Protest against mayor, police returns to Magnificent Mile

About 200 protesters returned to Michigan Avenue on Thursday, clogging traffic along Michigan Avenue’s Magnificent Mile on Christmas Eve.

The crowd wasn’t as big as the one that flooded the city’s premier shopping district on Black Friday, but the playbook was the same: staring down police, laying down in intersections, blocking storefronts.

One shopper inside the Apple Store watched as police officers on bikes formed a wall in front of the store’s iconic glass facade as dozens of protesters flooded the sidewalk near the front door.

“It’s just all very sad,” said the man, who asked not to be named. Dozens of Apple employees, as well as six burly private security guards, kept an eye on the demonstrators outside.

Police waved in customers who were determined enough to worm their way through the crowd.

As the group swarmed the entrances to other stores, such as H&M and Macy’s, shoppers scurried.

“I’m just trying to shop,” said one woman who was scolded by a protester.

A high-ranking police officer approached the Rev. Corey Brooks outside H&M and asked him to discourage some of the younger activists in their ranks from clogging storefronts.

Brooks refused to help.

“The best thing for this city right now would be to hire a female black police superintendent,” Brooks said during a brief chat while marching.

About a half dozen protesters, led in part by the Coalition for a New Chicago, carried bullhorns. One sang, “I’m dreaming of an oppressed Christmas.”

Others chanted “No justice. No peace.”

A women carrying a protest sign that said “Rahm Emanuel Anita Alvarez must go” filled the ear of a French man visiting Chicago for a few moments as the pair walked along Michigan Avenue.

“You go back to France and you tell your people that we hate Rahm Emanuel,” she said.

“OK. Good luck,” the man said before parting.

In November, the Michigan Avenue protesters had forced many stores to close, keeping some angry and sometimes very emotional shoppers from their desired purchases.

On Thursday, the demonstration was mostly peaceful, but occasional tussles broke out with police. Police said two people were arrested and face misdemeanor charges. A 19-year-old man was charged with failure to obey police and disorderly conduct, and a 22-year-old man charged with battery and failure to obey police.

The demonstrators gathered at noon near the Michigan Avenue Bridge and marched back and forth on the Mag Mile and in the surrounding area for more than four hours. Organizers dubbed the event “Black Christmas.”

Recent protests have been sparked in general by anger over the treatment of black people by the Chicago Police Department, and specifically by the release of a dashcam video showing the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald by Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke on October 2014.

The city agreed to pay McDonald’s family $5 million before a lawsuit even was filed.

Van Dyke has since been charged with first-degree murder. Many were angered by how long the investigation of McDonald’s death took: 13 months. Others are convinced no charges would have been filed if the video, which the city initially fought to keep under wraps, had not been released.

Since then, allegations against other officers have come to light, more videos have been released and the U.S. Department of Justice has launched a probe of the Chicago Police Department.