"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.
There, traffic lined up across the bridge and into Virginia until police issued two warnings that the protest must move on or the police would intervene. A police officer at the scene explained to Sputnik they would issue three warnings in the span of nine minutes, and would then start arresting people. A minute before the third warning the protesters started to move back towards downtown, creating traffic jams in every direction.
At one intersection protesters surrounded a police car as it tried to maneuver through the crowd. As protesters lay on the ground in front of the car they continued to shut the streets down. Mounted police came from the direction of the White House, eventually moving their way through the protesters.
As the night progressed the protests moved to China Town, creating traffic gridlock throughout the downtown area as human chains were formed to block cars. Some drivers in the traffic looked annoyed, others honked their horns in disapproval but many expressed their support.
43-year-old African-American Eric Garner died from suffocation on July 17 after being put in a chokehold by white police officer Daniel Pantaleo.
