Chicago Teen Shooting Spurs Black Friday Protests

“There were 2,000 to 3,000 people involved in the protest [on Michigan Avenue in the heart of Chicago’s shopping district]”, Chapman said on Friday.

Angry protesters have taken to the streets in Chicago in the wake of a police video showing a white officer fatally shooting an African American teenager 16 times.

The protesters blocked retail stores on the “Magnificent Mile” by locking arms to form a human chain to prevent shoppers from entering the stores on the traditional Black Friday shopping day.

Shoppers on the second and third floors of a Crate & Barrel could be seen lining up along windows taking pictures with their phones of throngs of protesters in the streets.

“Alvarez insists that her decision to charge Van Dyke was not “dictated” by the release of the video, but that it did “[move] up the timing”.

Protesters also called for the resignation of the police superintendent and a top Chicago prosecutor who they accuse of stalling the case.

With the rain and the protests, there seemed to be less foot traffic than on a normal Black Friday, said John Curran, vice president of the Magnificent Mile Association, which represents 780 businesses on North Michigan Avenue.

Chicago police say three people were arrested during the demonstrations yesterday.

Police shut down northbound Michigan Avenue at the river, and protesters marched in the street.

Critics say that city and federal investigators haven’t shown urgency in dealing with the case; local columnist and editor Carol Marin pins blame on both “the feds” and President Obama, writing in the Sun-Times Friday, “The president doesn’t hurry. He says despite folks shouting in their faces, getting hit with spittle and thrown things, policemen are behaving in a professional manner”. The police chief knew, the mayor knew.

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

Officer Jason Van Dyke, 37, was charged Tuesday morning with first-degree murder for the October 2014 shooting that left McDonald dead.

Thanks to the Laquan McDonald protesters, Black Friday in Chicago took an interesting turn in the city’s most esteemed shopping district. Jackson said he met with Rush and U.S. Rep. Danny Davis as well as activists, and they too sought a U.S. Justice Department inquiry into the police’s handling of the McDonald shooting, according to the Chicago Tribune. “People are mad here in Chicago”. Emergence of the tape sparked two nights of mostly peaceful and relatively small-scale demonstrations in the city, during which nine arrests were reported by police, the Associated Press reported.

Trotter also insisted McCarthy must lose his job for not moving to fire Van Dyke. A video was released Tuesday of the incident, and Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder shortly after. They all participated in rallies and protests, each of them demanding answers as to why the Laquan McDonald case was mishandled and swept under the rug. Once the video was released to the public, there was an outcry of people suggesting a mass cover-up that possibly went as high as Mayor Rahm Emmanuel’s office.