Nearly 30,000 people swarmed the streets of Manhattan Saturday afternoon as part of a day of national protests against police brutality.
The turnout in New York appeared to be bigger than at a demonstration in Washington D.C. led by the Rev. Al Sharpton, which drew approximately 10,000.
Protesters called for justice in the wake of the deaths of Eric Garner on Staten Island and teen Michael Brown in Missouri.
Thousands gathered in Washington Square Park in the afternoon before heading uptown, the crowd stretching back for nearly a mile, according to some estimates.
Mostly peaceful, the throngs carried signs reading “Black Lives Matter” and “Not one more,” as they headed north, near Broadway and 32nd Street.
Yoni Bronstein, 23, of Westchester, joined the event, dubbed Millions March NYC, to show “solidarity.”
“I think New York is more important than D.C., culturally,” he said. “If we take a stand here, it impacts things around the world.”
Protesters in the Millions March walk down Broadway on Dec. 13.Anne WermielProtestor Steven Harris, 24, said, “I’m tired of the unjust behavior that the NYPD portrays on a daily basis. We deserve a higher level of respect,” he said. “This isn’t just a black issue. It’s a worldwide issue of disrespect and unjust behavior from police towards the community.”
SantaCon participants cheer on protesters.EPAThe protesters eventually mingled with and at times, marched past, hordes of Santas in town for the annual bar hop known as Santa Con.
Millions March NYC capped 10 days of nearly nonstop protests since a Staten Island grand jury decided not to indict Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who appeared to put Garner, 43, in a chokehold as he tried to arrest him in July for selling loose cigarettes.
A videotape of the confrontation shows Garner refusing to be arrested, and then, as he is wrestled to the ground, repeatedly crying out, “I can’t breathe!”
Uptown, at least 300 New Yorkers boarded buses at Sharpton’s National Action Network early Saturday morning for the trip to Washington. They carried signs that read, “No Justice, No peace.”
Eric Garner’s family, including his wife and daughter, with Rev. Al Sharpton spoke at the 2014 National march Against Police Violence.New York Post/G.N. MillerGarner’s family was on hand for the National March Against Police Violence on Pennsylvania Avenue, where his widow, Esaw, told the crowd: “My husband was a quiet man but he’s making a lot of noise right now. His voice will be heard.
“We are all fighting … we need to make it strong and I just want to hear everybody in unison say ‘I can’t breathe. They took my breath away.'”
The crowd then began chanting, “I can’t breathe!”
Sharpton called for a special prosecutor to handle police brutality cases, and said the US Justice Department should have a special division just to deal with the issue.
Eric Garner during his arrest earlier this year.“We cannot trust those that work together every day and that depend on each other to do their work to have a non-conflicted inquiry of each other,” he said of prosecutors probing police in such cases.
Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, said the day’s events were “overwhelming.”
“This is a history-making moment. We will come here as many times as it takes,” she said. “ We are here for justice. We hope they hear our voices.”
Additional reporting by Natalie Musumeci
