A trial for the officer accused of murder, Jason Van Dyke, is underway – and today police were ordered to publicly release a dash cam video of the shooting.
Advertisement
Demonstrators are scheduled to march down the city’s Magnificent Mile, a retail-intensive area in order to call attention to brutality and the other factors believed to have contributed to McDonald’s death by police past year. Protesters were reported by Time to be considering civil disobedience, such as standing in front of shops and similar acts to cause economic disruptions.
Organizers said the rally would be a show of outrage over the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald, 17, and what they see as racial bias in US policing.
“In regard of last evenin, it was peaceful and I respect that it was peaceful”, said Rooney.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many people would turn out.
“I expect this will be bigger than the others”.
Protests have largely remained peaceful with a handful of arrests each day.
State representative Elgie Sims says it’s significant, given the release of a police dashboard video of the shooting death of Laquan McDonald.
Heading Friday’s “Unity March & Rally” is Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.
The Chicago Teachers Union is encouraging its members to join a march in Chicago’s shopping district to protest the fatal shooting of a black teenager by a white police officer.
Van Dyke’s attorney has said the officer feared for his life when he fired at McDonald and that the case should be tried in the courtroom, not in social media or on city streets.
The march will be the latest demonstration in the city since Tuesday, when officials released dashcam video that shows 17-year-old Laquan McDonald being shot 16 times and prosecutors charged Officer Jason Van Dyke with first-degree murder.
Advertisement
Emanuel and other officials said they delayed making the tapes public to avoid tainting the investigation of Van Dyke. They’ve also harshly criticized the department for its months-long effort to prevent the video from being released and the state’s attorney’s office for taking more than a year to file charges against the officer, despite having footage of the incident.
