Protests shake up Chicago Black Friday

Chicago: Hundreds of protesters blocked traffic and access to stores along Chicago’s premier retail stretch on Friday, the year’s busiest shopping day.

On Friday, a more positive development took place.

On Friday a protest march was held in Chicago’s shopping district, with the Rev. Jesse Jackson in the middle of a crowd that’s shouting, “What do we want?” “Let them just feel the empty cash registers”, the speaker shouted.

Marchers tried to get into the mall as police held them back.

Van Dyke’s attorney, Daniel Herbert, said his client feared for his life in his encounter with McDonald, who was armed with a knife, and that the one video doesn’t tell the full story of events leading up to the shooting. “People listen to economics”, protester Chris Lewis said as he joined others blocking the door to the Ralph Lauren store.

Not everyone was enthusiastic about the tactic.

Entrances were also blocked at the Disney Store, the Apple Store, Nike, Tiffany & Co., and Neiman Marcus. “That could have been Laquan”, she said.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton weighed in, saying the McDonald family and Chicago residents “deserve justice and accountability”.

“We believe injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”, said J.D. Anderson, the pastor at Centennial Missionary Baptist Church on the city’s south side.

These officers also say the decision by Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez to charge Van Dyke with first-degree murder, rather than the lesser charge of second-degree murder, was a politically motivated effort to head off outrage about the video. It makes them less credible. “Without some disruption, there is not going to be any change”, he said.

All previous marches have been largely peaceful.

Demonstrators stood shoulder to shoulder in a cold drizzling rain to turn the traditional start of the holiday shopping season on Michigan Avenue’s Magnificent Mile into a high-profile platform from which to deliver their message: The killing of McDonald – captured on a squad-car video made public earlier this week – was another example of what they say is the systemic disregard police show for the lives and rights of black people.

Chicago police shot an average of 50 people a year in that period, against 31 a year for Los Angeles, 27 in New York City, and 14 in Houston.

“There will be a lot of different kinds of people here”.

The teachers union even paid for a robocall by Jackson on Thursday that encouraged recipients to take part in the Black Friday protests.

Friday’s protest is one of many that occurred in the city this week after police released two different videos of the October 20, 2014 shooting following a court order. They watch the video and see that the accounts offered by Van Dyke and some other officers present during the shooting are pure fabrication.

Tensions flared up in the Midwestern city after officials released a graphic video on Tuesday showing Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke shot McDonald 16 times after the teenager walked away from him. Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy called the allegation “absolutely untrue”.

“The tape cover-up conspiracy of Laquan’s death is proof that Alvarez, Emanuel, and CPD do not stand for justice and are corrupt public servants”, said Rachel Williams, an organizer for Black Youth Project 100. Silent and disturbing. And on the same day the local prosecutor decided Van Dyke should be charged with murder.