Black Friday was troublesome for Chicago, but the trouble was not due to the usual barrage of shoppers on the prowl for deals.
Instead, Chicago’s Michigan Avenue was crowed with protesters calling for the resignation of the city’s leadership for cooperation with a yearlong cover-up of the shooting of Laquan McDonald.
Last year, McDonald, 17, was shot by Chicago Police Department Officer Jason Van Dyke 16 times in 15 seconds, according to CNN.
The video detailing the events was released last week. Van Dyke has subsequently been charged with first-degree murder 400 days after McDonald was killed.
Like the protesters filling Michigan Avenue on Black Friday, the Editorial Board believes the Chicago Police Department needs to be investigated at the very least.
Even if top Chicago leadership made no effort to cover up McDonald’s murder by Van Dyke, wouldn’t it be pertinent to investigate a police department where an on-the-clock officer with a history of complaints committed first-degree murder?
We think there must be more than a cover-up happening within the Chicago Police Department.
The release by the police and Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez of the footage depicting the events of McDonald’s death has occurred after a particularly tight spring election for Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
This is the main impetus for city protesters to believe the murder of McDonald was a cover-up to give Emanuel a better chance in the first runoff election in Chicago history.
Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said Friday he will not resign and “What I will tell you is that the mayor has made it very clear that he has my back.”
McCarthy also claims if people wish to “peel away the onion on what’s happening right now in the policing world, you’re going to find a police department that’s doing an exceptional job.”
Although it is probably obligatory for a city’s top leader to try to quell unrest with a positive statement about the state of the police department, his remarks seem more defensive than positive.
While it is still unclear as to whether the Chicago Police Department will be investigated or if any of the city’s top leadership will resign, it is clear the protest following the release of information surrounding McDonald’s murder was successful.
The choice to protest Black Friday in the luxury-shopping corner of Chicago gave the protest one the best platforms protesters could have hoped for.
The fact that the Black Friday protests were peaceful added another positive aspect to the event we believe has led the media and others to portray this protest positively.
Another noteworthy aspect concerning the media coverage of the release of the footage and the protests surrounding McDonald’s death is the media used his graduation photo next to Van Dyke’s mug shot. Using a positive photo of McDonald next to a negative photo of his killer is a step in the right direction for the media when covering events like these.
