Discussing how Chicago avoided the violence that followed controversial cases of police killings of young black men in other cities, WBEZ’s Natalie Moore spoke to Veronica Morris-Moore, a protest organizer who said, “I think people expected Chicago to burst in flames because the dominate narrative out there is that black people are reckless and we don’t care about our communities or neighborhoods”. The group paused for a moment of silence to remember 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, who was shot 16 times by a Chicago police officer last year.
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Hours before the video’s release this week, Alvarez filed a first-degree murder charge against Van Dyke, the officer who fired 16 shots in about 15 seconds at McDonald.
Protest leader Michael Pfleger said, “I would like to see Michigan Avenue stores take a big hurt”.
Led by Jesse Jackson, protesters held signs reading “Stop Police Terror”, “White Silence = White Consent” and the like as they marched northward down the middle of Michigan Avenue on “Black Friday”, the traditional post-Thanksgiving day of shopping frenzy.
Van Dyke is white, and McDonald was black, but this case is not about race.
Carter and others want the Department of Justice to investigate the Chicago Police Department and its history of covering up bad behavior. He was one of 70 people killed by Chicago police from 2010 to 2014 – the most of any USA city, though the Midwestern metropolis has only about one-third as many people as NY and 1.2 million fewer than Los Angeles.
Friday’s march expanded the protest beyond the single event of McDonald’s shooting to the leadership of the police department. It was the police who allegedly destroyed evidence by deleting videotape recorded by a nearby Burger King security camera – video that may have contained relevant footage – shortly after the McDonald shooting. “When you go home and put on clothes like me, you’re black and they’re going to pull you over because you’re just like me”, Steverson shouted.
Chicago police blocked off roads to accommodate the march down Michigan Avenue, and officers in some areas formed a barrier of sorts between protesters and stores and helped shoppers get through the doors.
“City Hall is where this needs to be because this is where the cover-up took place”, said Tio Hardiman. Protesters also spilled over onto southbound Michigan Avenue, and traffic was eventually stopped in that direction north of the river as well. Van Dyke, who had been on administrative duty since the shooting last October, was charged with murder on Tuesday.
Was Black Friday a good day for Laquan McDonald protesters to target? That statement came before a judge-ordered deadline for the city to release the video.
The protesters then turned their attention to the stores, trying to bring commerce to a halt in the city’s commercial center.
“That’s why we’re not having problems that other cities are having, or have had in the past”, McCarthy said before Friday’s march.
The protests thus far have been mostly peaceful, with activists calling for the resignations of Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez.
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Instead it shows the teen, reportedly with PCP in his system, holding a small knife but moving away from police when Van Dyke opens fire – and inexplicably keeps firing at McDonald’s flinching body on the ground. On Thursday afternoon, police said they had made a total of just nine arrests.
