Anger over a Missouri grand jury’s decision not to indict the police officer who shot Michael Brown to death continued to reverberate around the country Tuesday, with protests and demonstrations from coast to coast. Authorities arrested 45 people throughout St. Louis County by Wednesday morning.
A melee broke out after protesters shut down a San Francisco highway, a car plowed through a crowd in Minneapolis and marchers in New York City caused a 12-block backup at the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel.
In New York City, about 250 protesters again gathered in the famed Union Square and began marching up Broadway on Tuesday evening, holding signs reading “We will not be silent” and “A badge is not a license to kill,” NBC New York reported.
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The crowd swelled with hundreds more as the march continued uptown, reaching more than 500 as they passed Herald Square, location of the Macy’s flagship store and its Thanksgiving Day Parade. The march also caused a 12-block backup at the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel, according to NBC New York. Ten protesters were arrested last night within in Manhattan.
And protesters in Philadelphia held more demonstrations Tuesday, with rallies taking place at the Byrne Federal Courthouse along Independence Mall and at City Hall, NBC Philadelphia reported. Police estimated that 500 took part in the protests at their height.
In Washington, D.C., one group staged a “die-in” in front of police headquarters to symbolize Brown’s death in the streets of Ferguson.
“We did the ‘die-in’ for 4½ minutes to represent the 4½ hours they let Michael Brown lay in the street dead, unattended,” protest organizer Angie Brilliance told NBC Washington.
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Hundreds of Seattle high school students walked out of classes Tuesday and rallied at the University of Washington or marched to the downtown federal courthouse.
And a rally in Minneapolis turned scary when a car plowed through a crowd of protesters. Several hundred people had gathered Tuesday afternoon near the 3rd Precinct police outpost to show solidarity with Brown. Video from the Star Tribune shows the car driving through the group of protesters, seemingly running over a woman’s leg and hitting other protesters, who then start beating on the Subaru Outback’s windows.
Authorities say that the driver was found and is cooperating with police and that the victim sustained minor injuries, according to NBC station KARE.
At least 40 people were arrested in a melee that escalated after some protesters shut down traffic on a major highway in the San Francisco Bay Area on Tuesday, while in Oakland people were still cleaning up after more than 1,000 people took part in a march that turned destructive.
In Southern California, police lined South L.A. freeway ramps to prevent protesters from entering the highway as a second day of rallies began. About 200 to 250 protesters forced the closing of Martin Luther King and Crewnshaw boulevards Tuesday afternoon after lying down in the middle of the intersection, NBC Los Angeles reported.
Protests that took place earlier in the day in Atlanta were peaceful, but caused trouble later in the evening. Atlanta police arrested at least 21 people by Tuesday night. And in Dallas, police arrested seven people and charged them with obstructing highway or other passageway.
Meanwhile in Cleveland, the demonstrations had double meaning: Hundred people marched down a freeway exit ramp to block rush-hour traffic while protesting the grand jury’s decision in Ferguson, as well as Saturday’s fatal shooting of a 12-year-old Cleveland boy by a police officer who thought a toy gun was real.
“The system wasn’t made to protect us,” said one of the protesters, 17-year-old Naesha Pierce, who stayed up until 3 a.m. watching television coverage from Ferguson. “To get justice, the people themselves have to be justice.”
Hasani Gittens