The release on bail of a Chicago police officer charged in the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald “should raise some eyebrows,” Professor Donald Tibbs said in a Washington Post article concerning the high-profile case.

The Dec. 28 article noted that the case has already drawn charges of judicial favoritism, since the accused former officer, Jason Van Dyke, was allowed to post bail on a $1.5 million bond, which is not common for defendants who face first-degree murder charges.  

“It certainly would not be an opportunity afforded to an average citizen,” Tibbs said.

An authority on civil rights, criminal procedure and policing practices, Tibbs has been a featured speaker at forums such as the American Bar Association’s National Law-Related Education Conference and the Oxford University Round Table on Literature, Language and the Arts.