Protests continue in NYC after Eric Garner decision, several arrests made

NEW YORK, NY -- For yet another night, police had their hands full as angry protestors took over the streets.

Some were arrested on the West Side Highway; others found themselves in tense confrontations with police, when they took over the Staten Island Ferry Terminal at Whitehall.

They marched up Broadway, blocking and trapping people in their cars, and they blocked the entrance to the Holland Tunnel. Thousands were playing a cat and mouse game with police in more parts of the city than you can count.

This started as a peaceful rally in Foley Square earlier Thursday.

The crowd grew so large it overflowed out of the square. Protestors eventually, on the move toward City Hall.

But with emotions so high over Eric Garner, education activist Joyce McMillan wondered if anyone was thinking about the bigger picture here, how to prevent these tragedies far in advance.

"It starts in the formative age from school years when there's a problem with a child, we don't wait till they become an adult and they're acting out and they're selling cigarettes on the corner and we kill them for it," McMillan said.

Police closed down the entrances to the Brooklyn Bridge on the Brooklyn-bound side as many of the protesters began marching over the bridge, but later reopened it. Police also closed the outbound Holland Tunnel.

It's not yet known how many were arrested, but several arrests were made at the protests Thursday night.

Police arrested 83 protesters Wednesday night, but said the demonstrations were mostly peaceful. Seventy five were issued desk appearance tickets and released overnight. No officers were injured. There were no reports of major vandalism along the protest routes.

The decision not to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo added to the tensions that have simmered in the city since Garner's death on July 17 - a case that sparked outrage and drew comparisons to the fatal police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, where demonstrations turned violent and resulted in more than 100 arrests and destruction of 12 commercial buildings by fire.

CLICK HERE for more on the grand jury decision

Arrests were made Wednesday night at Sixth Avenue as protesters tried to push past police barricades to access to the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree; on the Brooklyn Bridge; and on the West Side Highway, where protesters marched and some refused to move. Protesters were also arrested when they blocked intersections in Harlem and Chelsea.

"Demonstrations were peaceful and the response by the NYPD was exactly the right one," Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday. "It was smart, strategic, agile and a lot of restraint was shown. Necessary arrests were made."

A police officer's personal vehicle caught fire while parked in front of the 77th Precinct station house in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The black Dodge Challenger was badly damaged.

Detectives have no arrests or clear motive. The vehicle belongs to an officer but there was no placard in the front window indicating that. Two additional officers have been assigned to keep an eye on the stationhouse perimeter during the detective squad investigation.

The NYPD continued its "breathing room" posture with protesters, saying only those protesters who "got out of hand" were arrested, and adding, "we are not going to engage in mass arrests when they are not necessary."

About 35 to 45 protesters lay on the floor of Grand Central Terminal as the evening rush hour got underway. One onlooker spit in their direction. Before leaving, the protesters stood up to chant, "I can't breathe" and "Eric Garner."

In Times Square, a crowd of at least 200 people chanted, "No indictment is denial. We want a public trial" while holding signs that said, "Black lives matter" and "Fellow white people, wake up." Meredith Reitman, a 40-year-old white woman from Queens, held a sign that said, "White silence white consent." She said the decision not to indict shocked her, even though some might think she was being naive to expect an indictment. "We should hope for justice and be surprised every time it doesn't happen," Reitman said.

About 400 protesters began marching through midtown Manhattan, tying up evening rush-hour traffic. Amanda Seales, a 33-year-old black woman from Harlem, said activists needed to get off social media and into the streets. "For black people, this isn't new," she said as she marched. "And this cannot continue."

At 47th and Sixth, police officers tried to keep protesters on the sidewalks. A police loudspeaker warned them that anybody who doesn't leave the street will be arrested.

The Times Square group headed eastbound and the Union Square group northbound, in an attempt to move toward the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. Police were ready for that, with a line of interlocked barricades designed to keep them away from the celebration.

The demonstrations stayed peaceful, a sentiment de Blasio hoped would persist throughout any such action.

"I believe in the right to peaceful protest as part of a democracy, and anyone who has views as a result of whatever the decision is, if they want to exercise peaceful protest, we welcome that and respect that," he said. "But we also will keep order."

De Blasio also urged protesters to heed the message of Eric Garner's son, Eric Snipes.

"He said that anyone who wants to express themselves to do so peacefully," de Blasio said. "And for his own son, who lost his father, said honor my father by doing any protest in a peaceful manner, I thought it was very powerful. He was not just talking about how you go about making changes and reforms, he was talking about the nature of his own father as a peaceful man, and honoring his memory by being just as peaceful as that man was."

The NYPD took to social media and put out a Tweet right after the Garner decision that caused an explosion of tweets criticizing the NYPD. You can see several of them HERE and read MORE.