Protests over the deaths of Eric Garner and Mike Brown at police hands and the failure of grand juries to indict the cops who killed these men
continued Thursday night across the country.
The protests drew crowds in New York, Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Washington. Many chanted the last words of the man, Eric Garner, 43, of Staten Island: "I can't breathe." In some places, they grew disruptive, snarled traffic on major arteries and lay down in the streets.
For the second night in a row, several groups of protesters roamed through Manhattan. They caused lanes to be closed on the Brooklyn Bridge, on the West Side Highway and at the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels. The protesters also targeted the Staten Island ferry terminal.
More than 200 people were arrested, the police said. […]
In nearly every city where there were protests, demonstrators shouted, "No justice, no peace, no racist police."
In Washington D.C., protesters marched along the streets around the White House, where the national Christmas tree lighting was happening, and over the 14th Street Bridge, which connects the city with Arlington, Virginia. In Boston, more than a thousand demonstrated and the protest there bled into that city's tree-lighting ceremony. "When the tree was lit at 8 p.m., fireworks went off, and at least a couple of thousand people chanted phrases like, 'Justice now.'" A fitting response in this season that's supposed to be about of peace and goodwill.