Laquan McDonald’s Final Seconds Tell Us We Have No Time to Waste. Reform the Police Now.
Use a stopwatch to understand how much you can do in 14 seconds. Run the length of a football field. Kiss someone for several seconds after listening to the 10-second countdown on New Year’s Eve. Fourteen seconds is how long it took Officer Van Dyke to fire 16 shots into the body of Laquan McDonald. In those 14 seconds, it does not appear that even one of the officers at the scene tried to stop Van Dyke from continuing to fire.
Charging Officer Van Dyke with murder is a critical step towards justice, but it can’t be the beginning and end of this story. Some have used the fact that Officer Van Dyke has been charged with murder to advance the narrative that he was a “bad apple” acting outside the culture of the department. The remedy for that scenario is to prosecute the officer. Problem solved. The bad apple narrative offers a quick solution with no requirement to probe deeply. Race, training, and culture are not important if the problem is a rogue cop.
Neither this view nor the one at the opposite end of the spectrum (all police are racists and use violence against people of color indiscriminately) deal with the reality facing America. And that reality plays out in Chicago just as it has in Minneapolis, Ferguson, New York, and on and on.
The Chicago Police Department has some of the finest officers in the world, and it also has a culture that has supported the use of unnecessary violence and unnecessary deadly force against people in Chicago, especially in the Black community. This history includes the killing of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark in 1969; it continued in the 70s with Jon Burge’s infamous South Side squad beating, suffocating, and electrocuting black suspects; it has rolled into the present day with the payment of more than half a billion dollars in police brutality lawsuits between 2004 and 2014.
A police department can have wonderful police officers and a culture that results in the unjustified use of force, including deadly force, against the people they are sworn to protect. Good officers and bad culture are not mutually exclusive. Laquan McDonald’s killing doesn’t show that all Chicago police officers use unnecessary deadly force against Black men, but it surely doesn’t exempt the department from blame. Training and culture are at play, and unless those things change, prosecuting all of the Officer Van Dyke’s of the world will not make things right.
Mayor Emanuel said that this moment would build either bridges or barriers and asked Chicago residents to rise to the moment. The police and the mayor need to stand up as well. Don’t talk about this prosecution bringing healing as if criminal charges are the complete solution to the problem. Don’t use the horrific number of shootings in the Black community in Chicago to change the discussion, because killing Laquan McDonald had nothing to do with those shootings, and killing Laquan McDonald did not make Chicago safer. Have the courage to admit that systemic change is necessary.
The President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing made recommendations but did not go far enough. The ACLU is working with experts in law enforcement and with community groups towards substantive changes in police training, education, and culture.
Van Dyke shot bullets at Laquan McDonald for 14 seconds. He started shooting only 6 seconds after he arrived on the scene, while McDonald was walking away from him. We don’t have time to waste.
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Press ReleaseDec 2024
Prisoners' Rights
Criminal Law Reform
ACLU Sues Bureau of Prisons for Keeping People in Prison Longer Than the Law AllowsACLU Sues Bureau of Prisons for Keeping People in Prison Longer Than the Law Allows
WASHINGTON – A federal lawsuit brought today by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of D.C., and Jenner & Block LLP challenges the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) for unlawfully incarcerating people longer than the law allows under the First Step Act. The lawsuit contends that the BOP’s failure to implement the First Step Act according to its plain language violates the rights of thousands of people who should be returning to their communities and rebuilding their lives but instead remain incarcerated. Signed into law in 2018 by then-President Donald Trump, the bipartisan First Step Act was designed to reduce the population in federal prisons, reform extreme sentencing laws, and provide programming and reentry transition services to people in prison. Central to the First Step Act is a system of earned time credits, which allows people in prison to earn time off their sentences and time out of prison by participating in rehabilitation programs. Through the First Step Act, Congress unambiguously ordered BOP to move people out of prison when they meet certain requirements to use their earned time credits. Instead of faithfully following the mandatory law, BOP adopted a regulation treating the law as optional. As a result, thousands of people, who should already be back in their communities and with their families, remain in prison. “Every extra unlawful day our clients spend in prison is a serious injustice,” said Emma Andersson, deputy director of the Criminal Law Reform Project at the ACLU. “It is egregious that the Bureau of Prisons is imprisoning people for months longer than the law allows. The government must follow through on its legal obligation to get people out of prison on time and back into their communities, where they belong.” Additional comments below from: Vanessa Crowe, plaintiff: “Time is what I owed for my wrongdoing, and I have paid my time. But I should not have to spend more time in prison than the law allows. I often reflect on what I will miss during the months after when I should be out of prison. I will miss work and lose out on wages that would help me get back on my feet. I could be a tax paying citizen instead of a burden on society. But most of all, I will miss more precious time with my family. My family and I are ready to tum the page on this period in our lives — we are all ready to start a new life, a life with purpose, hope, and healing together. I want to start that life when I am legally entitled to start it-not five months later.” Arthur Spitzer, senior counsel at ACLU of D.C.: “There’s no excuse for the Bureau of Prisons to pretend not to understand Congress’s clear command that people who have earned the right to early release must be released. This law has been on the books for six years. The Bureau of Prisons has had plenty of time to understand it. Law enforcers should obey the law.” Betsy Henthorne, partner at Jenner & Block: “It has been six years since the First Step Act was signed, but despite Congress’s clear directives, the Bureau of Prisons continues to hold thousands of people in prison longer than the law allows. We should and do expect better—it’s past time for the BOP to ensure that those who have earned their release are able to return home to their families and communities according to the law Congress passed.” -
Maryland Supreme CourtDec 2024
Criminal Law Reform
Roland Branch v. State of MarylandRoland Branch v. State of Maryland
This petition to the Supreme Court of Maryland asked the court to reconsider its adherence to Whren v. U.S., 517 U.S. 806 (1996), which declared that a traffic stop undertaken for pretextual reasons does not violate the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution so long as the police have probable cause to believe that a traffic violation occurred. The ACLU, alongside the ACLU of Maryland, filed an amicus brief in support of the defendant’s petition, in which the ACLU argued that the court should take up the question of whether pretextual stops violate the Maryland Constitution. In September 2024, the Court denied the petition. -
North Carolina Supreme CourtDec 2024
Criminal Law Reform
State v. WrightState v. Wright
This case in the North Carolina Supreme Court involves the question of whether the police violated the U.S. Constitution when they searched the defendant, Mr. Wright’s, backpack even after he repeatedly said no to the search requests. The ACLU alongside the ACLU of North Carolina filed an amicus brief arguing that the search was unconstitutional because Mr. Wright’s eventual “consent” was the result of police coercion. Our brief urges the court to consider the totality of the circumstances that make one more susceptible to coercion, including race and poverty. -
News & CommentaryDec 2024
Criminal Law Reform
Disability Rights
Incarceration Should Not be a Death Sentence for Individuals Who Use OpioidsIncarceration Should Not be a Death Sentence for Individuals Who Use Opioids
New litigation centered on increasing access to substance-use disorder treatment in jails and prisons is helping to reduce mortality rates among incarcerated individuals.