Protests over Laquan McDonald shooting video highlight rift between Chicago activism's old and new guard

CHICAGO — Moments before Malcolm London was arrested for allegedly punching a police officer Tuesday night, the local activist urged demonstrators to remain peaceful and avoid trouble as they marched toward downtown Chicago’s Millennium Park.

“We need you to fight this fight tomorrow,” London told the crowd of protesters gathered around him at the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Roosevelt Road, many of whom had been marching for hours following the release of a dashcam video of Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times last October.

The video had been withheld from the public for nearly a year after McDonald’s death when a freelance reporter sued for its release under the Freedom of Information Act this August. Last week, a judge sided with reporter, ordering the city to make the footage public before Thanksgiving.

Hours before the video was released to media Tuesday, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez announced that she had ordered Van Dyke to be held without bond on one charge of first-degree murder. Despite the indictment, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy anticipated that the grahic video could prompt unrest.

But the protesters who took to the streets Tuesday night were largely peaceful, chanting refrains like “No justice, no peace,” and “16 shots,” as they blocked traffic along major city streets, accompanied by police officers on foot and bicycle. By the time the demonstration arrived at Michigan and Roosevelt before 10 p.m., three out of the hundreds of protesters had been taken into custody on misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest. London, one of several people wearing black hooded sweatshirts with the words “Fund Black Futures” printed on the front in red, announced that he and the other leaders were heading to the police stationhouse where their fellow activists were being held. He encouraged the remainder of the crowd to continue the march to Millennium Park, but cautioned against any behavior that might get them in trouble.

“We don’t need anymore martyrs today,” London said.

Minutes later, London was in handcuffs, and what had been a peaceful, organized protest suddenly became tense and chaotic. People began swarming cars and encroaching on officers, chanting, “Let him go!”

London was released Wednesday after his felony aggravated battery charge was suddenly dropped. Supporters and fellow organizers say they believe his arrest was part of a police force strategy to control the crowd and shift focus away from the video.

“It was just a distraction,” Bridgette, who declined to give her last name, told Yahoo News. She and her 17-year-old daughter joined a crowd of activists and supporters gathered at a Cook County criminal courthouse Wednesday to petition for London’s release. “They know who to choose. They took the right person that they knew would gather a big enough distraction from what happened with Laquan, but it’s not like we’re going to forget.”

At only 22, London has indeed become a familiar face in the Chicago activism scene. He has received citywide and national recognition for his work as both a competition-winning slam poet and dedicated youth advocate. He’s even done a TED Talk.

But while London’s arrest briefly thrust him into the center of media attention Wednesday, he’s not the only face of this movement. He is but one of several young activists from a variety of community organizations collectively leading this week’s protests.

Fearless Leading by the Youth (F.L.Y.), Assata’s Daughters, We Charge Genocide, Black Lives Matter Chicago, the Let Us Breath Collective and Chicago’s Black Youth Project, which London co-chairs, are among the groups whose young leaders have banded together to take back the conversation about issues affecting Chicago’s black youth from public figures.

Unlike the Rev. Jesse Jackson and popular Chicago activist Father Michael Pfleger, who both have made appearances on local and national news stations to promote (and take credit for) plans for a protest on Black Friday, these activists prefer to rally crowds through social media and word of mouth, and they make clear that no one person is in charge.

They have also shied away from aligning with local elected officials.

For example, they declined an invitation to meet Tueesday with Emanuel, who had called on community organizers to help keep the peace ahead of the disturbing dashcam video’s court-mandated release.

“The consensus was that Rahm has never demonstrated that he cares about the issues that black people care about,” Todd St. Hill, a member of the Black Youth Project, said outside the courthouse following London’s release Wednesday afternoon. “Yet, when he feels that his city is threatened, he calls upon these organizations not to uplift our rights, not to listen to what we want, but to help him pacify the community and that’s not what we’re about right now.”

The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.

The video, which depicts a drastically different sequence of events than what police reported at the time, has prompted calls across social media for Emanuel’s resignation, as well as that of McCarthy and Alvarez. Her decision to charge Van Dyke with first-degree murder more than a year after McDonald’s death has appeared to many to be motivated by a court order to release the incriminating footage.

Not all who received the mayor’s call turned him down, however, and the rift between what might be considered the new and old guards of community organizing in Chicago was apparent when local activist Jedidiah Brown showed up to the courthouse nearly an hour after London had been let go Wednesday.

“You’re just here for the cameras!” a young man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt with the message “Fund Black Futures” yelled at Brown, a pastor and president of the Young Leaders Alliance of Chicago who made an unsuccessful bid for city council this year.

Brown was among the community organizers and religious leaders who agreed to meet with Emanuel Tuesday, and later was seen discussing the dashcam video and Van Dyke’s arrest on CNN and Chicago’s WGN TV.

“We’re not here for the cameras; I don’t even like this,” the young man told the reporters and cameramen who quickly swarmed him as he made his way up the courthouse steps. “We’re here to support Malcolm and the community. I do not like opportunists.”

Timothy Bradford, another member of the Black Youth Project, agreed.

“We're out here for our people, with our people. We’re not out here to make any type of political advances as individuals,” Bradford said, emphasizing that ending police violence is just one part a larger fight against the inequalities facing Chicago’s black youth. “We’re not here trying to tell people to not respond like a human being to inhumane treatment and conditions.”

London similarly stressed this message in the impassioned speech he delivered shortly before his arrest Tuesday, making sure to differentiate between the communal leadership behind that night’s demonstrations and other public facing personalities.

“I need ya’ll to know that this s*** was organized for and by black people,” London said.