The Chicago police officer charged with murdering a 17-year-old last year has been hired as a janitor because he couldn’t find other work.
Jason Van Dyke was suspended without pay by the Chicago Police Department after being charged with the murder of Laquan McDonald in 2015.
Dean Angelo, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said the order decided to hire Van Dyke because he hadn’t been able to find another job since his suspension.
Van Dyke lost a part-time job he had been doing on the side due to the media coverage of the situation.
“We do this for our membership and this is what the FOP stands for, fraternalism. This officer is in a very difficult situation, financially, he has a family and we would do it for anybody that works as a Chicago Police officer,” FOP President Dean Angelo Sr told Fox Chicago.
Van Dyke will make $12 an hour to be a jack-of-all-trades for the union.
“He might be on the roof, he might be in the office, he does anything we need,” Angelo told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Angelo got involved after the Sun-Times made an inquiry after hearing from former order officials who thought Van Dyke was working for the union. They were opposed to the arrangement.
Angelo thought about it and decided to give Van Dyke the job. He said it’s happened before.
“We’ve probably had 100 people in no-pay status who we got jobs or hired at the hall. This is nothing new,” he said.
But Pat Hill, a retired officer, said it’s not the right choice.
“Even though it’s not the first time that the FOP has employed a fellow officer who has been suspended for misconduct, it doesn’t make it right,” said Hill, the former executive director of the African American Police League.
“If it’s not illegal, it’s unethical and it’s immoral and it slaps in the face of the total image that anything that is police related in this city.”
