Jesse Jackson to lead Chicago march Friday, hoping shoppes will stay home

CHICAGO (AP)

A march protesting the videotaped slaying of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald by a Chicago police officer is planned Friday in the city's busiest shopping district on the busiest shopping day of the year.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson says the march will begin at 11 a.m. Friday.

He and others are trying to bring attention to the 2014 incident, in which the black teenager was shot 16 times by a white police officer. Organizers say it was a flawed investigation and authorities tried to keep the videotape from being released.

Jackson and others also say they hope their presence will discourage shoppers from even venturing to the Magnificent Mile as well as bring attention to issues such as police brutality.

There have been several marches in the city since the videotape was released Tuesday. A handful of people have been arrested during those protests.

The black teenager killed by a white officer had lived a troubled, disadvantaged life and had at least one previous brush with the law.

Illinois Department of Children and Family Services' records show that Laquan was a ward of the state when he died, having spent years being shuttled between different relatives' homes and foster care from the time he was 3.

But school officials and the McDonald family lawyer say there were signs Laquan was trying to get his life in order, having enrolled in an alternative high school where he was making good grades.

He was shot 16 times in October 2014 by officer Jason Van Dyke. Van Dyke was charged this week with first-degree murder.

Chicago police say that four people were arrested during the second night of largely peaceful demonstrations following the release of the video. A total of eight people have been arrested during the two days of marches and rallies around the city.

Wednesday's arrests included three Chicago residents charged with misdemeanor counts of resisting a police officer and one woman from Cedar Lake, Ind., who was charged with a misdemeanor of damage to public property.

Officer Jason Van Dyke has been charged with first-degree murder in the killing.

The most noteworthy arrest since protests began Tuesday night was a community activist named Malcolm London, for whom a judge dismissed a charge of aggravated battery of a police officer.