Chicago Protesters Chant '16' After Video's Release

After release of Laquan McDonald video, 'people are mad as hell'
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 25, 2015 3:29 AM CST
Updated Nov 25, 2015 6:41 AM CST

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Chicago Tuesday night soon after police released disturbing video of a white police officer fatally shooting a black teenager, and the Chicago Sun-Times reports that they chanted "16"—the number of times Officer Jason Van Dyke allegedly shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. One tense moment occurred when protesters and police engaged in a "full-on pushing match" for about 15 minutes at one barricade, which resulted in three people taken away in a police wagon. But pleas for restraint were generally heeded throughout the night, reports AP. More demonstrations were planned in the days ahead, including one at City Hall on Wednesday and one designed to block Michigan Avenue on Friday's busy shopping day.

Van Dyke was charged with murder on Tuesday, hours before police released video of the Oct. 20, 2014, shooting. Protesters say they're angered not just by the shooting, but by the police department's failure to release the video until a judge ordered it to—and by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy telling the community that the video should start a healing process, after they had spent so long trying to block its release. "People are mad as hell," organizer Page May with the We Charge Genocide anti-police violence group tells the Chicago Tribune. "It still feels so unnecessary." (More Chicago stories.)

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