Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Chicago's major retail shopping district Friday, just days after police released disturbing video of an officer shooting a Chicago teen 16 times, according to the New York Times.
Led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. and U.S. Reps. Bobby Rush and Danny K. Davis, marchers called for justice in the shooting death of Laquan McDonald, who was unceremoniously gunned down by a white Chicago police officer last year.
Chanting, "Sixteen shots! Thirteen months!” they called attention to the number of bullet wounds the teenager received during the fatal encounter, and the amount of time it took to the officer, Jason Van Dyke, to be charged, the report says.
He was charged this week with first-degree murder. And even "President Barack Obama said he was 'deeply disturbed' by the footage," notes CNN.
Police were forced to close the six-lane avenue to vehicles to accommodate marchers. Although there were no threats of violence, some businesses locked their doors for at least part of the day, losing out on sales on one of the biggest shopping days of the year.
The local NAACP chapters joined the call for a federal probe of the Chicago Police Department, with elected black leaders calling for a U.S. Justice Department investigation into the police's handling of the McDonald shooting, CNN says.
Jackson also called for changes to the police chain of command. "The police leadership has to change as well as its infrastructure," Jackson told CNN moments before Friday's march began.
Police and prosecutor Alvarez reportedly waited 400 days to release the tape, well after last spring's mayoral election, in which Mayor Rahm Emanuel "had to undergo the first-ever runoff election in Chicago history, an eyebrow-raising moment for an incumbent in a city renowned for its 'machine'-like politics," writes CNN.
Read more at the New York Times and CNN.