Thousands protest police shooting in Chicago

“I think [activists] might be in part saying, ‘Look, we have to keep sort of relations with the police”. People have a right to free speech.

“I called the mayor this morning to tell him that I was going to join my former colleagues in the City Council and call for the resignation of Garry McCarthy as well”, Preckwinkle said. Demonstrators beat the drum of dissatisfaction about what happened to Laquan McDonald and how the investigation was handled.

However, this week’s release of police dashcam video of the McDonald’s killing is becoming a political as well policing controversy.

Nearly immediately, one of the officers appears to fire from close range. McDonald spun around and fell to the pavement as Van Dyke kept shooting.

The auto with the camera continues to roll forward until the officers are out of the frame.

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.

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

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez weren’t immediately available for comment Friday.

It was a busy, loud, and at some points, a bit contentious night of marching, chanting and protesting in Chicago. Several hundred people blocked traffic on the near West Side.

Hardball strategies by minority activists, including hunger strikes, have born fruit across the United States, including in Chicago, where young activists recently barricaded a University of Chicago building to demand a trauma center at a South Side hospital, a concession they recently won.

“Until change takes place there will be more boycotts”, civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson said while at the protest. “I can feel pain through my body”.

Demonstrators wove their way between cars and buses halted on Michigan Avenue until police closed the street to vehicles to make room for the demonstrators. After a short standoff, the crowd turned around. 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. Officers formed a line in front of the building, blocking anyone from entering. “All over America, there are police officers honorably doing their duty, demonstrating how to protect the public without resorting to unnecessary force”.

In a letter to city officials, the Downtown Seattle Association complained that protesters had scared shoppers away, prevented the children’s choir from performing, and brought on an “unfortunate hit to our reputation”.

CTU President Karen Lewis issued a statement urging members to express their “outrage and dignity” by participating in Friday’s march.

A couple from Carbondale came to Michigan Avenue Friday to go Zara and Sephora.

“It is graphic. It is violent. Shut it down!” She said she was representing her family, including her three grandchildren.

One of those arrested was 38-year-old Dean M. Vanriper of Murrieta, California. “I have absolutely no doubt that this video will tear at the hearts of all Chicagoans”. “It’s not enough to just charge Van Dyke with murder”. City officials have not provided any further information regarding why the video footage was not cited at the time of the shooting.

Jackson and Rush want a special prosecutor in the McDonald case, they told CNN.

The city fought to hide the video, even after The Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune and a freelance journalist all filed FOIA requests for its release.

“We have to stop business as usual until we stop police terror”, protest organizer Grant Newburger said. McDonald had PCP in his system at the time of his death. His attorney said Van Dyke feared for his life when he fired at McDonald and that the case should be tried in an actual courtroom, not the court of public opinion.