Is Chicago helping Wall Street profit from police violence?

Chicago has a problem with police violence, and it’s costing the city and taxpayers a lot of money. But some people are also making money off police brutality. While much discourse about police reform focuses on the emotional and physical effects of such abuse, the financial incentives that enable it are less often explored.

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From Emmett Till to Laquan McDonald, this is America, and this is Chicago

Dr. Ponni Arunkumar, Cook County’s chief medical examiner, testified on September 19 in the murder trial of Jason Van Dyke, the white Chicago police officer who killed Laquan McDonald, a Black teenager, on October 20, 2014. This case is the most recent high-profile entry in Chicago’s — and America’s — history of white people perpetuating violence against Black people, a history that this case cannot escape.

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As Van Dyke trial approaches, Pulaski Road remembers Laquan McDonald

On October 20, 2014, 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was fatally shot 16 times by Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke while walking down the 4100 block of South Pulaski Road in the Archer Heights neighborhood. But four years after the shooting on Pulaski Road, many shoppers, like Margie Ramotowski, do not recognize the name Laquan McDonald. If they did know about the case, most were unaware that it happened on the same block they were standing.

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