Protests Spread to Cities as Thousands Take to NYC Streets

Protests spread from New York to cities nationwide calling for an end to police brutality and a beginning to better race relations.

A day after a New York grand jury declined to indict a white police officer for killing a black man with a chokehold, hundreds walked through downtown Chicago in near-freezing temperatures, blocking traffic as police on bicycles rode alongside trying to direct them onto the sidewalk. People took to the streets of Washington at dusk, banging a drum and shouting “no racist police, no justice, no peace."

Among thousands in lower Manhattan’s Foley Square was Constance Malcolm, mother of Ramarley Graham, who was shot dead by police in the Bronx in February 2012. A grand jury didn’t charge the officer who killed him.

“We need police accountability,” Malcolm told the crowd. “We can’t bury our kids all the time while these officers go home to their families.”

The demonstrations reflected a persistent anger. They marked the second round of nationwide rallies after a Missouri grand jury refused last week to indict an officer in the shooting of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson. Yesterday, the New York panel declined to charge Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner, 43, whose fatal altercation with police on Staten Island was recorded on video by a bystander.

The cases have public officials balancing attempts to preserve demonstrators’ right to take to the streets while protecting public safety. The reaction in Ferguson last week devolved into mayhem, with looting, shooting, arson and vandalism.

Today, demonstrations erupted in Harlem and in Lower Manhattan about 5:30 p.m., with people carrying signs and chanting “I can’t breathe,” which were Garner’s final words.

Efrain Alicea, 50, a pastor at Elements Church in the Bronx, said he came downtown with other ministers.

“A change is needed,” he said. “I couldn’t sleep last night thinking about this decision not to charge the cop.”

Contingents of thousands swarmed to police headquarters and to the Brooklyn Bridge, closing the span. Police helicopters circling overhead trained high-powered beams of light on the crowds.

In Washington, some demonstrators took aim at President Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president.

“Obama has the power to shape the narrative, to shape the agenda, but he doesn’t do that,” said Devon O’Neal, a 21-year-old Washingtonian who works for a law firm. “I’m just fed up with the justice system in America. I’m fed up with the institutionalized racism I deal with every day as a black man.”

O’Neal was among several dozen people who marched downtown toward the White House, stopping briefly to raise fists in a black power salute.

The crowd chanted “You’ve got to fight back” as “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” blasted from the White House lawn, where a Christmas-tree-lighting ceremony was under way.

Others lay in the street, blocking key thoroughfares during rush hour. The marching lasted for at least four hours.

In New York City’s Harlem, a protest swelled to more than 100 people by 7 p.m., with others joining in chants from apartment windows.

Ramon Jimenez, 66, a lawyer who came to Harlem from the Bronx, asked for a moment of silence for Garner. Not even yesterday’s announcement that the U.S. Justice Department would investigate the death of Garner has quelled frustration, he said.

“They promise federal intervention as a way to cool us off,” he said. “We’ll believe it when we see it.”

The protesters lined up single-file in front of a state office building chanting “We’re fed up. We can’t take it no more.”