Chicago protesters block store entrances

This week, the long-anticipated release of the dashcam video led to demonstrations that, based on WBEZ, sought “to honor McDonald and protest police violence”.

McDonald was the teen shot and killed by a Chicago police officer a year ago.

Hundreds of protesters blocked store entrances and shut down four lanes of traffic in Chicago’s ritziest shopping district on Black Friday to draw attention to the 2014 police killing of a black teenager who was shot 16 times by a white officer.

The video of the McDonald shooting, shot by a camera mounted on the dashboard of a police auto and made public on Tuesday under orders from a judge, prompted mostly peaceful street demonstrations in Chicago. Jason Van Dyke was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder. So while protesters locked arms to block entrances to stores, police huddled on the street watching.

Jackson is also demanding changes to the police chain of command. From the beginning of this ordeal, Chicago police have lied about the events of the night Laquan McDonald died.

In the final moments, an officer kicks something out of McDonald’s hands.

The release of the video, after a 13-month legal battle against ferocious resistance by the Chicago city government and Democratic Party Mayor Rahm Emanuel, does more than document the actions of a killer cop. Police had initially said that McDonald, who was high on PCP, lunged at Van Dyke while brandishing a knife. Eventually, the Water Tower, a major shopping site, was shut down along with the other shops on Michigan Ave. “He says despite folks shouting in their faces, getting hit with spittle and thrown things, policemen are behaving in a professional manner”. Here is what police at the scene told reporters: At around 9:45 p.m., a squad auto responded to a call that someone was trying to break into cars in an industrial area on the southwest side of Chicago.

Thursday was the second Thanksgiving without Laquan McDonald, who would have been 18 this year, but was shot 16 times by a white officer on October 20, 2014. The Reverend Marshall Hatch, chairman of the Leaders Network of Chicago, told ABC7 Eyewitness News Friday morning that Laquan McDonald’s death affected many people in Chicago’s neighborhoods and they want the rest of the city to see how. On Friday, police said three people were taken into custody at the Michigan Avenue march, two for traffic incidents and one for a simple battery. We entrust police with power and responsibility, and honor them for the risks they take every time they put on their uniforms.

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.

In 2012, there were 503 homicides in Chicago, the most in any American city. McCarthy said that the police are pursuing several additional defendants. He said of the crowd’s sentiments, “The people indicted all those who participated in the cover-up”.

Van Dyke’s lawyer said he will show in court that the shooting was justified.

Among other issues, Chicago and other cities will have to determine, like the rest of us, how to adjust to the new video age, an age that exposes so much to public view that used to be swept under various rugs.