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 The wave of protests began after no charges were brought against
Officer Daniel Pantaleo for his role in a confrontation that killed
Eric Garner. A bystander caught the incident on a video that has
been shown repeatedly.
The reaction echoes the outrage after a grand jury also declined to
indict a white policeman for killing an unarmed black teenager in
Ferguson, Missouri. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has mounted a
civil rights review of the Missouri shooting and promised a full
investigation of the New York case.
The protests began during at the evening rush hour, with
demonstrators weaving between cars and trucks and bringing traffic
on city streets to a near-standstill. The marches picked up recruits
along the way, shifted directions, splintered and regrouped, but
remained relatively peaceful for a second night.
Tensions came as at least 3,000 protesters converged in Times Square
about an hour before midnight. Blocking the major interaction of
42nd Street and Seventh Avenue, they chanted at police, "Who do you
protect?" Soon hundreds of officers shoved them on to sidewalks.
Dozens were detained, although police declined to provide exact
tallies.
Earlier, protesters in lower Manhattan staged sporadic sit-ins at
intersections before police in riot gear warned them to move on or
face arrest. Most complied.
Sharon Gordon, 52, of Matawan, New Jersey, said she hoped
politicians would take heed. "There's been a confluence of social
media and outrage," she said. "I do believe for the first time we're
about to make a change."
Waves of marchers also blocked traffic on two bridges between
Manhattan and Brooklyn, then converged on the Staten Island ferry
terminal at Manhattan's southern. The main group headed west and
temporarily shut the West Side Highway, resulting in at least a
handful of arrests, before turning north toward Times Square.
A smaller crowd confronted police with taunts. Chesray Dolpha, 31,
yelled at the officers: "We are not violent. We are not touching
you. What are you doing with that baton, brother?" The police made
eye contact but did not reply.
Elsewhere, hundreds also demonstrated in Washington D.C., chanting,
"No justice, no peace, no racist police," as they passed the Justice
Department, neared the White House and headed to the Washington
Monument. Protesters staged a "die-in" there, sprawling on the
roadway to block traffic.
Protesters also blocked traffic on Interstate 35W in Minneapolis and
on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. Other demonstrations prompted
officials to close two Bay Area Rapid Transit stops in Oakland,
California, and re-route bus traffic around part of San Francisco's
Market Street.
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CHOKEHOLDS AND RETRAINING
Unlike the Aug. 9 shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Missouri,
Garner's encounter with New York police was captured on video by a
bystander's mobile phone. It showed Pantaleo wrapping his arm around
Garner's throat and wrestling him to the sidewalk as three other
officers help subdue him.
Garner repeatedly gasped, "I can't breathe" - a phrase protesters
have taken up a rallying cry.
He was being arrested for allegedly selling cigarettes illegally in
Staten Island in July.
Pantaleo could still face disciplinary action from an internal
police investigation, his lawyer said. That investigation is likely
to focus on whether Pantaleo used a chokehold, which is banned by
police department regulations
Pantaleo told the grand jury he used a proper takedown technique and
never put pressure on Garner's neck, according to his lawyer, Stuart
London. The city's medical examiner has said Garner's death was
caused by compressing his neck and chest, with his asthma and
obesity contributing.
Although chokeholds are officially prohibited, the police patrol
guide is vague about whether they are permitted under certain
circumstances, said Maria Haberfeld, who heads the law and criminal
justice department at John Jay College.
That gray area, she said, may have influenced the grand jury and
could be a factor in the departmental probe.
(Additional reporting by Laila Kearney, Barbara Goldberg, Sebastien
Malo, Joseph Ax, Sascha Brodsky and David Ingram in New York; Fiona
Ortiz and Kim Palmer in Cleveland; David Bailey in Minneapolis;
Julia Edwards and Erik Tavcar in Washington and Emmett Berg in San
Francisco; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Scott Malone, Grant
McCool, Frances Kerry, Ken Wills, and Larry King)
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