Protesters march on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue

Protestors have continued to advocate for McDonald with a protest scheduled for Thursday on the Magnificent Mile luxury retail strip, the same area where protestors called for justice for McDonald last month during Black Friday protests.

The demonstrators included a Catholic priest from a heavily Latino part of Chicago.

During the march, demonstrators chanted “Sixteen shots and a cover-up”, protesting the year-long delay in bringing murder charges against police officer Jason Van Dyke, who shot and killed Laquan McDonald in October 2014 as the black teenager walked away from police, according to footage of the incident. Shoppers and passers-by took the protest in stride, and stopped to take photos.

Event organizers from the Coalition for a New Chicago were hoping the Christmas Eve demonstration would replicate another Michigan Avenue demonstration in which a few hundred people disrupted shopping there on Black Friday.

Emily Grossman, 36, was kept from getting an iPhone from the Apple Store. “I hate to put myself first, but this is BS”, she said. “That’s not what our country is supposed to be”.

Employees continue to serve customers at the Apple Store on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, under the watchful eye of a police officer, as protesters gather outside calling for the resignation of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Thursday, Dec. 24, 2015, in Chicago.

“It’s no stress. The police and the protesters are very well-behaved”, he said.

Chicago has seen a steady stream of protests since late November, when the city released the video of Van Dyke, who is white, shooting McDonald, aged 17. Many protesters are holding signs that read “Rahm Resign”, which are aimed at Chicago’s mayor, Rahm Emanuel.

Thursday’s “Black Christmas” protest was smaller, drawing about 100 demonstrators. Desperate shoppers simply waited it out, or if they were determined to ignore the protesters, were in most cases allowed to enter the shops without a struggle, sometimes with police assistance. Police released dash-cam video of the killing only last month after being ordered to do so by a judge, and prosecutors charged Van Dyke only hours earlier, leading to allegations of an attempted cover-up, a federal civil-rights investigation of the Police Department and a series of protests.

Store security officers who stood nervously near store entrances, ready to lock doors as protesters passed, were not called into action. Police on bikes slipped behind the protesters to secure the store’s entrance.

Protesters wanted the huge “platform” offered by the enormous Mall of America, and “as a result we were able to impact them where it hurts, which is through their dollars”, Sole said.

“I’m a little stressed!” said Anitra Cosby, of Louisiana, who was shopping for a gift for her husband, Todd.