Chicago police union stands by cop charged with murdering teen

[Little Tich]

Source: Yahoo! News / Reuters

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The main Chicago police union is standing behind the white officer who was charged this week with first-degree murder for gunning down a black teenager. It is facing a backlash from leaders of the city’s black community as a result.

On its website, the Chicago lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), has posted a bail fund appeal for the officer, Jason Van Dyke, who is accused of shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times just six seconds after emerging from his patrol car on a street in Chicago on Oct. 20, 2014. An earlier link on the FOP's front page to a GoFundMe campaign was removed after the fundraising site said it violated a policy against its use by criminal defendants.

The FOP also is paying the lawyer representing Van Dyke, Daniel Herbert, himself a former FOP member the union pays to represent Chicago cops in misconduct cases. Funding such a defense is a common practice among U.S. police unions.

The FOP’s support for Van Dyke appears to have support within the union, according to email and phone interviews Reuters conducted with a number of white and black active-duty and retired cops, as well as union and black police association officials.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/chicago-police-union-stands-cop-charged-murdering-teen-203741840.html

[msongs]

1. of course they do. birds of a feather and all that... nt nt

[msrizzo]

2. Well of course the union supports him.

Don't they always support the killer cops?

[ManiacJoe]

3. That is the job of the union. Killer cop or otherwise.

[hollysmom]

29. exactlyu, I used to work for a union, they said

it was not their job to judge, but to provide a defense for each worker before the arbitration committee. Although to be truthful, we used to joke about some of the cases, but still had to provide a defense. However these were people who worked on the line and took too many bathroom or smoke breaks, so it was not really as difficult.

[CincyDem]

4. But of course it's not a systemic issue...

...the fact that a Chicago city cop puts 16 rounds into a kid laying on the street, he's just a bad apple. It's not all the other cops...nope. It's just him.

Until it's the next one.

Sheesh.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

6. Bad apple? They posted bail for him, they don't think he's a 'bad apple'.

They think he's just ... misunderstood. After all, he was 'in fear for his life'. Just because the video camera shows the youth heading away, then falling down after getting shot doesn't mean he wasn't going to miraculously shrug off more than a dozen gunshot wounds and suddenly jump up and attack that officer!

[happyslug]

12. Helping a union brother is the key to any Union.

Last edited Sun Nov 29, 2015, 11:59 AM - Edit history (1)

Thus posting a bond is the duty of the Union. Remember if the guy skips, the union loses the money it posted. In fact the bond can be forfeited when the officer is convicted.

My Father once had a talk with his union seward. The Steward was complaining for he had to defend a Union member who was caught stealing. My Father pointed out thar was his duty. If the employer had the evidence the thief would be fired provided the employer had the evidence. The Steward' s job was to make sure the employer had the evidence. The same here, yes this is criminal not civil but it is the job of the Union to help this Union Brother.

I suspect the officer will be convicted the only question is what fine if any the Officer will be accessed. Remember the Union posted the bond and if a fine is accessed, the bond will be used to pay the fine.

[SoapBox]

13. Well...

That all sounds very wrong.

[hay rick]

14. Guilty until proven innocent is what sounds wrong to me. nt

[marble falls]

22. I agree: I think he's guilty of some sort murder, but I am not willing to let him slip because....

he didn't get due process.

[carla]

25. Plenty of evidence

already available. Van Dyke MURDERED Laquan. Simple to see. His guilt is why he has been charged, actually. A presumption of innocence is hard to defend when video shows him plugging 16 bullets into a human and then starting to reload. An ideal for a system of jurisprudence, the concept is a good one. But in the age of video evidence...Van Dyke IS guilty. Presume what you will, we all do anyway.

[hollysmom]

31. But we are not an empowered jury and can't just send him to jail outright, have to

do the steps.

[SwankyXomb]

16. Steward

[JustAnotherGen]

30. If there is a civil suit

And Laquan's family gets a judgment - the Union should pay - not the citizens of Chicago.

[happyslug]

36. Who has the right to discipline the Officer ?

That is who the ability to prevent this and that is NOT the Union. The union power is limited, the union do NOT set up HOW an officer is to be trained, nor how is an employee is expected to work. Those functions always remain in the control of the employer.

In the case of the police, how, when and if an officer is to use his weapon is part of his job and thus under the sole control of his employer. In this case the people of Chicago. They elected politicians who refused to impose strict rukes on the use of firearms NOT the union. The union had a say is such regulations but the final decision was up to the City itself.

[former9thward]

41. The city has already settled with the family.

They got $5 million. Chicago taxpayers paid.

[JustAnotherGen]

48. The cop who did it

Should have been homeless first. That's a damn shame that Laquan's family has to pay themselves.

[rpannier]

19. Chances are it's part of their membership dues

Public Teachers in most states have legal representation if arrested in most places. Firefighters do as well. Chances are most public employees and many private union members probably have it as well

The job of the union is to represent their people regardless of whether they think they're innocent, guilty or whatever

[Person 2713]

15. And all the ones we never hear about ... Don't forget this took a FOIA and judge to come out to the

public. Otherwise unless you were family or involved most would never have heard much about it

[marble falls]

24. There needs to be an inquiry over the year it took to charge and indict this cop and the many....

manipulations of the various videos of the event itself. Why did it take a year to get uncut footage released? Why did it take one year to even acknowledge the existence of multiple uncut tapes? Police and city officials need to grilled over this event and its aftermath.

[Hoyt]

5. That is disappointing. Although, I guess even bad policemen deserve support for a fair trial.

But, it would be nice to see members questioning whether this is good use of membership dues in this case.

Realistically, I don't think the union has a lot of choice. But, maybe they need to rethink how they handle such obvious cases of abuse in the future. Still disappointing.

[24601]

23. Why would anyone at DU have to guess that everyone deserves support for a fair trial? If we don't

stand for everything that result in a fair trial, who will?

Should California have prohibited OJ Simpson from having his defense team under the theory that an under-funded public defender was sufficient?

[Hoyt]

39. I'm talking about the union supporting a murderer. Jeeez.

[24601]

42. The fair reading of your post is that you've already convicted him. Same with your response.

When you jumped to the verdict without trial you made my case without reservation.

[Hoyt]

43. I feel pretty sure he's a murderer. The union is pooling police money to get him off.

[24601]

44. He's a member and they are trying to ensure he gets a fair trial. But since you are sure, let's

just execute him.

Then I'll pick somebody.

Then you can pick another defendant.

And so on.

Pretty soon, we won't have anyone waiting trial and won't need lawyers.

After WWII, the allies discussed whether summary execution would be the way to go for some within the Axis Powers. I for one agree with the decision to hold trials instead. As a result, some were executed, some were jailed and some were acquitted.

I'll stick with trials and a legal presumption of innocence. I'll stick with legal representation at trials.

[Hoyt]

45. Sorry, I think he is a murderer and I'm disappointed in other police supporting him. Since I won't

be on the jury, I'm entitled to express my opinion.

By the way, I thought George Zimmerman was a murdered too, and I detested the right wing, racist, gun nuts who sent him money for his defense.

[24601]

46. Presumption of innocence is itself dead if it only applies to popular defendants. The 1st Amendment

equivalent would be speech and religion are OK, as long as they are approved.

I disagree with selective application of the Constitution's Bill of Rights.

We are at an impasse and I need to go out.

My wish for you is that if ever you are accused, you will be presumed innocent by supporters and detractors alike and that no one would oppose you the resources for competent representation.

[Hoyt]

47. If I shoot someone with a small pocket knife 15+ times, I'll plead guilty and ask for death penalty.

Won't ask my buddies to support me in an attempt to get off.

[tblue37]

7. That thin blue line is as thick as thieves. nt

[radhika]

8. They should face backlash from ALL communities...

Not just from the city's black community. This is an issue we should all stand up for.

Obviously, I'm dreaming of an America that doesn't exist, except in right wing fantasies of exceptionalim.

[Recursion]

9. Isn't that why you pay union dues?

I mean, I hope this guy goes to jail for a long long time, but the union's job is to do things like pay his bail and provide his lawyer.

[hay rick]

10. I don't know about bail, but they absolutely should provide representation.

And the union should assume that he is innocent until proven guilty, no matter how bad it smells.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

11. Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if those were just automatically provided FOP union benefits.

[mike_c]

17. my union membership (NOT public safety) comes with $1 million...

...in professional liability insurance. I would think that cops need way more than that from their union.

[littlewolf]

18. agreed innocent until proven guilty. I remember those Duke Lacrosse players

that were convicted in the press. but the DA was so crooked he couldn't see straight.
If they had jailed the woman who lied about it. a person would most likely be alive today.

[bemildred]

20. This calls for the Raygun approach to Air Traffic Control, just fire them all and start over.

We need police and police departments who understand they are not above the law, they are to enforce the law. Or try anyway, that is their job.

[marble falls]

27. Not a bad idea. Make cops justify keeping thier jobs the same way teachers do at "failing" schools.

[Dan de Lyons]

21. He refilled the gun

Van Dyke stopped to refill the gun. Was he still then fearing for his life?

This is going to be a very difficult case to defend. Bet he cops a plea.

[marble falls]

28. Certainly supports the First Degree Murder charge: one shot is "self defense", any more is murder...

another clip is nothing less than first degree capital murder.

[RKP5637]

32. I wonder what would have happened to me as a non-cop. I think I would have been shot dead on the

spot by cops, no real questions asked. I certainly believe in innocent until proven guilty, but IMO that video is clear evidence as to what happened, and then a second clip, WTF.

[RKP5637]

26. Pretty indicative that it runs deeper than just one cop IMO! ... but that said, maybe the union is

duty bound to support him as a member until proved guilty in court.

[muriel_volestrangler]

33. It took more than one cop to wipe the Burger King camera

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141272897

That's a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and/or accessory to murder after the fact.

[RKP5637]

34. I just saw that! Incredible! I know all cops are not bad, but there are certainly conspiracies

and enough to be damn concerning!!!

[PeoViejo]

35. OMERTA

The Reichwing's wet dream: Police Unions as the model for all Unions.

[packman]

37. I'm a union man, always will be

But this is just wrong, wrong, wrong. If I was a Chicago cop and asked to contribute to his defense fund it would be a real conflict.

[Locrian]

38. yeah, I knew that "one bad apple" stuff was bullshit... n/t

[mainer]

40. Police unions should have to insure members for court costs/damages

Every time a claimant wins a police brutality case, it should come out of the Police Union's insurance policy. When every cop realizes that he has to pay higher premiums for all the bad apples in their union, maybe they'll be quicker to get rid of the bad apples.