Ferguson protesters stop traffic on CA freeway

People protesting the Ferguson, Missouri, grand jury decision took to the streets in some U.S. cities for a second day Tuesday, even as others were still cleaning up vandalism from the night before.

A look at some of Tuesday’s demonstrations:

NEW YORK

Thousands of people marched for a second night in Manhattan, gathering in Union Square before splitting into several smaller groups, chanting “No justice, No peace.” Some held signs saying “Jail killer cops” and “Justice for Mike Brown.”

One group marched uptown to Times Square, meandering between lanes of traffic as police followed. The protesters, who seemed to grow in number as the night wore on, disrupted traffic on the FDR Drive and congregated at the entrances to the Williamsburg and Manhattan bridges and the Queens Midtown Tunnel.

Commissioner William Bratton said police were giving protesters “breathing room.”

“As long as they remain nonviolent, and as long as they don’t engage in issues that cause fear or create vandalism, we will work with them to allow them to demonstrate,” he said.

MINNEAPOLIS

A rally in Minneapolis turned scary when a car struck a protester and then burst through a pack of others who surrounded it. A woman suffered minor injuries.

Several hundred people had gathered Tuesday afternoon near the 3rd Precinct police outpost to show solidarity with Brown. The driver called police soon after to report the incident, and police spokesman John Elder said the incident was under investigation.

About 200 protesters gathered on the state Capitol steps in St. Paul and marched without incident.

CALIFORNIA

In Los Angeles, a few hundred protesters took to the streets, engaging police in a standoff at a freeway off-ramp and surrounding a Highway Patrol car in a tense scene in South Los Angeles.

The protesters converged on City Hall, where they stood face-to-face with police officers for a couple of hours. Some threw traffic cones and other objects at officers but greater violence didn’t break out.

Later a splinter group used barricades from police headquarters to block part of U.S. Highway 101.

In Oakland a small group of protesters briefly shut down Interstate 980 on a second night of protests, but police officers were able to clear them from the traffic lanes.

Protesters also briefly shut down Interstate 580 in the city.

CLEVELAND

Several hundred people marched down a freeway ramp to block rush-hour traffic while protesting the Missouri developments and Saturday’s fatal shooting by an officer of 12-year-old Tamir Rice of Cleveland, who had a pellet gun that looked like a real firearm.

“The system wasn’t made to protect us,” said one of the protesters, 17-year-old Naesha Pierce. “To get justice, the people themselves have to be justice.”

ST. LOUIS

Protesters disrupted downtown traffic for several hours by blocking major intersections, an interstate highway and a Mississippi River bridge connecting the city to Illinois.

Riot police arrested several demonstrators who sat in the middle of Interstate 44 near the Edward Jones Dome. They used pepper spray to disperse the crowd.

Demonstrators also swarmed the steps of the federal courthouse chanting, “You didn’t indict! We shall fight!”

ELSEWHERE

Several hundred people from historically black schools Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University in Georgia held peaceful demonstrations. But as the night wore on, some groups split off and tried to block a freeway, and police said some windows were broken.

Police said 21 people were arrested, mostly for failure to disperse when asked, but one person faces a weapons charge.

In Chicago, protesters who had hoped to spend the night inside City Hall left after most of the day when they were threatened with arrest.

In Portland, Oregon, a rally drew about 1,000 people who listened to speeches then marched through downtown. A splinter group of about 300 people kept going, marching across a Willamette River bridge into east Portland. Bus and light rail traffic was disrupted, and police used pepper spray and made several arrests.

Demonstrations in Washington, D.C., and Albuquerque, New Mexico, also blocked traffic at times but were generally peaceful.