News / Human Rights

Chicago police union stands by white cop charged with murder

Sunday, 29 November 2015 2:29 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 29 November 2015 2:31 AM ]

Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke

The main police union in the US city of Chicago is standing behind the white officer who was charged this week with murder for killing an African-American teenager last year.

The Chicago lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) posted a bail fund appeal for Officer Jason Van Dyke on its website on Saturday.

Van Dyke stands accused of shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times on a street in Chicago on October 20, 2014. The police union is also paying the lawyer representing the cop.

Van Dyke has been charged with first-degree murder and is now facing a minimum of 20 years in prison.

Meanwhile, civil rights groups have joined calls for Chicago's police superintendent and a top prosecutor to quit for the way they’ve been handling the case.

The teen’s murder has rekindled national debate on the US treatment of African- Americans.

In the seven years between 2008 and 2014, seventy-four percent of people shot by police in Chicago were black.

The incident, which sparked widespread protests against police brutality, even shook President Barack Obama, who said he was “deeply disturbed” by Laquan’s killing.

Earlier in November, a study found that more than half of young African-Americans or someone they know has been victimized by police violence or harassment.

A number of high-profile killings of unarmed African-American men by white police officers in the past two years has caused public outrage and mass protests across the country.

The number of US police officers charged with deadly shootings in 2015 has surged to the highest level in a decade. However, only a small percentage of the cases have led to convictions, according to recent studies.

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