Eventually, the Water Tower, a major shopping site, was shut down along with the other shops on Michigan Ave.
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Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez weren’t immediately available for comment Friday.
Although the protests hampered traffic along one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares during one of the busiest shopping days of the year, some expressed support for the protests.
The video shows McDonald, 17, being shot on a city street a year ago by Officer Jason Van Dyke, who this week was charged with first-degree murder.
“People will not rest”, said Hatch, senior pastor at New Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church of West Garfield in Chicago.
Aside from suppressing the incriminating video for a year, Chicago police also lied about the shooting, and reportedly erased surveillance footage from a nearby restaurant.
The main Chicago police union is standing behind the white officer who was charged this week with first-degree murder for gunning down a black teenager. “16 shots!” which was the number of times the officer fired upon McDonald.
This week’s release of police dash cam video of McDonald’s killing is becoming a political as well as policing controversy.
Demonstrators shrugged off a cold drizzle to turn the traditional start of the Christmas shopping season on Michigan Avenue’s Magnificent Mile into a high-profile platform from which to deliver their message: The killing of Laquan McDonald, 17, was another example of what they say is the systemic disregard police show for the lives and rights of black people. “I mean, we were just trying to help the police”.
Mike Schluster of Michigan chose to spend his money in the Loop instead of Michigan Avenue.
Protests continued in Chicago on Saturday, with community leaders promising that the city will see more activism in the coming weeks. They chanted, “If we don’t get it, shut it down”.
They stopped short of defending Van Dyke’s actions – which were caught in a graphic video made public last week – but did say it was important to place them in the context of a racially divided city beset by violence. Reverend Marshall Hatch of the New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church said, “This is something that has touched the conscience of our entire city”.
Hundreds of people marched on Wednesday night with some demonstrators chanting “indict, convict, send the killer cops to jail, the whole damn system is guilty as hell”.
At the normally bustling Apple store, reports say, “tons of workers in red shirts stood in an otherwise empty two-story space and saw through store windows as protesters linked arms to prevent anyone from entering”.
Shihab-Eldin said he was in from NY for about three days, covering the protests.
The group held banners showing photos of other black people fatally shot by police in Chicago and elsewhere.
Burger King district manager Jay Darshane told NBC: “We had no idea they were going to sit there and delete the files”.
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Critics of the city’s handling of the investigation into the shooting have asked why it took Emanuel so long to release the video, and why he did so only in response to a judge’s order that the mayor’s administration spent months fighting. McDonald, who authorities allege was carrying a 3-inch knife and was suspected of breaking into cars, spins around and falls to the pavement as Van Dyke keeps shooting. Members of the City Council’s black caucus again demanded the resignation of Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy.
