Van Dyke protest: Activists gather to protest release of ex-Chicago cop convicted of murdering Laquan McDonald

CHICAGO - Activists and protesters gathered downtown Thursday after former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke, who killed 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in 2014, was released from custody.

Various groups gathered in the city to make their voices heard, and Rev. Jesse Jackson delivered a letter to the U.S. District Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois calling for federal charges against Van Dyke.

Inside the Dirksen Federal Building, protesters stood shoulder to shoulder refusing to leave. Some were then taken into custody by law enforcement.

The former cop was released at 12:15 a.m. Thursday from the Taylorville Correctional Center, in central Illinois, after serving three years and four months for the murder. He served less than half of his sentence of six years and nine months.

He had been in custody since he was convicted of second-degree murder and aggravated battery for the October 2014 shooting death of McDonald. 

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said in a statement that the three-and-a-half year sentence Van Dyke served "did not fit the 16 shots to the body as that boy laid on the ground."

Van Dyke leaves prison at a tenuous time for the city and its police force.

"It's too many times that our system is supposed to be protecting us, and it doesn’t work out like that," said Mark Franklin, who attended the protest downtown. "Nobody is really being held accountable, and nobody knows who to work with and who to talk to, and it’s just a shame, and Chicago has been like this for a while and many places have been like this."

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McDonald’s grandmother and aunt held a press conference last week at Saint Sabina Church, asking the Department of Justice to file federal civil rights charges against Van Dyke.

"It just reinforces this feeling of hopelessness in African American communities, and reinforces the thought that police can continue their oppressive behavior in those communities and be either exonerated or given light sentences," said Chico Tillmon, a senior research fellow at the University of Chicago Crime Lab and a former gang member.