More US protests over killings by police / Guardian

More US protests over killings by police

Thousands turn out in cities across the country after grand juries decline to charge officers for deaths of unarmed black men

Lauren Gambino in New York

theguardian.com, Saturday 6 December 2014 / http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/06/more-us-protests-over-killings-by-police

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets for a third night of protest after a grand jury declined to bring charges against a white New York police officer in the chokehold death of unarmed black man Eric Garner.

Demonstrations on Friday touched off in cities including New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Boston, Cleveland, Oakland Miami and Phoenix. Chanting “Hands up don’t shoot” and carrying signs that read “Black lives matter”, thousands marched, lay down on the ground to stage “die-ins”, blocked traffic and engaged in civil disobedience in an effort to draw attention to police use of deadly force, especially against black Americans.

In New York the streets pulsed with outrage in the hours after prosecutors announced another grand jury would consider charges against the officer who fatally shot Akai Gurley in Brooklyn in November.

Gurley’s death added to the tragic string of high-profile police killings involving unarmed black men that have inflamed racial tensions in the US in recent months.

The 28-year-old father was shot dead by a rookie officer on 20 November in a dimly lit stairwell of the Pink Houses public housing block in east New York. Police have said the gun went off accidentally. Gurley, who had been descending a stairwell in the block and was unarmed, has been described by NYPD police commissioner Bill Bratton as a “total innocent”. His funeral was held in Brooklyn on Friday evening. A rally for justice followed the service.

Earlier in the night protesters held “die-ins” at an Apple store on 5th Avenue, at Grand Central Station and at Macy’s 34th street store.

Protesters marched in Cleveland for Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy fatally shot by a rookie officer who mistook his airsoft gun for a real weapon. Protesters chanted at Cleveland police officers: “CPD what do you say? How many kids have you killed today.”

The boy’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city on Friday, one day after the police department was determined to have systematically used excessive force.

In Phoenix the death of an unarmed black father in an encounter with police fuelled protests, while in Boston hundreds of Tufts university students marched from campus toward Harvard Square, holding “die-ins” along the way.

In Chicago hundreds continued to protest the failure of two grand juries decisions to bring charges amid demands for systematic change to America’s police forces.