“The only thing new is that there’s a video of this shooting”, Scott said. A sidewalk saxophonist blew his horn, people stood on grassy medians to take pictures and frustrated tourists made their way down the middle of the street after being forced off sidewalks. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, former mayoral candidate and Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, and U.S. Reps. Some stores locked their doors as the protest continued outside.
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There was an element of the surreal throughout the day. A Saks Fifth Avenue store redirected shoppers to an employee entrance in the back of the building where salespeople guided them up stairs, through back storerooms and onto the showroom floor.
“The protest was a call for people to boycott the business district because the whole political system is involved: They sat on the video for a whole year”.
“I grew up in Italy under Mussolini – I wasn’t brought up with all this”, he confided with a smile, gesturing to the crowd, which was chanting that McDonald had been shot 16 times.
Chicago police has said Lee was lured into an alley and killed because of his family’s gang involvement.
Carter and others want the Department of Justice to investigate the Chicago Police Department and its history of covering up bad behavior.
At the Gap store on the corner of N. MI and Ohio Street, protesters reportedly barricaded the doors, trapping shoppers inside and refusing to let them leave.
Saying he was “challenging the culture” in the Chicago PD, Jackson also noted that they felt it necessary to inconviences millions of Chicagoans and tourists to drive their point home. One of her opponents in the state’s attorney primary election marched in Friday’s protest.
Not everyone was enthusiastic about the tactic.
“It starts at the top”, said Marie Lewis, 46, of this city’s South Shore neighborhood. “I pay to keep it unlisted”, she said. “Our voices need to be heard everyday and these past few days we’ve shown that they can be heard peacefully”.
The demonstration comes days after a video was released by city officials showing a white Chicago police officer fatally shooting a black teenager.
Marchers carried signs calling for the creation of a community police accountability council. “Without some disruption, there is not going to be any change”, he said.
Chants were ample as the main mass of protesters ambled north on Michigan Avenue. “I think that people are very much interested in sending the message that now is the time for change in Chicago”.
“There will be a lot of different kinds of people here”.
“We have watched in anger and disappointment as the city has covered up police violence”, teachers union Vice President Jesse Sharkey said.
For months, Chicago leaders had feared that the release of the video could provoke the kind of turmoil that rocked cities such as Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri, after young black men were slain by police or died in police custody.
Several detectives barged into the Burger King demanding the password to access surveillance footage that would have captured the crucial minutes before and after Officer Jason Van Dyke opened fire on the 17-year-old, killing the black teen, the Chicago Tribune reported. 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.
Protesters have called for the firing of McCarthy and for an independent prosecutor to look into Alvarez’s handling of the situation.
In response, McCarthy said, “I’ve never quit anything in my life”.
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Van Dyke, 37, is being held without bond pending a hearing Monday when a judge in the case will view the video. He has been fired from the police department.
