Thousands of people protesting the Eric Garner decision flooded into Manhattan on Thursday night, with scores being arrested for shutting down the Brooklyn Bridge, West Side Highway and major streets — including teachers union boss Randi Weingarten.
Traffic came to a standstill from Canal Street to the Upper West Side.
By the early morning, there had been more than 200 arrests.
“Go home, a–holes!” a cabdriver yelled from his window.
“This city won’t move until we have justice,” protester Felix Castro said.
American Federation of Teachers president Randi WeingartenAP Cops ceded the bridge without a fight, and gave protesters the run of the city on the second night of marches following a Staten Island grand jury’s decision not to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the chokehold death of Eric Garner.
Weingarten was arrested with 24 others at West 96th Street and Broadway, where protesters lay down to block traffic.
“I found it difficult to reconcile the grand jury’s decision and the evidence in the video,” Weingarten said in a statement released through the union.
The NYPD scrambled choppers to keep an eye on more than 7,000 demonstrators outside 1 Police Plaza, and cops spread out in groups of eight to patrol the mob.
The cops created a human wall as one man screamed at them, “You’re all a bunch of animals!”
Another crowd of about 1,500 formed in Harlem and marched along East 125th Street.
Eric Garner during his arrest in JulyHundreds more marched up the West Side Highway from Canal to 14th streets.
Demonstrators began filing into lower Manhattan around 4:30 p.m. — posting fliers with a list of their demands, arranging coffins with the names of people killed by cops and waving posters reading, “Black lives matter” and “We can’t breathe.”
The black caskets were placed in Foley Square, and one, marked “Staten Island,” was embellished with names, including Garner’s and the day he died — July 17, 2014.
“The caskets are a symbol,” said Adilka Pimentel, who helped make them in Bushwick with the help of other Make the Road New York volunteers. “They’re covered in names of people who have lost their lives to police abuse and police brutality.”
A similar scene played out in Union Square, where hundreds of protesters chanted, “Hands up, don’t shoot.”
The Union Square mob met their cohorts in Foley Square and proceeded to the Brooklyn Bridge.
At the Holland Tunnel, demonstrators headed for the entrance, where police redirected them, forcing the shutdown of the New Jersey-bound lanes for about 40 minutes.
Later, protesters stormed the Staten Island Ferry’s Whitehall Terminal, where officers arrested several who tried to sneak past barricades.
Several unruly protesters were later hit with pepper spay at 14th Street and Eighth Avenue, where officers made several arrests.
Protestors threw bottles in the street at Eighth Avenue and 51st Street and turned over planters. One officer had to be taken away in an ambulance because of chest pains.
On Wednesday night, more than 100 demonstrators were arrested, with six facing criminal charges that included disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Additional reporting by Tom Wilson, C.J. Sullivan and Sophia Rosenbaum
