Protesters blocked the entrances to dozens of high-end stores, turning a handful of customers away by force and dissuading many more simply by their presence.
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Protesters in Chicago vented their fury at a Christmas tree at Millennium Park, destroying it after a black teenager was shot by a police officer. Van Dyke reloaded his weapon to continue shooting, but was told to cease his fire. McDonald, who can be seen running down the center line of the four lane road before Van Dyke’s SUV veered into his path, slowed his pace to a fast, shuffling walk and changed his direction slightly. It took the prosecutor 13 months to announce charges in the case on Tuesday and hours later, a graphic video of the shooting was released to comply with a court order.
Frank Chapman, 73, of Chicago, said the video confirms what activists have said for years about Chicago police brutality.
“This is where the problem is”, Frank Chapman, a Bridgeport resident who helped organize the march, said outside the station.
Police kept their distance from the protesters and blocked traffic from entering Michigan Avenue.
The protesters created barricades in front of Macy’s, Ralph Lauren, the Apple Store, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Zara, among others. Given that as a goal garnered with the rain, the protest was successful as several hundred people gathered in protest.
Chicago police say three people were arrested during the demonstrations yesterday.
“Honestly it’s the cold that’s likely to scare us away first”, said Christopher Smithe, who was visiting from London.
Demonstrators scheduled the march on Friday, the traditional beginning of the holiday shopping season that packs Michigan Avenue’s Magnificent Mile. “She waited until her hand was forced by intense political and media pressure surrounding the release of this painful video”.
Protests in recent days have been largely peaceful. There have been isolated clashes between police and protesters, with about 10 arrests and only a few minor reports of property damage.
Van Dyke is being held without bail. Van Dyke, the official story holds, fired on the youth only to protect himself and his partner from a potentially lethal attack.
The protesters made their way to the city’s Chicago’s so-called “Magnificent Mile” to raise concerns not simply about the shooting of 17-year Laquan McDonald, but also about the way the city and police officials handled the aftermath of his death.
It has been well over a year since the killing of 17-year-old Laqaun McDonald by Officer Jason Van Dyke of the Chicago Police Department.
Pat Camden, a longtime Chicago Police Department press spokesman who now performs that function for the police union, later described McDonald as having had “a odd gaze about him… he’s got a 100-yard stare… he’s staring blankly”.
One family, downtown from suburban Woodstock, Ill., to tend to their ill son at nearby Northwestern Memorial Hospital, stood on the curb and took pictures as if they were watching a parade. This wasn’t the exception to the rule.
Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez defended herself and Mayor Rahm Emanuel Tuesday after critics slammed both of them for delays in filing charges against a Chicago police officer who fatally shot a teenager more than a year ago. “This is Chicago. This is an worldwide city”.
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“These cases, unlike most cases, require a meticulous examination that could seem to the passive observer to be taking too long”, Alvarez said. In other words, little was done to rein in abusive cops. The footage was released, against the city’s wishes, only after a journalist submitted a Freedom of Information Act request. It was the police who maintained a code of silence despite at least seven other officers who witnessed the shooting at close range. “The irony is, though, that the Burger King surveillance video was running while the officer erased them”. Of those 28,567 complaints, 335 resulted in “no penalty”, 580 brought a “reprimand”, 797 resulted in a “suspension less than a week”, 254 brought a “suspension greater than a week” and 33 resulted in “termination”.
