About 2,000 protesters, some holding signs reading “Stop Police Terror” gathered in a cold drizzle for the march on Chicago’s “Magnificent Mile”, which closed the major city street of Michigan Avenue to traffic on the traditional “Black Friday” shopping day after the Thanksgiving holiday.
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On Tuesday, after an investigation that lasted over a year, former Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of McDonald. “It’s not enough to just charge Van Dyke with murder”.
Protesters say the shooting illustrates deeper injustices both in Chicago and nationwide.
“If we get hurt, you gotta hurt too”. Reverent Jesse Jackson Sr, was verbally accosted by street activist Mark Carter because of philosophical differences. “Not anymore though”, the protester said.
“We want to show them how it’s done in Chicago”, one speaker shouted into a megaphone in front of Water Tower Place. Those calls were funded by members of the Chicago Teachers Union.
Jackson said the $5 million settlement between the city and the McDonald family as a result of Laquan’s death was “hush money”.
“For some, the night ended just before 10 p.m., outside the Best Buy at the John Hancock Center – with an exchange of handshakes between protesters and some of the police officers they’d kept busy much of the day”.
One of Clinton’s rivals, Sen. Reverend Marshall Hatch of the New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church said, “This is something that has touched the conscience of our entire city”.
What continues to roil the black community is that police and prosecutor Alvarez waited 400 days to release the tape, well after a spring election in which Emanuel faced stiff competition and had to undergo the first runoff election in Chicago history, an eyebrow-raising moment for an incumbent in a city renowned for its “machine”-like politics”.
Van Dyke moved toward McDonald who, Van Dyke says, lunged at him.
As of now, Van Dyke is in jail and is being held with no bond for the Chicago teen shooting. “Right now, our whole city and our whole criminal justice system is under indictment, because the people who were charged with making sure he was held accountable did it in darkness”.
But Trotter backs the FOP’s decision to stand behind Van Dyke.
“I am the parent of a 15-year-old who is also the ward of the state”.
London, who was wearing a T-shirt with the phrase “Unapologetically black” on it, walked outside the courthouse to loud cheers. They had the incriminating videotape for months; why were no charges brought until this week? London was among five people arrested on charges that included weapons possession and resisting arrest. But, eventually the truth came to light and between the incidents in Ferguson and Baltimore and the recent racial tension at the University of Missouri in Columbia (Mizzou), people across the nation have probably felt a strong racial backlash between police and communities everywhere. A picture of a smiling Jamar Clark adorned the program for his funeral. The very graphic video was recorded for about 40 seconds with no sound. McDonald spins around and collapses on the pavement. In Los Angeles, the LAPD generally does not publicly release recordings from cameras mounted in its patrol cars or on officers’ uniforms.
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“Several protesters were seen lying face-down on the ground in handcuffs”. The video ends as Van Dyke appeared to kick a 3-inch switchblade out of McDonald’s hand. “He is walking away from the officer”, said Geoff Alpert, a criminologist at the University of SC and an expert on police force.
