CHICAGO – Small groups of demonstrators gathered throughout the day Wednesday to protest the death of a black teen shot 16 times by a white police officer, and they urged supporters to join them in trying to shut down Chicago’s famous Michigan Avenue shopping district during the Black Friday shopping bonanza.
About two dozen protesters gathered outside Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office a day after authorities released the graphic video, footage that President Barack Obama said “deeply disturbed” him.
The video shows officer Jason Van Dyke, who was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder, firing an entire magazine into 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.
The protesters held banners showing photos of other black people fatally shot by police in Chicago and elsewhere. Several said they were parents of black men killed by Chicago officers.
“You cannot kill our children and expect us to be quiet any longer,” protester Quovadis Green said. “It is unacceptable.”