Protestors at 72nd street and West End Avenue Wednesday night. Photo by Priscilla.
Protestors angered by the decision not to prosecute the officer who put Eric Garner in a chokehold took to the streets on Wednesday, marching in separate groups up Columbus Avenue and on the West Side Highway.
Low-flying helicopters were buzzing the UWS for more than an hour — “like Apocalypse Now,” noted one reader.
Police mostly allowed the marches but eventually began arresting marchers and blocking their path on the highway. Mostly, they played a kind of cat-and-mouse game, guiding the protestors where they wanted them to go. They yelled “No Justice, No Peace,” and other chants.
Hundreds marched up Columbus Avenue from Columbus Circle around 8 p.m., shutting down parts of the avenue and 86th street. This video shows the protestors at 86th, and the photo below by Robin is from 91st and Columbus.
A large group walked up Amsterdam Avenue past the Ale House on 76th as seen in this video:
They shut down the highway around 9 p.m., walking up from the 40’s to 72nd street and getting off the highway there. A guy shooting a livestream of the march joked that Upper West Siders in the Trump towers were looking out their windows “at the plebes.” Some people were arrested on the highway around 57th street.
Arrests of largest group happening now. West Side Highway and 57th. MORE LEGAL OBSERVERS NEEDED. #EricGarner pic.twitter.com/xXnHDRqVih
— Keegan Stephan (@KeeganNYC) December 4, 2014
Photojournalist Nicolas Heller arrested. "I was in the street, I guess." Along with 1,000 others pic.twitter.com/ZfWiTDm3Fp
— Christopher Robbins (@ChristRobbins) December 4, 2014
One woman who was stuck in her car stood up in solidarity with the protest:
@TheAnonMessage: Woman stuck in traffic, standing in solidarity. #maddow #NYC #EricGarner pic.twitter.com/j3yBAjNfAK
— Fallon Nicole (@fallongreen15) December 4, 2014
It was quite a rare sight on the highway:
West side highway shut down in both directions in NYC! Thousands of people in both direction #ShutItDown pic.twitter.com/qIsm7umFrk
— Gloria Marion (@Gloretired) December 4, 2014
Protesters shut down part of the West Side Highway in NYC, photo via @CBSNewYork's chopper: https://t.co/dLuDPTcrH8 pic.twitter.com/7kbDnPFpls
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) December 4, 2014
From the highway, the protestors walked onto 72nd street at Riverside, meeting up with another protest group.
Two huge groups of #EricGarner protesters converged at Riverside and 72nd. Much cheering. Getting louder. #Nyc pic.twitter.com/gMYlyBwXHX
— Kathleen Caulderwood (@KCaulderwood) December 4, 2014
“@MedinaMora: 72 and Riverside right now. #ericgarner https://t.co/AcsPOfftZc” @westsiderag
— Emily Baer (@ekbaer) December 4, 2014
Protests continued after 10 p.m., prompting more window-rattling helicopter noise. Ashira Konigsburg told us they were in the street walking North on Broadway in the 90’s at about 10:15 p.m.
A few dozen people were spotted by Amy Wilson walking on Broadway around 99th just before 10:30 p.m.
Some people were arrested for walking in the street at 105th and 113th streets, tipsters told us.
NYPD has completely stopped the march at 113th & Amsterdam, blocking an ER & making mass arrests. Legal! #EricGarner pic.twitter.com/uF5TXWTbjw
— Keegan Stephan (@KeeganNYC) December 4, 2014
Unclear what's happening. NYPD selectively arresting some, allowing others to leave one at a time. #EricGarner pic.twitter.com/Jcf0NbBoRL
— Keegan Stephan (@KeeganNYC) December 4, 2014
Well for what its worth, someone not telling the truth. It is either the Medical Examiner or the DA. Whoever it is needs to go. This is one of the most appalling disgraceful things I have witnessed in many years. It saddens me that such unprofessional standards have been reduced for (what ever excuse) to the absolute lowest common denominator. Excuses are useless! Regardless of responsibility there is the matter of accountability. One can argue the first but not the second.
We do however have a golden opportunity here. This is now again another shameful humiliating slap in the face to ALL concerned. Why? It is because our institutions clearly have not accepted limits in this behavior.Those we have elected as stewards have failed horribly. As a result all of reasonable America has begun to to see that this is no longer an acceptable cost on any level. We already know this is beyond limits of fairness and reason. Only with a continued public awareness will we achieve change through non violence. We cannot allow opportunists to sway us into violence or excuses. This but no more has to be our cry. We demand equal treatment under the law. We want the old white guy to have his backpack searched too! This cowardly attitude of passing the buck hurts all of good spirit and has one ultimate hope. Mediocrity. A friend of mines dad said that mediocrity is the cream of the crap. We have had enough. Register vote protest and get these people out of office. If we stick together we can do it . To do anything less means to slide backwards into anarchy of the 50’s and 60’s which I Lived through, but even worse it will objectify human beings into other soulless statistics. . On the job or not, this is bad for everyone unless we change it. We can change it. We must send a constructive message. This but no more.
Lastly Condolences to all those who care. Our flame burns brighter in this dark hour than I have seen in many many years. Do not quit. We are closer than we have ever been. We each know a martyr. This but no more. We have seen worse. but we hope and demand better. This but no more.
I agree with the grand jury decision not to indict. I also think we should give the NYPD the benefit of the doubt in such circumstances. They have a tough job.
Many of these incidents could be prevented by the suspects cooperating with the police and not resisting arrest.
Uh..not buying it. We ALL saw the video.
that’s why people are PISSED!!!!
If it could happen them them..it can happen to you. But whitey never thinks that it could ever happen to them.
If you resist arrest, death is an acceptable outcome for you?
Or, in the case of the Chinese jaywalker (Bway/96th) a few months ago, facial fractures because he didn’t speak English?
Wow…!
Are you kidding? This man was killed for selling loose cigarettes. He was one man attacked by five cops, and put in a choke hold. He couldn’t breathe & said so, over and over, but the cops held him down until he was dead. Is this justice? Do you think this would have happened to a white guy selling loose cigarettes? I agree the cops have a tough job, but no one has it harder on the streets in this country than the black male. No one. And as each cop who kills goes free, it give license for all police to kill. Arrest these men, maybe, but killing them? Get your priorities straight.
The take away is do not not resist arrest.
That goes for everyone.
He would still be alive if he did not resist.
period.
I respectfully disagree. His death was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner, and he was felled by a prohibited chokehold move. It’s a shame this will not be brought to trial for the day in court a grieving family (and if you like, all Americans) deserve. With the death on video, an indictment should have been a slam dunk. If it wasn’t a cop who choked him, I can’t imagine how this wouldn’t go to trial.
There was no doubt the video showed the police office killing Garner. Police officers deserve no more benefit of the doubt than anyone else.
Resisting arrest is not a capital crime and police should not be empowered to execute civilians. No one should be above the law and that includes police officers.
I remember growing up here in the UWS back in the 60s/70s and we were taught (by our parents and other street people) to always obey a police officer’s instructions.
Fast forward 2013, I (Latino) was sipping some wine while sitting on my stoop (out of a plastic cup), along with my two friends (Black guy & Italian) – it was about midnight. We were keeping our voices low; nonetheless, a police car pulled up, two officers from the 2-O exited and approached me (not my friends). The Officer asked me for ID, I handed it to him and explained that I was a resident of the building for 40+ years. He looked at me, handed it back to me and replied, “Have a good evening.” And they drover off.
My point, if you have nothing to hide, just obey their instructions. I could have screamed foul or refused to give him any ID, but I had nothing to hide. But even more importantly, my refusal to obey his instruction would have accomplished nothing but a ride to the precinct.
Back to my original statement , , , and it holds true whether you live in NYC or any other part of the world, if an officer of the law gives you a directive, follow it.
Hey, protesters! Disagree, be disgusted, hate our justice system, and by God, go ahead and organize! Now go home and stop screwing up our city by illegally shutting down major roadways, taking away our vital resources, creating chaos, and becoming a hazard to yourself and everyone else around you.
You should calm down. Let the protestors protest. If they really tie up traffic, they can be dragged away, but meanwhile leave them to their own devices as much as is consistent with public safety and convenience. Two weeks from now they’ll be back at whatever it is they do when they’re not protesting. They’ll be happy because they believe people give a crap about protests, and the streets will be back to normal.
well said, Paul.
I don’t know why our mostly residential neighborhood is the center for protests that happened elsewhere. Of course, people have a right to protest, but they too have to respect the law and the other residents and citizens.
Also, any continued reference and attempts o link to the ciivil rights era and Martin Luther King to today’s situation is an insult to a great man and to those who rightly fought for true equality.
I’m so glad you, the above posters, have bever felt marginalized and never had to protest injustices done to you and yours. I hope that people will be around to speak up for you and stand tall for you when They Come For You. Because They will.
Huh? My parents and grandparents suffered anti-Semitism, marginalization, poverty, and everything else that many people suffer from today. Nobody marched for them. How did they overcome it? Through hard work, perseverance, and understanding that disrupting everyone else’s life around you gets you nothing.
Eeeeh, 6.000.000 didn’t get a chance to ‘work hard and persevere’.
‘Disrupting everyone else’s life around you gets you nothing.’ Go explain that to those who were the European resistance or in the Warsaw uprising. Millions went on strike and worked in the underground; and life in, let’s say, Dresden was ‘disrupted’ in 1945.
If it weren’t for marching, protesting and civil disobedience there would still be Jim Crow laws on the books, states could maintain their efforts to disenfranchise non-white voters, whites and blacks would not be able to marry – need I go on with the list?
seriously? if your grandparents were Jewish immigrants in the early part of this century, you think there was no social protest movement that supported (and was based on) the working class? I guess you never heard of the labor movement.
When did the “labor movement” shut down the West Side Highway? I don’t remember that one…
they shut down the subways… and many other things. you guys have to bone up on your history.
Thanks for saving me the trouble on this one, Cato. Now I can get back to sitting in traffic!
Philosophically, I’m with you until you shut down the West Side Highway, which is essentially a religious icon. Much like the case of the motorcycle stunters, when you defile our holiest of sites, don’t expect much support.
well said, em.
The Garner case is truly appalling and there is no excuse for a “no indictment.” Almost all of our public officials, including our Mayor and Senator Gillibrand, have agreed with this.
The protesters are doing a great job at exposing a civil wrong. I wonder what some of the commenters above would have said when the Civil Rights movement disrupted “business as usual” with marches, boycotts, and sit-ins?
Last night’s protests were a model of peaceful civic action. Briefly shutting down a street or highway is not equivalent to creating chaos. I was with the marchers as they moved through the UWS — motorists simply idled for a few minutes and waited for protesters to pass.
P.S. Here’s video from above the rally as it moved along 72nd to Broadway from West End. My wife and I ran outside to join the crowd.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vkmtNQY9a8
Y’know, it’s funny – I was watching the “James From the Internet” feed, and between his incredibly hyperbolic (They’re KETTLING EVERYONE!) narration, bad camera, and the general confusion, it seemed like brutal, unmitigated chaos.
It was shocking to see this same march pass under my window in real time, with everyone acting entirely respectfully and reasonably. The cops were actually blocking traffic to let the march proceed unhindered. A much different scene than the internet portrayed.
Blocking the WSH for an hour is counterproductive and a different animal entirely, but the actual marching within the UWS looked like a protest done right.
Should have been manslaughter at the very least…no doubt. Reckless disregard or wanton disregard or whatever the language is.
BTW: I love that WSR’s 3rd para makes it sound like the police were chanting 🙂
“Police mostly allowed the marches but eventually began arresting marchers and blocking their path on the highway. Mostly, they played a kind of cat-and-mouse game, guiding the protestors where they wanted them to go. They yelled “No Justice, No Peace,” and other chants.”
If I were 10 years younger, I would also be out on the streets in protest! It is frightening to KNOW that we are just as racist as ever! We must stand with the protesters! It is not possible that a grand jury found the policeman not culpable in the murder of Mr. Garner.
As one of the more liberal neighborhoods of NYC, I am surprised to not see more support for the protesters here. One must be pretty removed from the experiences of the black community (from slavery to Jim Crow and contemporary criminalization) to be more annoyed at the closing of the WSH than the current state of crisis the black community is experiencing in the U.S. Yes, they could have walked on the sidewalk, but they made a political decision not to, a decision that challenges the legal system that has treated them systematically unfairly since the birth of this nation. Also, one must be myopic to think that there is nothing wrong with the methods and practices of NYPD in/towards minority communities. One last comment, geared towards the Jewish community in the UWS, especially those feeling ambivalent about supporting the struggles of the black community: Aime Cesaire (during the 1930’s and onward) used to tell his black students something along the following lines: “Pay attention when you hear an anti-Semite talk about Jews, because he is also talking about you.” Think about it.
I think people can rationalize the decision to block the highway however they’d like – it’s certainly not unprecedented nor enormously destructive.
If it’s really just them acting out without any desire to take a movement forward, it’s sorta in-line with expectations. However, if these few hundred people are looking to get the support of the 8.4 million, it is a wildly stupid “political decision.” There’s no law that protesters have to unduly annoy the public in the course of their protest, or that the public has to tolerate everything up to the level of the institutional behavior that’s being protested.
Watched the protesters for a few blocks as they made their way by my apartment near Broadway. Both police and protesters very well-behaved, so bravo to that.
I have mixed feelings. It seems obvious that the police exercised exceptionally poor judgment in arresting Garner, and the manner in which he was restrained. I assume the officer in question will be fired and will probably be subject to a federal case, whatever its merits. But Eric Garner is dead not because he is black, because he made two very bad decisions, the first was to break the law, the second was to resist arrest (and he absolutely did resist arrest). He didn’t deserve to die, obviously. When confronted by the police, the only two words out of your mouth should be yes sir or yes ma’am.
I would never have thought that Upper West Siders would have these racist, elitist feelings. I hope the rich moving into the neighborhood are enjoying their status. But when you lose your compassion, money won’t help you. This man was ILLEGALLY put in a chokehold by a cop. That is against the law, and the police know it. And then despite his begging, they held him down until he had no breath left to breathe. Murder is a more serious crime than resisting arrest. Black lives have value, just like white lives. And considering that horrific verdict, I’m proud the protesters did nothing more than inconvenience the neighborhood. They have good reason to be angry enough to do harm, but they didn’t. Who are you people to judge?
UWS is very racist. And many think it’s not by virtue of it not being the UES. It’s sad.
Welcome to Obama’s Amerika.
Shame on the NYPD
Any reason these decent, unselfish, responsible and well meaning protesters did not protest in front of 1PP or perhaps some court building to make their point? But instead chose to block an important traffic artery and cause massive disruption to people who had nothing to do with Eric Garner’s death?
A bit surprising that there are no protests on the East Side, particularly the 1%. For example in front of David Koch’s apartment or Mike Bloomberg?
Or by right wing Rupert Murdoch’s apartment on 23rd Street?
yes, it’s called civil disobedience.
I wonder why do these people even protest in UWS. If these people want to be heard go protest somewhere at midtown let us sleep for us hard working people.
In all seriousness, an interesting comment that someone posted on nytimes re:an article about the struggle of poorly paid fast food workers and one of the leaders in the struggle. Worth considering…
“Mr. Wise has the vision and the wisdom to see the real struggle that this country faces – economic inequality. Those that are protesting about the events in Ferguson, and more recent events in NYC, are in many ways missing the bigger picture. Their protests will likely be ineffective and short lived. This man, Mr. Wise, has a planned and thoughtful approach towards addressing the institutional issues that have kept people living in poverty for decades. Those that are protesting about police “brutality” should join Mr. Wise and protest the economic brutality that is our reality.”
1. I have no sympathy for those complaining about the protesters screwing up up their commute and disrupting their lives. You should be disrupted.
2. Stop with this “Eric Garner would be alive if he didn’t resist arrest.” See: Akai Gurley.
3. I’ve lived all over NYC and the UWS is pretty damn racist.
Stop trying to turn this into a racial issue. Most of us view people as individuals not as members of a particular race. I do not care what race they were.
Of course, Garner did not deserve to die–no one feels that way. However, I do not believe the police officers should be prosecuted in this circumstance.
Thousands of people are murdered each year, and the police are the only thing preventing that number from being much higher. Why not direct your outrage at real criminals?
*I very much want them
If you do not judge people on their race, good, we need more people that think like that. But the fact is that too many people don’t. I also believe that it is impossible to not be automatically tainted by the racist society we’ve all be brought up in, however much we want to believe we are innately good. It takes constant fighting, education, and introspection.
I don’t hate the police. We need police. I very much for them to find the people who have killed my friends. I want them to come when I’m in trouble. I have friends who are cops. But I can confidently identify the need for them while identifying the fact that there is a problem within their institutions, within this country, within this world, where the darker you are, the worse you get treated.
And let’s not forget the judicial system, which is also to blame.
It angers me that people complain about being inconvenienced by a protest. A traffic delay or lost night’s sleep is a hell of a lot more convenient than the loss of a son, brother, father and so on…
The UWS is very liberal, and in my experience I’ve found nearly all liberals to be racist, tho they go through great pains to convince you otherwise. you might be onto something, Olivia!
I also find it troubling that people feel they can go out and break the law whenever they disagree with a jury. It seems to imply that the jury system should be replaced by mob rule.
The demonstrations were mainly white leftist college kids hoping against hope to use the Garner case to rile up black people for their leftist revolution. From what I see the blacks are not buying it.
TAKEN FROM NYPD POLICY ON USE OF FORCE
Members of the New York City Police Department will NOT use chokeholds. A chokehold shall include, but is not limited to, any pressure to the throat or windpipe, which may prevent or hinder breathing or reduce intake of air.
Whenever it becomes necessary to take a violent or resisting subject into custody, responding officers should utilize appropriate tactics in a coordinated effort to overcome resistance (for example see PG 216-05, “Aided Cases-Mentally Ill or Emotionally Disturbed Persons”). The patrol supervisor, if present should direct and control all activity. Whenever possible, members should make every effort to avoid tactics, such as sitting or standing on a subject’s chest, which may result in chest compression, thereby reducing the subject’s ability to breathe.
After an individual has been controlled and placed under custodial restraint using handcuffs and other authorized methods, the person should be positioned so as to promote free breathing. The subject should not be maintained or transported in a face down position.
The member assuming custody of the subject should closely observe him or her for any apparent injuries.
If a person appears to be having difficulty breathing or is otherwise demonstrating life-threatening symptoms, medical assistance will be requested immediately. The patrol supervisor will direct that alternate means to maintain custody be utilized, if appropriate — follow me on twitter @nycbikerider