DC Protesters Shut Down Streets, Demand End to Police Brutality
/Several hundred protesters have marched peacefully through the streets of Washington, DC calling for an end to police brutality and blocking street intersections.
"No justice, no peace. No racist police," the protesters shouted Thursday. "What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now. If we don't get it we are going to shut it down."
The protesters — young and old, black and white — are among thousands that came out to march Thursday night following Wednesday's grand jury decision that a white police officer, responsible for the death of Eric Garner in a chokehold, would not be indicted. Garner's last words caught on video by a bystander were "I can't breathe, I can't breathe."
"If I can't breathe, you can't breathe," was a common slogan throughout the night, as DC protesters proceeded to block intersections starting from the US Justice Department building as they marched to the White House, where the annual Christmas tree lighting festival and concert was underway. In stark contrast to the festivities on the other side of the police line, the crowd continued their chants, "Hey hey, ho ho, these killer cops have got to go!"
One of the leaders of the protest repeatedly reminded protesters and passersby that every 28 minutes a black person is killed at the hands of police, a startling statistic he said CNN and Fox News do not report on.
Die-ins, where protesters lie on the ground symbolizing the dead at the hands of police, occurred throughout the protests. Protesters staged a die-in at an intersection a block from the White House, blocking traffic for thousands of feet, before continuing across the 14th Street Bridge.
