Laquan McDonald Was A Ward Of The State But His Family Took Home A $5 Million Settlement
Brian Anderson
November 27, 2015
The City of Chicago is currently besieged by protests over the shooting death of black teen Laquan McDonald by white police officer Jason Van Dyke. Sure, McDonald was high on PCP and went at a cop with a knife, but you know…racism. One of the more interesting tidbits of information to come out in this case is the fact that McDonald was a ward of the state and yet his “family” received a $5 million settlement from the city. If anything, the state should have received that money because they are the ones who raised him.
The AP reports that McDonald was taken from his home at age 3 by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services because the agency said his mother could not provide for him and didn’t properly supervise him. He was placed in foster care until he was 5 and then briefly reunited with his mother. The mother’s live-in boyfriend was physically abusive to McDonald and less than a year later; he was once again taken from the home. From age 6 until he died, McDonald was a ward of the state.
At various times throughout his life, McDonald lived with a great-grandmother who has since passed away and then with an uncle for a short period.
Now here’s where it gets crazy. Following McDonald’s 2014 shooting death, his family, whoever the hell that is, lawyered up. It’s unclear if the family threatened a lawsuit, but they definitely didn’t file one. The City of Chicago, in its infinite wisdom, decided to offer the family 5 million bucks to head off a potential wrongful death lawsuit. Of course the family accepted it. Who wouldn’t take that kind of settlement for a kid they never knew and barely raised?
My question is, who gets that money? The shitty mother that neglected and abused McDonald for 4 of his 17 years on this planet? The uncle he lived with for less than a year? How about McDonald’s father who has never been a part of the kid’s life ever? There is not one person who has a legitimate claim to being a caregiver to McDonald except maybe the foster families he lived with over the years and the taxpayers who paid for his upbringing.
The answer is actually pretty clear. The mother looks like she’s the one taking in the generous city settlement. According to the family lawyer Michael Robbins, McDonald’s mother was making an effort to regain custody of him prior to the shooting.
“The mother was pursuing a petition to reunite the family,” said Robbins.
Really? The mother didn’t make any effort to get her son back for over a decade, but just by coincidence was trying to do so right before he was shot by a Chicago police officer? Laquan McDonald was 17, meaning he was on the cusp of adulthood. How likely does it sound that a woman who never gave a shit about her son for his entire life was suddenly interested in regaining custody of him as he was about to become an adult?
That’s not a bad payday for being a terrible parent. She popped out a baby, ignored him for a couple of years, let her boyfriend beat the crap out of him for a year, let the state raise him, and then walked away with 5 million bucks because he was killed by a police officer. It’s a long-term investment for sure, but the brilliance of the plan is that it required so little effort.
http://downtrend.com/71superb/laquan-mcdonald-was-a-ward-of-the-state-but-his-family-took-home-a-5-million-settlement
