Protesters angered by a grand jury's decision not to indict a white New York City police officer in the choking death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man, took to the streets nationwide late Sunday in a fifth day of demonstrations.
Demonstrators were out in many cities, including New York and Miami. In Chicago, about 100 churches organized peaceful rallies throughout the day. And in Philadelphia, protesters and clergy planned to stage a post-game 'die-in' - in which demonstrators lie down on the street - outside the sports complex where the Philadelphia Eagles will face the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday evening.
'When tragedies hit our communities, we as people of faith have a choice to make,' Julie Contreras, a member of Lincoln United Methodist Church in Chicago, told NBC Chicago. 'We must continue to follow God, trusting in him, and by standing up to this demon of hate and racism, praying in the streets will bring some good out of our suffering.'
Garner died after being wrestled to the ground in what has been described as a chokehold; his last words - 'I can't breathe' - have been a rallying cry for protests.
Pro athletes joined in with their own form of protest Sunday: Davin Joseph, an offensive lineman for the St. Louis Rams, penned 'I can't breathe' on his cleats, and Johnson Bademosi, a defensive back for the Cleveland Browns, wore a shirt with the same message penned on the back. That followed Derrick Rose, a point guard for the Chicago Bulls, who on Saturday night also wore a shirt bearing the words during a pre-game warm-up.
The protests had been mostly peaceful until Saturday night, when two police officers were injured in Berkeley, California, where demonstrators smashed windows and hurled rocks at police, authorities said. Officers used smoke and tear gas after crowds refused to disperse.
Six people were arrested in Berkeley, bringing to at least 300 the number of people arrested across the country during the protests following the decision not to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo.
Thousands of people have protested since the Garner decision, which came a little more than one week after a grand jury in Missouri decided not to indict a white police officer in the fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown.
A feature of the protests have been the die-ins, meant to represent how Brown's body lay in the streets of Ferguson for hours after he was shot by Darren Wilson, who resigned from the police department after the grand jury decision.
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Cassandra Vinograd of NBC News contributed to this report.
First published December 7 2014, 2:01 PM
Miranda LeitsingerMiranda Leitsinger is a reporter at NBC News. She started this role in February 2011. Leitsinger is responsible for long-term enterprise and breaking news coverage. Her beats include recovery from natural disasters and mass shootings, the LGBT community, income inequality, immigration and the Boy Scouts. Leitsinger previously worked at CNN.com in Hong Kong as a digital producer, where she collaborated with the network's television staff in Asia to produce enterprise stories for the website. Before that she worked as a reporter at bberitaa.blogspot.com for seven years in various cities, including New York, Miami, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Bangkok, Thailand, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. She covered the aftermath of 9/11 in Florida, the 2004 tsunami in Asia, the initial military tribunal at Guantanamo and Cambodia's bid to recover from genocide and the ensuing decades of civil war.Leitsinger, a San Francisco native, lives in New York.
Posted by Unknown on Monday, December 8, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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