The New Dark Age

11 December 2015 — FAIR

Jamie Kalven on the Laquan McDonald Cover-Up

This week on CounterSpin: There are calls for the resignation of Chicago Mayor (and former Obama chief of staff) Rahm Emanuel—stemming from the city’s 13-month cover-up of  video that belied the official story of the police killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. That video, along with an autopsy that also showed police’s initial story to be false, eventually came to light through the work of journalists—but not mainstream journalists; it was independent reporters, including our guest, who stepped in to force the police department and the city to acknowledge not only what happened on the night of October 20, 2014—when officer Jason Van Dyke put 16 bullets into the body of a boy who posed him no harm—but what happened after, as institutional forces came together to keep the truth from the public.

The story of Laquan McDonald is still ongoing. CounterSpin spoke with writer and activist Jamie Kalven. He’s reported on the Chicago police department for years; he unearthed McDonald’s autopsy and has continued to pursue the story.