Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Laquan McDonald Protesters Say Emanuel, McCarthy Need to Go

By Ed Komenda | November 24, 2015 2:34pm
 Community activists and residents join hands in a prayer to remember Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old killed in October 2014, when a Chicago Police Officer shot him 16 times.
Community activists and residents join hands in a prayer to remember Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old killed in October 2014, when a Chicago Police Officer shot him 16 times.
View Full Caption
DNAinfo/Ed Komenda

ARCHER HEIGHTS — A group of activists who gathered Tuesday near where Laquan McDonald was shot dead by a Chicago Police officer said charges against the officer were long overdue — a fact that should be enough to shake up city leadership.

"They are not the right people we need to represent the majority of the black community in the city of Chicago," local activist Zerlina Smith said, calling for the resignation of Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

The activists gathered a Burger King at the corner of 41st Street and Pulaski Road a day before a video of McDonald's shooting death is expected to surface and mere miles from where Police Officer Jason Van Dyke was being charged with first-degree murder for McDonald's death virtually simultaneously inside the Cook County Criminal Courthouse.

"How many more children have got to die before our city realizes that there is a problem?" said Quovadis Green, a 24-year-old protestor standing in front of television cameras. "Until we get the head of the city in order, the body can never function, so we got to start with Garry McCarthy."

Tio Hardiman, head of the activist group Violence Interrupters Inc., joined Green and the others in calling for McCarthy's ouster.

"McCarthy needs to be put on the quickest Greyhound Bus leaving Chicago," Hardiman said. "This guy has been a complete failure in Chicago."

He said he expects protests to erupt once the video of McDonald's death is released.

"I look forward to seeing 20,000-30,000 people in the streets pretty soon, because this is not right," Hardiman said.

For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here: