Cook County Case Study

Overview On November 24th, Chicago police officer, Jason Van Dyke, was indicted on six-counts of murder and one-count of misconduct in the shooting death of a 17-year-old, African American male, Laquan McDonald (Relerford & Maragos, 2016). A dash cam revealed the officer shooting the teen 16 times while he walked away from the officer (Relerford & Maragos, 2016). In late January, the officer’s attorney announced his plans to seek a different venue for the trial (Relerford & Maragos, 2016). The attorney wants a fair trial for his client and feels that finding an unbiased jury in Cook County will be merely impossible (Relerford & Maragos, 2016). However, he stated that this uncommon request would not be made until the discovery period was completed …show more content…
The attorney makes a good point by claiming that finding an unbiased jury would be extremely complex. The outrage of the public and the community is likely to effect the way in which the officer will be judged. While the article indicates apparent issues with the officer’s alleged misconduct, there is not enough information provided on the topic for further discussion. However, it is important to note that issues of misconduct by criminal justice officials have become topic of discussion throughout the media. As we have discussed in class, criminal justice officials maintain certain standards. Apparently, the officer violated these standards in that his professionalism and morality has been questioned. Again, if more information was provided throughout the article there could have been more discussion on these …show more content…
While the officer has not been to trial yet, we have established throughout the text and in class that the punishment of prosecutors is rare, and the punishment of judges is only slightly more common. However, it does seem in recent society that punishing law enforcement is the most common. This goes back to the point about the heightened attention placed on police misconduct and brutality. We rarely hear of cases that involve misconduct or brutality of other officials, with the exception of the recent scandal involving Justice Eakins. This point will influence this entire case, including the ruling. It seems that the system is more accepting of providing legal punishment for law enforcement over any other position held within the system. Most of this is the product of the relationship and the role of the judge and prosecutor that keeps them safe. It is unsettling that it took 13 months for the officer to even be arrest, while he was on paid desk duty (Relerford & Maragos, 2016). This provides obvious questions: Why does the process of this case seem slow or not swift? and Why did it take so long to arrest the officer with what appears to be “concrete” evidence produced by the dash