President Obama Responds to Laquan McDonald Shooting Death Footage: ‘I Was

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. “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”.

Police shut down northbound Michigan Avenue at the river, and protesters marched in the street. “We need to project just how the pain that we’re feeling in neighborhoods now needs to be felt on Michigan Avenue”, Hatch said.

Hours before the video’s release this week, Alvarez filed a first-degree murder charge against Van Dyke, the officer who fired 16 shots in about 15 seconds at McDonald. “Like many Americans, I was deeply disturbed by the footage of the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald”, Obama wrote.

We are aware of the various protests happening here in Chicago and across the country, said Mitchell Feldman, senior general manager of Water Tower Place shopping center. Then why has it taken 400 days for her office to get to this point?

When public officials refuse to release a video that shows alleged misconduct by a police officer, you should only expect the worst.

Chances are great that there will never be an answer to that question. “What’s interesting is what effect the recent demonstrations have had on police behavior – and the behavior of prosecutors and other public officials, including police chiefs and mayors”, he added.

On Saturday morning, marchers carried a black casket around City Hall in honor of Laquan McDonald, 17, who was shot dead by a Chicago police officer past year.

Jackson, president of the Chicago-based Rainbow PUSH Coalition, noted how the city opposed the release of the video until a judge finally ordered its release under a reporter’s Freedom of Information Act request. It’s going to be a hard to prove First-degree murder, which implies that the murder was premeditated.

The Chicago protesters succeeded in blocking the stores along Michigan Avenue including Saks Fifth Avenue, Disney Store, Apple Store, Tiffany & Co., Nike, and Neiman Marcus. Numerous leadership denied such intention.

Talk of disobedience and unrests has been rumored as part of the plan and yet the planners say, that was not the goal but rather to bring about awareness.

The idea was to cost businesses money because the publicity surrounding it would discourage shoppers from even venturing into the area.

Several hundred demonstrators have gathered in the drizzling rain, many with umbrellas and plastic-wrapped signs.

All previous marches have been largely peaceful.

There was a fracas involving a few dozen protesters at the Banana Republic which reportedly included some arrests.

The local NAACP chapters joined the call for a federal probe of the police department, with elected black leaders calling for a U.S. Justice Department investigation into the police’s handling of the McDonald shooting, CNN says.

The march was not a “Civi Rights” moment even though there were some of the old guard present; Congressman Bobby Rush and Reverent Jesse Jackson along with members of the PUSH Coalition stood in protest.

Was Jesse Jackson in the wrong by demonstrating on Mag Mile?

Back in the day, that move would have happened behind closed doors rather than in public. By the time the shooting stopped, Laquan McDonald had his young life taken away from him.