A Seattle protester reacts to being pepper sprayed by police after a group of demonstrators attempted to stop traffic on Interstate 5 following the grand jury decision in the Ferguson, Missouri, police slaying of Michael Brown.
In
New York City Monday night, thousands of people marched from Union Square to Times Square to voice their disgust and anger over the grand jury's decision not to indict Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson in the August slaying of young Michael Brown. In
Oakland, more than 1,000 protesters took to streets and then briefly blocked the I-580 freeway. In
Seattle, a small number of the several hundred protesters gathered in the streets blocked the I-5 for half an hour. In
Chicago, hundreds marched from police headquarters to downtown briefly shutting down Lake Shore Drive. In
Los Angeles, about 100 in a crowd of several hundred protesters shut down the I-110 freeway for an hour. Protests of a few dozen to a few hundred also took place in
Denver,
Cleveland, Philadelphia, and in front of the White House.
Although there were confrontations between police and demonstrators at many places, most of the protests were peaceful and took place without arrests. That wasn't the case, of course, in Ferguson itself, where arson, looting and rock-throwing ran for hours, In Oakland, dozens were arrested, and there were scattered arrests elsewhere, too.
More protests are slated for Tuesday afternoon and evening. A tumblr website, Ferguson National Response, lists more than 100 scheduled demonstrations from Birmingham, Alabama, to Lincoln, Nebraska, from San Antonio, Texas, to Duluth, Minnesota, from Kennesaw, Georgia, to Portland, Oregon and Portland, Maine.
While the killing of Brown and the failure of a grand jury to indict Wilson was the catalyst for all the protests Monday night and those coming today, many extend their focus to the broader problem of police violence and the racist failures of a criminal-justice system where blacks are arrested, tried and convicted at a higher rate than whites charged with similar crimes. They are also more likely to be killed by police during an arrest. One ubiquitous sign at the protests: "Black Lives Matter."
Among the protests (Reminder—Media and police estimates of protest crowds typically are on the low side):
Salt Lake City—About 35 people turned out Monday in near-freezing temperatures to protest the grand jury's ruling. They carried signs saying "1-2-3-4, we don't want your police war" and "No justice. No peace. No killer police." One of the organizers, Chris Manor, of Utah Against Police Brutality, took note of recent fatal shootings by Utah police. "There are things that have affected us locally, but at the same time, it's important to show solidarity with people in other cities who are facing the very same thing that we're facing," he said.
Philadelphia—A few score protesters gathered in front of city hall to await the grand jury announcement. After they heard it, they spent the next five hours marching through the streets, as more people joined their number. Several times they tried to block Interstates 95 and 676, and police on the scene had to shut down parts of the highway for a time. A pastor told the crowd: "We continue to live in a racist America. We come together tonight to become a new force in this country. There is strength in numbers. I cannot do it alone."
Boston—More than 200 protesters started out at city hall plaza and then marched to the statehouse. Some demonstrators there stood in front of state troopers with their hands in the air, chanting "Hands Up, Don't Shoot." Twenty-three-year-old Shanae Burch objected to one of the chants, “Black Lives Matter." “As a black woman I don’t like this chant. Black lives matter? Humans matter. I don’t want to come across as the quote-unquote angry black woman. But I am angry. I’ve lived here for six years. People are dying because of the color of their skin.”