Laquan McDonald’s protesters march on Black Friday

The 17-year-old boy was shot by a police officer 16 times last year, and videos have recently surfaced conveying the violence involved in the incident.

Numerous protesters said they felt hitting at stores’ bottom lines would get them more attention than simply marching.

The doors to Water Tower Place were locked for a few hours, with police stationed inside, CBS 2’s Roseanne Tellez reports.

Protesters also linked arms, blocking entrances to stores.

She wanted to stand up for McDonald because she feels like it could have been her or one of her friends shot 16 times and left to bleed out alone on the pavement.

Led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush and other black leaders, protesters flowed over the elegant thoroughfare, also called Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, which leads to the city’s Gold Coast neighborhood. “But certainly, we’re encouraging people to be peaceful”.

“Where they’re trading all their money”, he said.

Foxx also added that the delays created more tension between Chicago communities and the Chicago Police Department, making it more hard for officers to do their jobs. To Kalven, the most important issue here is not just the shooting but how government institutions – from the police to the mayor’s office – responded to it, he says.

Others are yelling at the police officers lining the route.

Despite a cold, drizzling rain, hundreds of demonstrators turned out to protest Friday, the traditional beginning of the holiday shopping season along Michigan Avenue’s Magnificent Mile.

Several protesters were seen lying facedown on the ground in handcuffs, but a police spokesman said she hadn’t been informed of any arrests.

African-American members of the City Council have repeatedly called for the resignation of city Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy.

“That’s why we’re not having problems that other cities are having, or have had in the past”, McCarthy said before Friday’s march. He continued, “We want mass demonstrations, mass voter registration”.

“I understand what you guys are doing but I want to shop”, Bruno Behrend of River Forest told them. “It’s just not going to happen”.

Chicago protesters chose to voice their opinion on Black Friday in support of the victimized Laquan McDonald. When one person tried to get through the front door of Saks Fifth Avenue, protesters screamed at him, shouting, “Shut it down!”

“We have to stop business as usual until we stop police terror”, protest organizer Grant Newburger said. “The mistreatment of people and corruption in this city, I don’t think it’s specific to Chicago but I’m pretty outraged that my students have to live in fear every day”.

“It seemed to be pretty peaceful”, Howard said.

However, fellow shopper Keefe Powell said the protesters were in the wrong place.

Protesters scuffle with Chicago police while trying to enter an expressway on Tuesday in Chicago. “Department stores have nothing, nothing, nothing to do with this”, he said.

Authorities initially said that McDonald, who was high on phencyclidine (PCP), lunged at Van Dyke while brandishing a knife.

“See this lovely black lady? Racial tensions in Chicago have to change”, Mr. Nix said.

Earlier Tuesday, Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder and denied bail until a second hearing on Monday in a case that took prosecutor 13 months to announce the charges.