Van Dyke sentence continues injustice

The lenient sentence Jason Van Dyke received for his murder of Laquan McDonald calls to mind the White Nights from May 1979, when Dan White in San Francisco was convicted of voluntary manslaughter instead of first degree murder of Harvey Milk and George Moscone. White was sentenced to seven years and eight months, of which he

served five years. Van Dyke was sentenced to six years and nine months, and he could be released in less than three years. White’s lawyers used the “Twinkie” defense, saying copious amounts of junk food had diminished his mental capacity. One of Van Dyke’s defense arguments was to blame the victim. Both defenses are preposterous.

The pattern is also continued from when Michael Brown was killed in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, and the shooter was not indicted. And after the April 2015 killing of Freddie Gray by the Baltimore police, the officers were either found not guilty or were not indicted.

Voters and citizens have become numb to this nonsense. In Chicago, Ferguson, Baltimore

and elsewhere, it is white cops killing another black youth; in San Francisco, it was homophobia in which a straight man murdered an openly gay elected official. Because the murdered victims were minorities and/or members of marginalized groups, lenient sentences were given or there were no indictments or not guilty verdicts.

This pattern of injustice must cease. It destroys the credibility of the criminal justice system.

Scott G. Burgh, Albany Park