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.
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Led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush and other black leaders, protesters flowed over the elegant thoroughfare, also called Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, which leads to the city’s Gold Coast neighborhood. City officials have said they didn’t release the video because it was part of an active investigation.
The superintendent was referring to protest organizer Malcolm London, who was arrested Tuesday night and charged with felony aggravated battery for allegedly punching a police officer in the face during a protest march downtown.
After nearly an hour of holding the intersection, the marchers reversed course and moved southbound, taking to the sidewalks as they barricaded entrances to stores like Victoria’s Secret, Nordstrom, the Apple Store and Disney, not allowing shoppers inside and, in some cases, not allowing shoppers out.
Why, for example, did the city sit on the video for more than a year before a judge ordered its release?
The protests have been largely peaceful.
Chanting “Shut it down” and “Black power”, protesters marched through rain and mist along Michigan Avenue, causing traffic and blocking shoppers from entering Neiman Marcus and other stores on one of the nation’s busiest shopping days.
Store employees directed shoppers to exit from side doors.
Jessie Davis, of the group Stop Mass Incarceration Network, said there have been calls on social media for people to engage in civil disobedience, and Charlene Carruthers, national director of the activist group Black Youth Project 100, would not rule out such actions. As he jogs down an empty lane, he appears to pull up his trousers and then slows to a brisk walk, veering away from two officers who are emerging from a vehicle and drawing their guns. McDonald, whose name demonstrators are shouting as they march the streets and plan to shut down the city’s glitziest shopping corridor on Friday, Nov. 27, 2015, lived a troubled life full of disadvantages and at least one previous brush with the law.
“You had this tape for a year, and you are only talking to us now because you need our help keeping things calm”, the Rev. Corey Brooks said of Monday’s community gathering with the mayor.
“I’m 56 years old”, he said. And they have asked why Van Dyke continued to collect a paycheck for more than a year after he shot McDonald 16 times.
The shooting took place on October 20, 2014. There was an altercation that involved a punch or two being thrown, but overall, the protests have been a way for folks to try and get their voices heard without disruption and fires and windows being broken.
Police told reporters that they were instructed to only intervene if there was a threat to physical safety. Within seconds, Van Dyke began firing.
Many protesters have said McCarthy should resign or be fired, accusing him of mishandling the McDonald case.
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The footage of the shooting, which President Barack Obama Wednesday called “deeply [disturbing]”, shows Van Dyke and another police officer confronting McDonald on a freeway.
