Laquan McDonald was 17 years young when he was executed by Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke. The fatal details surrounding his murder have put Chicago front and center for questions around police conduct, competence, and corruption among the city's officials. Young Black organizers across the city are demanding a complete restructuring of how Chicago is governed and funded. 
Chicago Police Department superintendent Garry McCarthy was fired by Mayor Emanuel last Tuesday, after protesters have been demanding it for months. Back in October, members of the Black Caucus of the city council demanded his replacement because crime is still… 
…I realized I was not following my own advice in sharing my authentic voice with my students. How could I open the year without talking about my mission as an educator to bring love back into schooling? So the next morning I stood before parents and a classroom of third graders talking about love. 
Mike Brown’s life had become an equation; a sum of his respectable parts minus any mainstream missteps to determine his right to equality. Four and a half hours left in the street gave view to an enduring truth in America… 
A Just Chicago reports on the educational damage suffered by children whose parents are incarcerated. It discusses the disproportionately high suspension rates of Black students, and the "school to prison pipeline". A more gruesome aspect of the racist injustice system is the murder of children, particularly Black children, at the hands of the police and the courts. 