On Thursday, one of the march’s leaders, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, said no such acts were planned, but they could happen.
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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.
Chicago protesters immediately took to the streets peaceably after the release of the Dashcam showing Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke shoot down 17 year old LaQuan McDonald.
Bishop Larry Trotter, senior pastor of Sweet Holy Spirit Church, has endorsed Alvarez’s challenger, Kim Foxx, who said Alvarez took too long to charge Van Dyke with murder.
Stores were blocked along Chicago’s Magnificent Mile on Black Friday, but not by shoppers waiting in line to score the latest deals.
The protesters used Black Friday as the flawless day to start their campaign, hoping to dent the economy of Michigan Avenue and force the police commissioner to resign, pending a federal investigation into his department. And they have asked why Van Dyke continued to collect a paycheck for more than a year after he shot McDonald near 41st Street and Pulaski Road. “Don’t expect that to change”, he said. “We need to project just how the pain that we’re feeling in neighborhoods now needs to be felt on Michigan Avenue”, Hatch said.
Kansas City Police Chief Darryl Forté addressed the issue of trust in a curiously framed blog post last week. These officers also say the decision by Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez to charge Van Dyke with first-degree murder, rather than the lesser charge of second-degree murder, was a politically motivated effort to head off outrage about the video.
Grant Peterson of Chicago, who came downtown to watch the protest, said he supports the marchers, but disagreed with police tactics to allow the stores to get shut down.
The protesters were questioning why there was no audio on the police dash cam video that captured the shooting and also raised concerns that Chicago Police deleted relevant security camera footage from a nearby restaurant.
“The officer in this case took a young man’s life, and he’s going to have to account for his actions”, the Tribune quotes McCarthy’s statement during the press briefing. Two of them were arrested because of traffic-related offenses and one was detained because of battery.
Entrances were also blocked at the Disney Store, the Apple Store, Nike, Tiffany & Co., and Neiman Marcus.
A judge has denied Van Dyke bail.
McDonald was shot 16 times by Van Dyke, Cook County prosecutors said. That explains, for example, why Van Dyke remained on paid desk duty for 13 months before he was charged with a crime. “On Black Friday, we’re going to make it hard for them to ignore the black voice”. “16 shots!” which was the number of times the officer fired upon McDonald. “[The protesters] are intimidating people who have nothing to do with this and that’s just not right”, he said.
Emanuel, appealing for calm, now says it is time for “healing” in Chicago.
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This is an exploitation of a situation and once again, Jesse Jackson tries to totally dismiss the black-on-black crime, 433 homicides year to date… and he has the gall to stand in judgement of what he calls a police culture, but he didn’t talk about the culture of the black-on-black crime.
