Thousands march on Chicago's Magnificent Mile to protest police brutality
US News
Thousands march on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile to protest police brutality
Demonstrators angry about the killing of a black teenager who was shot 16 times by a white police officer last year marched through the streets and disrupted Black Friday shopping in Chicago’s ritziest retail district. Despite a cold, drizzling rain, hundreds of demonstrators turned out to protest Friday, the traditional beginning of the holiday shopping season along Michigan Avenue’s Magnificent Mile. Activists chanting “16 shots! 16 shots!” stopped traffic for blocks for up to an hour, expressing their anger over the Oct. 20, 2014, killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald and the subsequent investigation that they say was mishandled.
We have watched in anger and disappointment as the city has covered up police violence.
Teachers Union Vice President Jesse Sharkey
The police officer who shot McDonald, Jason Van Dyke, 37, was charged with first-degree murder hours before a graphic video of the shooting was made public on Tuesday. Emergence of the tape had already sparked two nights of mostly peaceful and relatively small-scale demonstrations in the city, during which nine arrests were reported by police. Despite calls on social media for protesters to turn out for Chicago’s annual Thanksgiving Day parade on Thursday, no rallies materialized. But city officials have given no detailed explanation for why the footage came without any discernible audio that is supposed to be recorded with the video.
It’s unconscionable that the police officer who killed Laquan McDonald was able to sit at a desk for over a year and draw a paycheck.
James Hinton, 49, who joined the march holding a sign that read: “13 months, 16 shots.”
