Jackson and other community leaders addressed steps forward after Friday’s sentencing of Van Dyke for the 2014 murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.
Reflecting Monday on the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., the Rev. Jesse Jackson cited the prison sentence of Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke and ongoing government shutdown as the kind of injustices the civil rights leader would have fought against.
At a breakfast for PUSH Excel’s Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. scholarship program, Jackson and other community leaders discussed how to move forward after the sentencing of Van Dyke for the 2014 murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.
Jackson said the 84-year sentence given last week to Mickieal Ward, convicted of killing 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, stands in stark contrast to Van Dyke’s 81-months sentence, handed down Friday.
“Justice has been covered up,” Jackson said.
Several mayoral candidates, including Toni Preckwinkle and Lori Lightfoot shared similar sentiments. Lightfoot called for the FBI to reopen the grand jury investigation into the case, citing the federal government’s separate civil rights case into Rodney King’s beating by police as an example.
