Photo by John Minchillo/AP
Immense, impassioned marches swept through cities around the country Saturday, stretching late into the night in the largest demonstrations yet protesting the deaths of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and others killed by police in recent months.In New York, tens of thousands of people took to the streets for hours until they reached NYPD's headquarters. An impressive time-lapse video shows a bird's-eye view of the sea of protesters flowing up 6th Avenue at the corner of 29th Street.#MillionsMarch: Protesters mobilize against police killings in New York and Washington, DC. Read more here.James Reed, a local performer who sang "hands up don't shoot" to a band of trumpets, saxophones, and drums in the below video, told VICE News he was "inspired by desire to not live as a target of police brutality.""I was allowed to use my voice to mirror the chants of the people, which allowed me to be their instrument," Reed told VICE News. "The marches are funeral marches… Lives have been lost due to policies that we as a people must change within our government and selves."The protest ended outside One Police Plaza, where an impassioned group waved signs and chanted "black lives matter" repeatedly.Ferguson protesters win temporary restraining order against police use of tear gas. Read more here."The energy grew, even as the number of participants may have gone down. And I saw especially young people growing in energy after hours of marching," one protester, public high school teacher Camila de Vedia-Helm, recalled to VICE News."It's so strange and sad to see that people who aren't black saying black lives matter is a revolutionary concept," she continued, "but it's encouraging to see tens of thousands of people going out of their way on a cold winter day to get started on all this work we have to do."The demonstration was mostly peaceful, but an NYPD spokesman Saturday night told reporters that two cops had been assaulted by a handful of protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge as they tried to make an arrest. The spokesman told CBS News there were multiple reports of fireworks set off from the bridge. A VICE News reporter also witnessed a rowdy anarchist contingent that broke off from the main march at one point and smashed the windows of a police cruiser.The Bay Area was also the site of large marches, with actions both in San Francisco and Oakland.
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In Oakland, hundreds of police marched in a line to disperse the crowd after some protesters vandalized stores and started fires.Millions March in San Francisco. — Sister Roma (@SisterRoma)December 14, 2014
The Bay Area protests wound down by 10:30pm and created fewer disruptions than marches earlier in the week, SF Gate reported. Police called 11 additional agencies to help with enforcement, including some officers in full riot gear.NYPD cop involved in Eric Garner's death tells investigator he did not use a chokehold. Read more here.
Oakland police block demonstrators from taking Interstate 580, at Jackson St. — Kurtis Alexander (@kurtisalexander)December 14, 2014
In Portland, a car plowed through an intersection full of protesters, injuring one person in a hit-and-run incident. Video footage from just moments after the incident shows the victim on the ground outside Powell's Books, a local landmark.Police block demonstrators at 29th and Telegraph, protest stalls out (for now). — Kurtis Alexander (@kurtisalexander)December 14, 2014
Follow Meredith Hoffman on Twitter: @merhoffmanVine of outside — Mike Bivins (@IlluminatorMike)December 14, 2014