NEW YORK: More than 200 people were arrested in New York on Thursday as the protests against a grand jury’s decision not to indict a white police officer for the chokehold death of a black man continued for the second day.

The protests have spread to 11 American cities.

The reaction echoes the outrage after a grand jury declined to indict a white policeman for killing an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri.

US 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 second round of protests in New York City began on Thursday evening during rush hour, with participants weaving between cars and trucks and bringing traffic on city streets to a near-standstill. The marches were joined by more protesters along the way, shifted directions, splintered and regrouped, but remained peaceful.

Tensions rose as at least 3,000 protesters converged on Times Square about an hour before midnight.

Blocking the major interaction of 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue, they shouted at police” “Who do you protect?” Soon hundreds of officers shoved them on to sidewalks. Earlier, protesters in the financial district of Manhattan staged sporadic sit-ins at intersections before police in riot gear warned them to move on or face arrest.

The protesters included people from different ethnic persuasions, white and black. “There’s been a confluence of social media and outrage,” a bystander said. “I do believe for the first time we’re about to make a change.”

In some cases the marchers blocked traffic on two bridges between Manhattan and Brooklyn, then converged on the Staten Island ferry terminal at Manhattan’s southern tip. 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.Chicago, San
Francisco and Oakland were some of the other major cities which saw protests against the jury’s decision.

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.

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2014