Protesters march in Chicago shopping district

“We want to show them how it’s done in Chicago”, one speaker shouted into a megaphone as the group stopped facing Water Tower Place.

The demonstration kicked off around 11 a.m. CT (noon ET), as the crowd carried umbrellas and plastic-wrapped signs along the high-end Magnificent Mile, which on a typical post-Thanksgiving Friday would be mobbed with shoppers.

CHICAGO -Protesters disrupted holiday gift shopping in downtown Chicago on Friday, marching up and down the city’s “Magnificent Mile” retail district, in the largest and most concentrated demonstration since the release of a video late Tuesday showing the shooting death of a black teenager by a white city police officer. “Too many have already died”, said Chapman, whose organization, the Chicago Alliance Against Racism and Political Oppression, is pushing for an elected, civilian police accountability council.

Many protesters implied that Chicago officials were motivated to withhold the release of the video until after the mayoral election. Yet the video and various actions taken before and after the shooting point to systemic and institutional problems that extend far beyond one allegedly trigger-happy cop.

Entrances were also blocked at the Disney Store, the Apple Store, Nike, Tiffany & Co., and Neiman Marcus.

“Since I got here, I’ve been talking about changing the culture of the Chicago Police Department in a positive fashion”. Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke, 37, turned himself in Tuesday and was ordered held without bond on a charge of first-degree murder. “Racial tensions in Chicago have to change”, Nix said.

“I think it’s those people’s right to protest, and I support their freedom to do that, so I’m just out here getting some shopping done, but good luck to anyone trying to courageous the weather”.

In a statement on Thursday endorsing the planned Unity March & Rally in Memory of Laquan McDonald, the Chicago Teachers Union also called for Cook County’s chief prosecutor, Anita Alvarez, to step down as well.

Meanwhile, protesters again took to the streets Friday in Chicago, following the release this week of the shooting death of a black teenager by a white police officer.

Also outside the same retailer, a protester confronted police officers, criticizing authorities for not releasing the dashcam video of McDonald’s death for 400 days.

“They need to be with the mayor, City Hall, police department. We hope that any assembly on Friday will continue to be peaceful”. It shows McDonald jogging down a street and then veering away from Van Dyke and another officer who emerge from a police SUV drawing their guns.

The shooting was a separate incident this month that garnered much attention because police said the boy appeared to have been killed in an act of retribution against his gang-member father, along the father denied being a gang member.

ABC 7 News reported that on that day, Van Dyke and his partner were at a convenience store parking lot when a call came in and they responded to a situation about a man wielding a knife. Within seconds, Van Dyke begins firing. And officer Van Dyke’s attorney has said this is a case that needs to be tried in a courtroom, not on the streets or in the media.