Protest over teen’s killing shuts stores in Chicago’s retail district

Protesters also blocked the entrances to Victoria’s Secret, the Apple store, Neiman Marcus and more than a dozen other retailers while chanting “16 shots and a cover-up”, referring to the number of times McDonald was shot.

Among the marchers Friday was Frank Chapman, 73, of Chicago, who said the video confirms what activists have said for years about Chicago police brutality.

People block a street during a demonstration billed as a “march for justice” on Friday, Nov. 27, 2015, Chicago in the wake of the release of a police video showing an officer fatally shooting Laquan McDonald.

But, even as demonstrators took to Chicago’s streets to protest the shooting of McDonald by a white police officer, law enforcement experts around the nation warned that recordings like the one that captured the teen’s death can paint an incomplete picture.

In recent days, there has been talk that marchers taking part in the Black Friday protest would engage in acts of civil disobedience, such as blocking store entrances to prevent shoppers from getting inside.

Van Dyke was the subject of 18 civilian complaints over 14 years, including allegations that he used racial epithets and excessive force, police and court records show.

At the front of the march walked the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., who led almost 1,000 people to the site of the historic Chicago Water Tower where speakers rallied protesters through megaphones. Had she brought up charges against Van Dyke at least she would have appeared as having some interest in justice to the Black community. The activists stated that State Attorney Anita Alvarez, Police Superintendent McCarthy and Mayor Emanuel should be fired for withholding the video of McDonald’s death from the public.

“And if people peel away the onion on what’s happening right now in the policing world, you’re going to find a police department that’s doing an exceptional job”.

As Chicago copes with the aftermath of the McDonald shooting, the city has also been dealing with two other high-profile killings.

The march will be the latest demonstration in the city since Tuesday, when officials released dashcam video that shows 17-year-old Laquan McDonald being shot 16 times and prosecutors charged Officer Jason Van Dyke with first-degree murder. They know that there was more to it than what is being said. Protesters disrupted business on one of the busiest shopping days of the year, to protest the shooting death of a black teenager by a white policeman and the city’s handling of the case.

In the six-minute video, McDonald is seen jogging down Pulaski Road when Van Dyke and another police officer step out from their vehicle carrying their guns.

“The city, from what we can tell, covered up basically a murder… We need to project just how the pain that we’re feeling in neighborhoods now needs to be felt on Michigan Avenue”. Van Dyke, who had been on administrative duty since the shooting last October, was charged with murder on Tuesday.

The problem starts in the mayor’s office; implicates the police department’s top brass, the police nion and rank-and-file officers; and runs through the city’s nominally independent police review authority, which routinely dismisses allegations of police wrongdoing.

At the Harley Davidson store, protesters managed to break through the locked doors, police radio traffic said.

Chicago police say they are prepared to support a peaceful march and will be on hand to address traffic and public safety. Only Van Dyke fires his weapon and none of the estimated seven police officers on the scene moves to help McDonald.