y murdered this kid,” lawyer Michael Oppenheimer said about what Chicago police did to 18-year-old alleged car thief Paul O’Neal, shot dead last month.
Oppenheimer said the word repeatedly at his news conference, standing next to Black Lives Matter activist Ja’Mal Green, after the police videos were released.
It was murder, he said.
And that word came from Oppenheimer’s mouth like a punch, like some heavy left hook landing just under the ribs of a damaged city again and again.
It is a word for those seeking to animate angry, frustrated people, a word that offers leverage over a weakened mayor in the heat of a violent summer.
It is August, and Chicago is baking.
“What I saw was a cold-blooded murder,” Oppenheimer said after viewing the police videos with O’Neal’s family. “It was a cold-blooded killing. You don’t even shoot — you shouldn’t even shoot dogs that are running away.”
The steady hand in all this belongs to new Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, who relieved the three officers who fired their guns of their police powers.
City Hall clearly learned its lesson from the disastrous handling of the Laquan McDonald fiasco and quickly released the videos of O’Neal rather than try to suppress them.
Given the history of the police and black Chicago, transparency is what’s required. But the body camera of the officer who shot O’Neal wasn’t functioning. And if you know Chicago, you’re probably not surprised. Things happen that way.
On the audio from cameras on the other officers you hear anguish, worry about the political fallout to come, and a question from one about why the other even opened fire in the first place.
Some of it sounded to me like after-the-fact justification from cops knowing they’re being recorded and about to have their careers served up on a political platter.
With O’Neal bleeding on the ground, one officer complained about being put “on the desk for 30 goddamn days now.”
This case is a bell tolling a liturgy that Chicago knows by heart.
A black kid is killed by cops. In news stories, the photograph of the dead comes from a high school graduation, a face full of bright promise, not something from Facebook that might undercut the image.
There are street protests, exhausted police retreating into their blue tribe, politicians in fetal positions, whites and blacks talking past each other, at each other, and activists thrilled.
You’ve seen this movie before: noise, anger, leverage, revenge and power, a loop of urban pathology.
There are others on the edge of this too, but they’re not the actors sought out by media. These are people hardly mentioned when the city’s blood is up.
They’re young couples with kids, watching this all unfold.
Think of a young couple watching that news conference on TV, just before they head out the door to meet their real estate agent.
They look toward the future, see the great cultural promise of Chicago, the music and restaurants, the museums, the mind of the city lively and active.
But that young couple must see other things too. The violence and the tension and the new taxes City Hall has just imposed, with more to come to pay for the public schools that don’t work. And now this.
Do they wonder: Is Chicago the city for us?
The city has plenty of old and plenty of single young, but it desperately needs young families too. Without those young families to pay taxes, to support the political and economic infrastructure, to put down roots, the city will bleed out.
There are others on the edge of this too, but they’re not the actors sought out by media. These are people hardly mentioned when the city’s blood is up.
They’re young couples with kids, watching this all unfold.
Think of a young couple watching that news conference on TV, just before they head out the door to meet their real estate agent.
They look toward the future, see the great cultural promise of Chicago, the music and restaurants, the museums, the mind of the city lively and active.
But that young couple must see other things too. The violence and the tension and the new taxes City Hall has just imposed, with more to come to pay for the public schools that don’t work. And now this.
Do they wonder: Is Chicago the city for us?
The city has plenty of old and plenty of single young, but it desperately needs young families too. Without those young families to pay taxes, to support the political and economic infrastructure, to put down roots, the city will bleed out.
Should police have shot at O’Neal, who sideswiped one squad car and crashed into another while driving a stolen Jaguar?
No. There is policy against that, established by former Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy.
Should they have chased the kid down and shot him dead? No.
But is it murder?
I can’t say that, not without evidence. This isn’t Baltimore, where six officers were charged with the killing of Freddie Gray, only to have those charges recently blow up in the celebrity prosecutor’s face.
But then, Paul O’Neal wasn’t my son, a young kid being shot at, running away, terrified and now dead.
And for what?
For a stupid car?
[Source:- Chicago Tribune]
