Hundreds of protesters blocked Black Friday shoppers in Chicago over cop

Protesters blocked traffic on the avenue, chanting “16 Shots”.

Despite the protests, shoppers continued to roam the streets, but certain major retailers were forced to shut down.

At the normally bustling Apple store, the AP reports, “dozens of employees in red shirts stood in an otherwise empty two-story space and watched through store windows as protesters linked arms to stop anyone from entering”. If McDonald was running towards Van Dyke and he believed the knife would have been sprung open and used against him, then that might be a different question but not when Van Dyke could have maybe tasered him before he got too close and notwithstanding, there was no reason beyond a reasonable doubt to unload a full clip into a single suspect who was fleeing but walking away from the officer. Cook County prosecutors also announced this week that officer Jason Van Dyke had been charged with first degree murder. They demanded no more business as usual as long Black brothers and sisters continue to be murdered in cold blood by the Chicago Police Department while the powers of the city rally around and protect the killers.

“This is where the problem is”, Frank Chapman, a Bridgeport resident who helped organize the march, said outside the station.

After protesters began blocking other stores along Michigan Avenue, the front revolving doors at Water Tower Place were locked. “People have a right to be angry, people have a right to protest”.

Hundreds of demonstrators held protests in the midst of Black Friday shopping on Chicago’s iconic Magnificent Mile, demanding broad reforms in the Windy City.

“The storefronts that were blocked by the demonstrators certainly had an impact on some of the businesses”, he said.

The graphic video is the latest in a string of police shootings caught on camera that have sparked mass – and sometimes violent – protests and engulfed the United States in a debate over racism and the use of deadly force by police.

Protests in recent days have been largely peaceful. There have been isolated clashes between police and protesters, with about 10 arrests and only a few minor reports of property damage.

The FOP’s support for Van Dyke appears to have support within the union, according to email and phone interviews Reuters conducted with a number of white and black active-duty and retired cops, as well as union and black police association officials.

On Tuesday, under a judge’s order, the city released police squad vehicle video showing the shooting of McDonald, who was 17.

One family, downtown from suburban Woodstock, Ill., to tend to their ill son at nearby Northwestern Memorial Hospital, stood on the curb and took pictures as if they were watching a parade. A police spokesman says there were three arrests during the demonstration, two of them traffic related and the third resulted from a battery, but he didn’t elaborate. Many people seemed to take the shopping disturbance in stride, while some even snapped photos of the crowd. He was never disciplined. This wasn’t the exception to the rule. Historically in America, police departments, grand juries and prosecutors have been reluctant to bring charges against officers even in egregious circumstances.

Protestors counted up from zero to 16, and chanted “sixteen shots” to voice anger as Dyke reloaded and fired his gun sixteen times at the teen. However, police can not explain what happened to the original recording.

If Laquan McDonald is Chicago’s most famous murder victim-assuming his shooting was murder-Tyshawn Lee is the city’s second best-known victim. He also wants other officers who responded to the scene that night charged for failing to blow the whistle on Van Dyke’s actions. The footage was released, against the city’s wishes, only after a journalist submitted a Freedom of Information Act request. Mostly the concerns are that the choice to hold off revealing the video was more about politics than it was about leaglese or the interest of the investigation.