Protestors Shut Down Chicago’s Shopping District On Black Friday Over Laquan

An estimated 2,000 protesters, carrying signs such as “Stop Police Terror”, gathered to march on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile on Black Friday, shutting down Michigan Avenue.

Protesters chanted “16 shots, 13 months!” as they marched up Michigan Avenue, referring to the number of times McDonald was shot, and the amount of time it took to file charges against Van Dyke.

Protesters disrupted Christmas 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. Protesters blocked the entrances to dozens of high-end stores, turning a handful of customers away by force and dissuading many more simply by their presence.

“We have watched in anger and disappointment as the city has covered up police violence”, teachers union Vice President Jesse Sharkey said. She asked in that NBC 5 Investigates not determine her. …

That projection didn’t just begin on Black Friday. Rentz says she is in the city for a wedding. “I pay to keep it unlisted”, she said. Over the course of the year, not one of them was charged.

“For some, the night ended just before 10 p.m., outside the Best Buy at the John Hancock Center – with an exchange of handshakes between protesters and some of the police officers they’d kept busy much of the day”.

The entrances to stores -trying to attract shoppers on Black Friday- blocked by the crowd.

Protesters entered the Burberry store and chanted “Shut it down”. “Department stores have nothing, nothing, nothing to do with this”, he said. “It’s pretty miserable out here”, Andrew Boudwin said.

Lane and Debbie Barnett, who own a real-estate company in East Lansing, Michigan, walked out of Apple Store after spending about $1,200 in about 15 minutes. “We’re willing to step back so they could step up”, Barclay said. Protesters also spilled over onto southbound Michigan Avenue, and traffic was eventually stopped in that direction north of the river as well. “Not anymore though”, the protester said. “It didn’t bother us”. “Without some disruption, there is not going to be any change”.

A small contingent of the Revolutionary Communist Party was on hand at Water Tower Place attempting – but largely failing – to co-opt the protest scene. “Safety and security of our retailers, shoppers and employees are our top priorities every day”. On Thursday, one of the march’s leaders, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, said no such acts were planned, but they could happen.

Even though Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez defended herself and Mayor Rahm Emanuel Tuesday after critics slammed both of them for delays in filing charges so late/400 days to be exac against VanDyke, who fatally shot teenager, La Quan McDonald. Father Michael Pfleger, a Roman Catholic priest and social activist who has always been an ally of the African-American community, now wants to take the protests to the next level.

“People of all races are out here supporting this stoppage of profits over people”, said Phillip Jackson, founder of the Black Star Project, an educational and mentoring organization on Chicago’s South Side. In one exchange, two women who were seeking lunch got in a spirited argument about which was the entrance to the Ralph Lauren store and which was the entrance to the Ralph Lauren restaurant, with a protester telling them, “Ain’t no shopping here today”.