BLACK rights activists vowed at the weekend to intensify the struggle for political change after the killer of 17-year-old black man Laquan McDonald received just six years and nine months in jail.

Former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke’s conviction for second-degree murder last October was seen as a victory by Black Lives Matter activists, as it was the first time in half a century that a police officer in the city had been convicted for killing someone while on duty, although family and campaigners said that he should have been found guilty of the stronger charge of first-degree murder.

Mr Van Dyke’s argument that Mr McDonald had been aggressively swinging a knife at him when he fired at him in 2014 was disproved by dash-cam footage released the next year, which showed the officer firing 16 rounds into the teenager’s back as he walked away.