Two despicable assassinations resulting in charges of first-degree murder: one against a white Chicago police officer for shooting and killing 17-year-old Laquan McDonald; and, the other against a black Chicago gang member for executing 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee.
Police officer Jason Van Dyke, who shot McDonald 16 times and was attempting to reload before being stopped by his partner, had received 18 civilian complaints over 14 years.
A black man was awarded $350,000 in a federal lawsuit for injuries received from this man with a badge.
Anyone who thinks Van Dyke would have done the same if McDonald was white is delusional.
Corey Morgan had chatted with Lee while he was playing in a park, lured him into an alley and shot the fourth-grader in the head, allegedly to retaliate against the boy’s gang-member father.
Morgan, is a gang member with a long criminal history who had been arrested and released on unrelated gun charges in Chicago’s revolving door justice system.
Police Superintendent Gary McCarthy rightfully called the killing “an unfathomable crime . . . assassination” and an “act of barbarism.”
One thing is for certain — neither of these men should have had the opportunity to commit these dastardly crimes.
Given their histories, Van Dyke’s badge and gun should have been taken away years ago and Morgan should be languishing in a jail cage where animals like him, who would kill a 9-year-old, belong.
So much for cops policing cops and judges enforcing the law!
How did Chicago’s black community and leadership respond to these two fiendish cold blooded murders?
Laquan McDonald’s assassination by a white cop is all the more heinous because it was graphically displayed on a video and because he was acting under the color of the very law he was sworn to uphold.
Therefore, the community response of outrage, protest and demonstration is understandable and justified.
People are rightfully upset that it took over a year for the video to be released and for charges to be brought; that more video is allegedly being withheld; and, that other officers at the scene have been silent.
Amid accusations of cover-up, the Rev. Jesse Jackson joined members of Congress, the Black Lives Matter movement, and an estimated 1,000 protesters on Chicago’s swank “Magnificent Mile” shopping area on Black Friday.
They threatened boycotts and called for the resignations of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Police Superintendent McCarthy, and Cook County State Attorney Anita Alvarez — Democrats all — and demanded a U.S. Justice Department inquiry into the handling of the shooting.
This understandable reaction is in stark contrast to that of the same black community and political leadership to Tyshawn Lee’s assassination by Morgan.
Or, for that matter, the response to the nearly 3,000 shootings and hundreds of murders of mostly blacks by other blacks in Chicago over the years — virtually none:
- No marches to upscale shopping areas.
- No calls for the resignation of the mayor, police superintendent and the state attorney.
- And, no demands of the president and U.S. attorney general to launch an all-out war on Chicago’s gangs and criminal enterprises utilizing the full force of the Justice Department, including the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and increased use of the RICO laws against gang criminal enterprises.
There is no need to wonder why.
Blacks in Chicago have made their own Democratic political bed, and their political chickens have come home to roost — poor schools, urban decay, and shooting gallery black neighborhoods
They have become so desensitized to blacks killing blacks — regardless of age — that they only become outraged and respect a black life when whites, like Van Dyke, kill blacks.
Otherwise, black lives do not seem to matter — regardless of age!
Don’t think that whites, including white cops, politicians, and journalists don’t see that disrespect — and the failure of black civil rights establishments, and a black president, to respond as they do when a white takes a black life.
They also become desensitized — if blacks don’t care, why should they?
No other voter group would tolerate the slaughter in their own midst as do blacks in Chicago which movie director Spike Lee calls “Chiraq.”
In “Chiraq," regardless of how much they cry now, blacks had a chance to get rid of Mayor Emanuel. In April’s runoff election, they could have followed the Rev. Jackson and supported Mexican-American County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia who would have become the city’s first Hispanic mayor.
Garcia had criticized Emanuel for his record on crime, closing nearly 50 schools and favoring the city’s wealthy over poorer neighborhoods. But, rather than realize their power and become a key factor in a Garcia victory, blacks fell in line and supported Emanuel.
Meanwhile, two more black kids are dead with shamefully different responses because of the color of their assassins.
Clarence V. McKee is president of McKee Communications, Inc., a government, political, and media relations consulting firm in Florida. He held several positions in the Reagan administration as well as in the Reagan presidential campaigns and has appeared on many national and local media outlets. Read more reports from Clarence V. McKee — Click Here Now.
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