More Protests Nationwide After No Indictment for NYPD Officer

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD Chief Bill Bratton announced Thursday that about 22,000 NYPD officers will be "retrained" in the coming months, in an effort to strengthen and improve the relationship between the public and law enforcement.

The city's police union president Pat Lynch called officer Pantaleo a "model" policeman "who is motivated literally by serving the community. … He literally, literally is an Eagle Scout.”

He said the union would continue to represent Pantaleo throughout ongoing investigations into the incident.

The U.S. Justice Department will conduct a federal investigation of "possible civil rights violations" in Garner's death. 

Demonstrations continued through the night Thursday in cities across the U.S. 

23:06 ET: 

23:01 ET: According to local media, 28 people have been arrested in Manhattan.

22:38 ET: Some protesters who refused to abide by police requests to stay out of the street were arrested, according to media reports.

22:34 ET: Dallas:

22:30 ET: There are reports of multiple arrests of protesters in New York's Times Square, as well as in Dallas, Texas.

22:25 ET: Law enforcement in Seattle:

22:20 ET: In Washington, D.C., protesters have shut down the traffic circle outside Union Station.

22:17 ET: Chicago protesters have left Lake Shore Drive and are moving up Michigan Avenue towards the Miracle Mile.

22:16 ET: On the West Coast, people staged a "die-in" on the USC campus.

22:09 ET: Thousands have gathered for a silent sit-in in New York's Herald Square.

22:01 ET: Boston protesters have shut down the intersection of Bowdoin and Cambridge.

21:58 ET: For the second night in a row, protesters have blocked traffic on Market Street, a major San Francisco thoroughfare.

21:55 ET: Protesters in Times Square chant "NYPD KKK! How many kids did you kill today?"  Others stage a die-in.

21:54 ET: The New York Times reports the Staten Island Ferry has been shut down in both directions.

21:53 ET: Traffic in New York City Thursday night:

21:50 ET: Police tried to push protesters off of Lake Shore Drive.  Brief scuffle ensued, though calm seems to have been restored.

21:36 ET: Lake Shore Drive protesters in Chicago in a quiet standoff with police lines.

21:12 ET: Chicago's Lake Shore Drive blocked in both directions by demonstrators there.

21:07 ET: Protesters in Brooklyn hold a seven-minute silent die-in, blocking traffic on a major thoroughfare with cardboard coffins.

21:05 ET: Crowds moving now to Union Square in New York.

20:49 ET: Activists in Dallas are calling for a holiday shopping boycott to get attention for Eric Garner's death at the hands of officer Daniel Pantaleo.

20:44 ET: Rally outside Penn Station in Baltimore:

20:36 ET: Police have reportedly blocked the entrance to the Staten Island Ferry terminal, with around 1000 demonstrators gathered there.

20:33 ET:

20:32 ET: Crowds have gathered outside of City Hall in Washington, D.C.

20:02 ET: The American Civil Liberties Union reportedly has lawyers on the scene at Boston Common in the event of protester arrests.

20:01 ET: Hundreds if not thousands of people demonstrate near the Holland Tunnel.  The tunnel has been shut down in both directions.

19:57 ET: Multiple people have reportedly been detained on New York's West Side Highway.  There are also reports that pepper spray has been used to control crowds there.

19:49 ET: In Washington, D.C.:

19:46 ET: Protesters on New York's West Side Highway have reportedly been warned that they will be subject to arrest if they do not disperse.

19:42 ET: Broadway and Canal Streets are also shut down in New York.

19:39 ET: Smaller protest crowds are forming elsewhere in the U.S. Demonstrators are blocking traffic in downtown Orlando.

19:28 ET: Demonstrators in Chicago are attempting to block the Dan Ryan in the South Loop.

19:20 ET: Crowds on the Brooklyn Bridge reportedly include families of those killed by the NYPD.

19:16 ET: In downtown Boston, crowds have gathered at Boston Common to demonstrate there.

19:14 ET: At Columbia University:

19:13 ET: The NYPD estimates the crowd heading toward the Brooklyn Bridge to join protesters there numbers 10,000 people.

19:08 ET: 

19:06 ET: More people have joined the demonstration in downtown Chicago.

18:59 ET: Die-in staged near the Washington Monument in D.C.

18:49 ET: Foley Square protesters are reportedly on the move to join crowds on the Brooklyn Bridge.

18:46 ET: The Brooklyn Bridge has been blocked by demonstrators.

18:44 ET: The Foley Square demonstration in New York looks to have grown to several thousand people.

18:43 ET: The scene in Baltimore, Maryland:

18:40 ET: Crowds are blocking traffic in the streets of Washington, D.C.

18:11 ET: Protest crowds are forming in Chicago.

18:07 ET: Students of Moorehouse College in Atlanta have gathered outside of CNN, where some are staging a "die-in" in protest.

17:52 ET: Crowd at Foley Square in New York City now numbers over 1000, according to reports.

17:43 ET: Demonstrators are gathering in Baltimore, Minneapolis and Washington, D.C., in addition to New York, to protest the grand jury's decision not to indict Pantaleo.

17:40 ET: Protesters in New York are gathering Thursday for a second night of demonstrations. Hundreds came to Foley Square in Manhattan. 

Reverend Al Sharpton has called for a national march against police brutality to be held in Washington, D.C. on December 13.

Garner's family spoke to reporters and community members in New York Wednesday night. They expressed their disappointment in the grand jury's decision and urged protesters to remain calm.

"I don't know what video they were looking at," said Garner's mother, Gwen Carr, referring to the cellphone video of Garner's death that went viral after the incident. "Evidently it wasn't the same one that the rest of the world was looking at."

To demonstrators she pleaded, "Make a statement, but make it in peace."

“I am determined to get justice for my husband," said Esaw Garner, Eric Garner's widow.

Garner, 43, was stopped by police for allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes in Staten Island.

In one of the more widely covered incidents of police brutality of late — likely due to the fact that it was filmed — Pantaleo, a white NYPD officer, put Garner in a chokehold. Garner, who it turned out was asthmatic, started gasping and barely managed to utter “I can’t breathe” but Pantaleo did not relent.

Ramsey Orta, the bystander who filmed the incident, was indicted by a different grand jury in August on ostensibly unrelated weapons charges. Orta testified that the charges, stemming from an arrest by undercover officers, were in retaliation for his videotaping Garner's death.

Pantaleo released a written statement following the announcement, in which he expressed remorse for Garner's death.

"I became a police officer to help people and to protect those who can't protect themselves," he said. "It is never my intention to harm anyone and I feel very bad about the death of Mr. Garner. My family and I include him and his family in our prayers and I hope that they will accept my personal condolences for their loss."

Garner's family said the apology was too little too late.

The use of chokeholds is prohibited by the New York City Police Department and the city medical examiner ruled Garner’s death a homicide. Despite that ruling, the grand jury Wednesday declined to indict Pantaleo for murder or any other crime related to the incident. 

According to reports the jury consisted of 15 white members and eight black or Hispanic members. At least 12 would have had to vote to indict Pantaleo for the officer to be charged. 

Pantaleo had been accused of improper police procedure before, in incidents that led to two lawsuits against the department. 

Staten Island is known for neighborhoods with some of the strongest anti-police sentiment in the country.

This grand jury decision comes only a week after another grand jury absolved Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.