Ken Berwitz
“When he saw you, he greeted you with a hug. He tried to make you laugh…He was a jokester, that\’s who he was.”
Those words, voiced by a clergyman – who also happened to be a relative – were voiced about a 17 year old young man. And what a nice young man he must have been, always trying to make people happy. Must have had a wonderful upbringing.
Except…
The young man in question is Laquan Mcdonald, a career criminal at the age of 17, who was shot and killed by a Chicago police officer last year…with the video suppressed until just recently – which has caused massive street protests, resulted in the firing of Chicago\’s Police Commissioner, and quite possibly might bring down its Mayor as well.
So what kind of life did Laquan McDonald have? How did he come to be what he was?
According to his filefrom the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, his troublesbegan at the age of 3. In December of 2000, social workers removed him from hismother\’s custody because of neglect.
He returned to hismother in 2002 but was removed again when workers saw that her boyfriend hadbeaten him up. Laquan was 5 at the time.
After that, he livedwith various relatives, including his great-grandmother. But when she died in2013, his life further unraveled to the point that on the night of his death hewas classified a ward of the state.
How\’s that for ugly?
And, to make matters even worse, here is his great-uncle again, telling us who is to blame:
“Laquan McDonaldrepresents thousands of Laquan McDonalds — same black skin, same poverty, samesocial and economic injustice that are put upon them,” (great uncle, Rev. Marvin) Hunter said.
In other words, it is not his mother, who should never have had children in the first place. It is not her choice of boyfriends. It is not other family members (including the great uncle, who\’s explanation you just read). It is racism and systematic injustice.
Yep, that is what caused his mother to get pregnant and give birth to Laquan McDonald. That is what caused her to neglect him to the point that he was removed from her home. That is what caused her boyfriend…presumably also Black – to beat the crap out of him when he was five years old.
Is there any truth at all to what Rev. Hunter says? Yes there is. A lot of it. There very definitely is systemic racism in Chicago – one look at how its areas are segregated will tell you that.
But is it the only reason? Absolutely not. and Rev. Martin using racism as a one-size-fits-all explanation/panacea does not ring true. Not even close.
It is self-evident that Laquan McDonald did not have a chance right from Jump Street. But the reasons that he never had a chance go far beyond the systemic racism found in Chicago.
Maybe it is time for a change in how some people take responsibility for their own lives, and for the lives around them.. Maybe it is time for a change in how things are structured in Chicago…
…and – given that the last Republican Mayor of Chicago left office in 1931 – a change in which side of the political aisle is doing the structuring.
