Van Dyke Got The Punishment He Deserved

Since I'm from Chicago I would like to comment on this.

Van Dyke was charged with second degree murder

16 chargers of aggravated assault

He was found not guilty of first degree murder or official misconduct

I think the jurors did the perfectly right thing

I felt like second degree was the right charge. First degree is murder with thought before. it was clearly instinct and just him being reactant. Does not make it anymore right, but I don't think it was first degree.

16 aggravated assault charges is fair. He had no right to shoot the man 16 times after he was on the ground. If he only shot him once, then I believe this would be a different case.

I also think him being not guilty of official misconduct is fair. The man had a knife in his hand waving it around. That could cause a police officer to shoot the gun once, not 15 other times.

The Cook County Circuit Courts did the right thing.

1st degree murders should be hard to convict. 

I agree that 2nd degree murder was probably the correct verdict, but one aggravated assault charge for each shot fired seems kind of ridiculous. All the shots were part of one criminal act; they were not separate acts. It's like charging someone who gets in a barroom fight once for each punch they throw.

In this case, the multiple aggravated assault charges are just the prosecutor playing to the public outcry.

I don't like it either. But I respect it and I think it is reasonable enough for me considering it fair. I think he should've innocent on maybe 1 or 2 shots, but the 14 other shots were unncessary. Since it goes under battery and that doesn't go for much time. I would say that 16x battery is reasonable to some extent.

Once again prosecutors overcharged. I agree, easily 2nd degree murder. I am absolutely disgusted by the actions of this officer, there is no excuse for what he did. Police from his department as well as all over should speak out against this to highlight this isn't the standard and this isn't acceptable. This needs to be used as a training for what not to do.