Laquan McDonald Protest Draws Thousands To Block Chicago Stores On Black Friday

Stores were blocked along Chicago's Magnificent Mile on Black Friday, but not by shoppers waiting in line to score the latest deals. Several thousand men, women and children were demanding action from Chicago officials and its police department.

Friday’s demonstration was a planned protest of the killing of Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old black Chicago resident who was shot 16 times by a white police officer in October 2014. The officer, 37-year-old Jason Van Dyke, was charged with first-degree murder Tuesday. This week, police, under the Freedom of Information Act, released new footage of the shooting, including four dashcam videos.

“Don’t shop on Black Friday, and go down to Michigan Avenue and sit down in the street and block the street on Michigan Avenue with civil disobedience peacefully, and say, 'Business as usual can’t go on while our children are dying,’” Rev. Michael Pfleger said during his sermon Nov. 22, according to DNAInfo Chicago.

More than 1,000 people -- some news outlets reported over 2,000 -- flooded the streets of Michigan Avenue, the Magnificent Mile of retail shops and businesses in the Chicago center, beginning at 11 a.m. local time, the Chicago Tribune reported. The protest began as a march from Wacker Drive, and protesters stopped in front of stores. “No polos today. Shut down!” a group shouted in front of a Ralph Lauren outlet on Michigan Avenue, as seen in a video Vice reporter Ahmed Shihab-Eldin shot and posted on Twitter:

No Polos Today for sale in #Chicago as protesters shut down all shops on The Magnificent Mile. #LaquanMcDonald pic.twitter.com/l5eMM0zy9h

— Ahmed Shihab-Eldin (@ASE) November 27, 2015

In response, police closed northbound Michigan Avenue and later shut down the southbound direction, the Tribune reported. Some stores locked their doors as the protest continued outside. Blocked entrances were seen at Burberry and Banana Republic, Shihab-Eldin tweeted:

That was also the case at the Apple Store:

Meanwhile, some Black Friday shoppers continued to navigate the street and attempt to shop. “I’m an American. I just want to shop,” one woman said as she pushed into the Apple Store, according to Chicago Tribune reporter Kim Janssen.

“Other people shouldn’t have to pay for what happened to him,” Angelica Delgado, a 29-year-old Chicago resident, told the Tribune, according to a live blog of the protest. “I feel sorry for him, and what they did is wrong, but don’t take away other people’s freedom.”

The protest drew the attention of several high-profile figures who have previously campaigned for the movement. The Tribune reported that Cook County Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia and U.S. Reps. Bobby Rush and Danny Davis, as well as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, were in attendance. Jackson referred to the march as an event not just “in memory of Laquan McDonald” but also as a “march for #Jobs and #Justice,” he tweeted Thursday.

Black Lives Matter protesters also disrupted the nation's busiest shopping day at stores in Seattle and New York City.