Crowds Protest After Eric Garner Decision In Pittsburgh, Philly
PITTSBURGH (KDKA/AP) - Crowds protesting the deaths of two unarmed black men at the hands of police are demonstrating in Pittsburgh.
Cell phone video recorded by a witness showing Eric Garner, 43, held in a chokehold by New York City police officer Daniel Pantaleo has the nation talking. This is a violation of NYPD policy. Garner later died.
This is why over 100 people walked through the streets of Oakland, demanding justice for Garner and others they say have been wrongfully killed by police. After protestors gathered in Schenley Plaza, the rally took to Forbes Avenue.
"We have to walk. Someone's been choked for no reason," one protestor said. "He told them that he couldn't breathe and they didn't stop. He was down on the floor, there's something wrong."
Pantaleo attempted to arrest Garner for allegedly selling loose, untaxed cigarettes. The medical examiner ruled Garner's death a homicide and said the chokehold was a contributing factor.
On Wednesday, the grand jury decided not to indict Pantaleo for Garner's death.
This is why protestors say they won't stand for what's happened here.
"We need more peaceful protests like this so we can stop a system that's so corrupt that innocent men keep getting killed," protestor Sam Mass said.
"This is the new civil rights movement. This is the movement that will have us as Americans actually be who we say we are," protestor Vanessa German said.
"I'm tired of a racist system that locks black people up, targets people of color," organizer Julia Johnson said.
Another protest will be held in front of the August Wilson Center on Liberty Avenue at 1 p.m. Friday, a student lead protest will be held at Schenley Plaza at 5 p.m. A third protest will be held on Saturday at Ross Park Mall.
In Philadelphia, the group rallied at the train station and marched through downtown before disrupting a tree lighting ceremony at City Hall.
On Nov. 24, a grand jury refused to indict the white officer who fatally shot Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
The activists in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh chanted "Black lives matter" and "Hands up, don't shoot!" as they marched.
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