Protests Spread Across Country Day After Eric Garner Grand-Jury Decision

Thousands of Demonstrators Gather in Lower Manhattan.

Protests rippled across the country Thursday, a day after a grand jury didn’t charge a New York City police officer in the death of a black man who allegedly was selling untaxed cigarettes last summer.

For a second night, demonstrators gathered in New York, Washington, D.C., and beyond chanting variations of: “Shut the whole system down!” “No justice, no peace” and “I can’t breathe.”

The crowd swelled to thousands in New York City. In Foley Square, protesters spilled into the surrounding lower Manhattan neighborhood and across the Brooklyn Bridge. Some marchers headed to the West Side Highway, where they were locked in a standoff with police.

“We need to show solidarity whenever we can,” said Oyku Tekten, a 32-year-old graduate student at the City University of New York.

The protests came in the wake of the July 17 death of 43-year-old Eric Garner after officer Daniel Pantaleo put him in an apparent chokehold on a Staten Island street. Police have said Mr. Garner was resisting arrest. The confrontation was captured on a video in which Mr. Garner, who suffered from asthma and other ailments, repeatedly pleaded, “I can’t breathe.”

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