Commentary

Analysis: The thing about police unions
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Most unions don’t aggressively shield their members from accountability for murder. Police unions are another story.
Most unions don’t aggressively shield their members from accountability for murder. Police unions are another story.
When he took the job as police superintendent in Chicago in 2011, Garry McCarthy left behind a department in Newark that faced many of the same type of problems that now plague the Chicago Police Department.
Whoever gets the superintendent job next, whether white, black or neither, will just be another puppet, someone whose strings can be cut by the mayor the next time there’s a scandal.
A thorough investigation of the shooting of Laquan McDonald, of course, is in order, as are investigations into every other recent and ensuing use of deadly force by Chicago police. Chicagoans deserve, and have every right to demand, honest answers — but the answers by themselves won’t change the status quo.
The belated charging Tuesday of Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke with the first-degree murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald more than 13 months ago ought to be viewed as an indictment of Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez for dereliction of duty.