If There's a Hell Below, We're All Going to Go: A City, a Tragedy, and Its Aftermath

By Noah Isackson and David M. Bernstein

When a white police officer shot a black teenager sixteen times, there were protests in the streets. That was just the beginning.
Inequality, racism, and political corruption are problems that typify many American cities, but perhaps none so singularly as Chicago. In October 2014, these issues came to a cataclysmic head when black teenager Laquan McDonald was shot sixteen times by white police officer Jason Van Dyke. In this remarkable work of reportage, authors Noah Isackson and David Bernstein unravel the events that brought Van Dyke and McDonald together on that fateful night, and the cover-up of Van Dyke's crime by city officials-an act that provoked national outrage and led not only to the conviction of Van Dyke on charges of second-degree murder but also to the political demise of mayor Rahm Emanuel, who chose not to run for re-election.

Based on a deep investigation, including interviews with all of the key players in both the crime and ensuing machinations, Isackson and Bernstein present this story as a parable of the corruption of government and racial tension endemic in so many of our nation's communities today. They show how Chicago's machine politicians have kept its poor black citizens cornered, its rich white patrons happy, and put its police officers in charge of separating the two, resulting in a tragedy that is both unique and chillingly familiar.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1541788168
• ISBN13: 9781541788169
• Release Date: January 2026
• Publisher: PublicAffairs
• Length: 304 Pages
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.3"