Police Union Stands by Officer Charged in Murder of Teen

Booking photo for Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke, who is charged in the 2014 fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald that was captured on a police dash cam video. | Cook County Sheriff

As a Chicago police officer sits in Cook County Jail this Thanksgiving holiday facing first degree murder charges for fatally shooting an African-American teen in October 2014, his brothers and sisters in blue are quietly collecting donations for his bond.

Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke is being held without bail after he turned himself in to the Cook County State’s Attorney on Tuesday, where he was charged in the murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. A police dash cam video ordered released by a judge shows Van Dyke shooting the teen 16 times as McDonald walked away from police.

Van Dyke’s union, the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, has set up account at the Chicago Patrolmens’ Federal Credit Union locations scattered throughout the city asking for donations to the “JVD Bond Fund.”

A sympathetic neighborhood blogger in the 19th Ward is carrying the FOP’s plea to the cop-heavy Beverly and Mt. Greenwood neighborhoods: “Please try to help this family where the husband and father is a victim of a liberal inspired witch hunt.”

The 19th Ward Chicago blog, which professes to offer “observation and commentary on the decline of American society,” also calls for the ouster of Cook County State’s Attorney Anitra Alvarez, who can “go back to NYC with [Police Supt.] Garry [McCarthy].”

Also on Patch

• City’s Black Leaders Demand Firing of Chicago’s Top Cop and a Justice Department Probe
• Video Shows Jason Van Dyke Shoot Laquan McDonald
• Angry Protesters Flood Chicago Streets
• Poet, Four Others, Arrested After Night of Unrest
• 5 Perspectives on ‘16 Shots: The Death of Laquan McDonald’
• No Bail for Chicago Cop Charged in ‘Graphic, Violent, Chilling’ Murder
• Teen Shot 16 Times by Chicago Police a ‘Modern-Day Emmett Till’

Checks and money orders are to be made out to the officer’s wife, Tiffany Van Dyke. A woman by the same name started a GoFundMe campaign that raised $10,000 in the eight hours it was online before Van Dyke turned himself in. It was quickly removed by the fundraiser for violating GoFundMe’s “terms and conditions,” DNAInfo reported, after murder charges were announced against the officer.

Since the dash cam video’s release protesters have taken to the streets, engaging in nose to nose staredowns with Chicago police officers under the scrutiny of the news media.

The Second City Cop blog is also chastising the media for fanning the flames of unrest with “inaccurate” reporting:

“No mention of the burglary to auto calls, nothing about the PCP influenced behavior, not even a mention of the knife,” a Nov. 25th post said.

The FOP is asking for donations to the JVD Bond Fund to be mailed or dropped off at the following Chicago Patrolmen’s Federal Credit Union locations. Checks and money orders should be to the attention of and payable to Tiffany Van Dyke:

• 1407 W. Washington Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60607
• 2766 West 111th Street, Chicago, IL 60655
• 5410 N. Harlem Ave., Chicago, IL 60656
• 6124 West 63rd Street, Chicago, IL 60638