Michael Lansu
Digital Editor
Michael joined WBEZ in 2016 as a digital editor. He currently edits WBEZ’s daily newsletter and works with reporters, editors, photographers and producers to identify and refine digital stories.
Prior to joining WBEZ, Michael worked for Tribune Publishing, the Chicago Sun-Times and was editor of Homicide Watch Chicago. He has also written for The Guardian U.S., Reuters, DNAinfo Chicago and Red Eye. He has been a contributor on CNN and Fox News.
Michael was born and raised on Chicago’s Northwest Side and currently lives the Bucktown neighborhood. He only eats Chicago hot dogs, dislikes the New York slice and puts giardiniera on everything. He has no opinion on the dibs system.
Protesters take to the streets of Chicago after officials release the a video of Officer Jason Van Dyke fatally shooting Laquan McDonald. Critics attack the mayor and police department. A federal investigation finds a pattern of abuse by Chicago officers.
The fatal police shooting of Laquan McDonald aggravated longstanding tensions between Chicago police and the city’s black residents. We look at how a troubled police department spun a narrative of the shooting, how that narrative fell apart, and how the city reacted when it did.
Former Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke was sentenced to 6 years and 9 months in prison on Friday for the murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald — an event that he called the worst day of his life.
The judge ruled prosecutors failed to prove the three former cops conspired to cover up the shooting by convicted Officer Jason Van Dyke.
A new lawsuit accuses the city of Chicago of creating a system that has left thousands of drivers with expensive tickets that could cost motorists millions. The class-action suit, filed Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court, claims the city created an administrative hearing process that illegally imposed “tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars in fines and penalties” on violations that range from parking in a fire lane to having tinted windows.
The Chicago Police Department last year solved fewer than one in five murders committed during the year, the lowest rate for that crime in at least a half century, according to new police figures. Of the 763 murders tallied by police in 2016, the department “cleared” just 151 — or 19.8 percent — down from a 2015 rate of 25.4 percent, according to the figures, obtained by WBEZ using the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.
The U.S. Department of Justice’s blistering report on the Chicago Police Department’s unconstitutional practices has ramped up calls for changes to the police union’s contract, which federal investigators blamed for hampering misconduct investigations and preventing some officers from being disciplined. The contract is set to expire June 30, and some aldermen said the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, which represents about 10,000 officers, needs to be open to a number of changes to address problems outlined by federal investigators.