 on Tuesday, September 18, 2018, while a video image of the body of McDonald lying on Leighton Street Criminal Court Building in Chicago. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune via AP, Pool)
CHICAGO – The Chicago police clearly do not want to appear in court against a colleague accused of murder, one of them being so uncomfortable that he could not afford to name the man on trial, which the witnesses are regularly asked to do so.
But one after the other, whether they want it or not, the police officers on the spot on the evening of October 20, 2014, when white officer Jason Van Dyke emptied his gun against the black teenager, Laquan McDonald is called to testify. away from the "blue wall of silence" long associated with the city's police forces and other law enforcement agencies across the country.
The testimony was to resume Wednesday.
None of the officers criticized Van Dyke in his testimony during the first two days of his trial, but each reinforced the prosecutors' claim that what Van Dyke did was "completely useless". Van Dyke's lawyers say he feared for his life and acted according to his training.
Among those who testified at Van Dyke's murder trial was his partner, Joseph Walsh, one of three police officers accused of conspiring to protect Van Dyke. While the video aired more than a year after the shooting shows that McDonald is moving away from the police, Van Dyke and others at the scene first said that the 17-year-old had given them a shot of knife.
Walsh, who is no longer on strength, acknowledged Tuesday that he "could" have fired, before answering "Yes", to the question of whether he had chosen not to make. But he also defended his partner's actions, claiming that he was "the responsible officer Van Dyke took the necessary steps to save himself and save himself". And he maintained that he had seen McDonald lift his right arm to swing him "in our direction", even though the video of the shoot that was unfolding while he was talking does not show it. He maintained that he had a different point of view.
Another witness, Officer Joseph McElligott, was so reluctant to testify that the prosecutors finally gave up on him to turn to Van Dyke after he was asked whether he knew the accused.
According to some experts, Walsh's testimony – and that of other officers – represents a change in the landscape of a police force that the US Department of Justice described in January 2017 as "a pervasive culture of concealment." ".
"The fact that you have officers to testify is a great moment," said Matt Topic, a lawyer who waged a legal battle to force the city to release the video of McDonald's shooting in 2015.
Van Dyke is the first Chicago police officer for decades to be charged with murder for a service shootout. He pleaded not guilty to first degree murder, aggravated battery and malpractice.
For Phil Turner, a former federal prosecutor who is now a defense lawyer in Chicago, the blue wall of silence does not fade as far as video evidence reveals the truth. He points out that some officers only testify because they would otherwise be found guilty of contempt of court. He sees the police as the key to the video – not because it would make agents reluctant to lie to cover their colleagues, but because it makes these lies "unimportant."
"If they refuse to talk, we do not care, they have the video," he said.
The subject agrees that the video was important in the case of Van Dyke.
"All these officers had to know that there was a video on the dashcam and they still felt safe enough to provide a story that was not true," he said.
Dora Fontaine is the only officer to challenge the statements attributed to her in the police reports on shootings. She arrived while Van Dyke was shooting 16 bullets in McDonald's. Fontaine testified on Monday that she saw the knife in McDonald's right hand, but she did not see him lift his arm or charge the officer.
Officer McElligott, who also testified on Monday, was responding to information that someone was breaking into vehicles in a trucking yard when he met McDonald's.
McElligott said that even after McDonald stabbed the tire in his car, he did not think it was necessary to shoot with his gun. Instead, he and his partner were waiting for an agent to show up with a taser to use on McDonald's.
"We were just trying to be patient," he told the jury.
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