The NYPD says ten demonstrators were arrested in Manhattan Tuesday as people protesting the Ferguson, Missouri, grand jury decision took to the streets for a second day, temporarily shutting down major streets, highways and bridges, and clashing with police in some areas.
The arrests, all in Times Square, mark a shift in the relatively peaceful protests Monday in New York City. Six of those arrested are charged with disorderly conduct and four with resisting arrest. No injuries were reported during the night, however.
The demonstrations began in Union Square early in the evening, then grew by the hundreds as protesters marched and splintered off in different directions. One group walked north, holding signs reading, "We will not be silent" and, "A badge is not a license to kill."
Some protesters tried to walk into the Lincoln Tunnel but were blocked by police. Still, there were major traffic delays there during the evening rush; at one point, there was at least a 12-block backup as protesters swarmed the area, Chopper 4 showed.
Standoff at Lincoln Tunnel entrance- police won't let protesters pass, traffic stalled. Pushing, shoving pic.twitter.com/UL4VuWLSgq — Michael George (@mgeorge4NY) November 25, 2014
Times Square traffic was also at a standstill as protesters got to the area. Police attempted to move people off streets and onto the sidewalks, and warned they would begin arresting those who did not comply.
Police ordering protesters to leave- scene getting tense again. Shouts, pushing pic.twitter.com/CZXPyOWWbh — Michael George (@mgeorge4NY) November 26, 2014
But the crowd stayed put, with protesters yelling, "Arrest Darren Wilson" and, "No justice, no peace."
Multiple arrests as police move protesters off streets and onto sidewalks pic.twitter.com/HLwUqEk0Lk — Michael George (@mgeorge4NY) November 26, 2014
That's when several clashes erupted, with some protesters resisting as police moved to arrest them. Most of the crowd eventually moved onto the sidewalks to continue demonstrating.
Another group of protesters had marched west from Union Square on 14th Street and swarmed around vehicles as they shouted "Hands up, don't shoot" before turning south and onto the FDR Drive.
Part of the highway was effectively shut down as protesters streamed between vehicles, chanting "The whole damn system is guilty as hell." Officers trailed the marchers there, but kept their distance.
Later, protesters closed down the West Side Highway as they marched near 79th Street.
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said the NYPD was giving protesters "breathing room" to express outrage over Monday's grand jury decision in the shooting death of Michael Brown.
"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," said Bratton, who was hit with fake blood tossed by a protester Monday night. Diego Ibanez, 26, was arrested on an assault charge in the incident.
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A small group gathered outside federal court in Brooklyn earlier in one of several demonstrations organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network. Sharpton is also a talk-show host on MSNBC, which is owned by NBC 4 New York's parent company, NBCUniversal.
About a dozen minority City Council members briefly walked out of a meeting at City Hall, chanting "black lives matter" and then later "hands up, don't shoot" before returning to the meeting.
Mayor de Blasio said there need to be changes, but not through violence like the destruction of police cars and the torching of businesses in Ferguson protests.
"The family lost their son. They are in a lot of pain. They've been in a lot of pain since the tragedy occurred," he said. "In the end, what we ought to try to do is alleviate people's suffering. So the first thing we should think about is the Brown family and everything they are going through."
Some protesters Tuesday carried signs created by activist group Stop Mass Incarceration calling for justice for both Brown and Eric Garner, the unarmed Staten Island man who died after being placed in a chokehold by a police officer.
Garner's mother Gwen Carr participated in a separate, more modest rally on Staten Island earlier in the day, also organized by the National Action Network.
Carr told NBC 4 New York the Ferguson decision was "a blow. I just can't explain how I felt."
Garner's altercation with NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo was captured on cellphone video, unlike in Brown's case, where eyewitness accounts painted a spotty picture. Carr hopes the video leads to a different outcome for the officer who placed her son in a chokehold.
"The world has seen what he did," she said.
Carr acknowledged Pantaleo, who recently testified before a grand jury, may not be indicted either. Regardless of the outcome in the case, she said she "wouldn't want to see that violence" that has swept Ferguson.
"At this point, I'll just leave it in the hands of God," she said.
Meanwhile in New Jersey, several hundred protesters marched through the streets of Newark, led by activists from the People's Organization for Progress, following a rally at the city's Lincoln monument.
"We don't see this as a Missouri case. We don't see this as a Ferguson case. It's our case, it's everybody's case. That's why we are out here today," said one of the group's leaders, Larry Hamm, who expressed outrage at the decision not to indict Wilson in the fatal shooting of Brown.
Hamm called on the federal Justice Department to bring civil rights charges against Wilson for the death.
"Michael Brown should not be dead," he said. "Michael Brown should be alive with his family, and officer Wilson should be in jail."
Wilson has said he couldn't have done anything differently in his confrontation with Brown to prevent the Aug. 9 shooting. He told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos he has a clean conscience because "I know I did my job right."
Newark's events were peaceful, with police clearing the streets of cars along the route so the protesters could pass.
In a statement issued earlier Tuesday, Newark Police Director Eugene Venable said the police department had been engaging community leaders in hopes of encouraging peaceful demonstrations and stressed police would stay out of protesters' way.
"The police are not going to be intrusive," the statement said. "We're not going to deny them the right to speak their mind, or their freedom of assembly."
Among those marching was Newark resident Dyquawn Thompson, who complained about his own treatment by law enforcement.
"I'm tired. Enough is enough," he said.
When he heard the news Monday night, he said, he was "disgusted" and hurt.
"It brought tears to my eyes," he said. "So I'm here now standing for something."
-- Michael George, Jonathan Vigliotti and Jen Maxfield contributed to this report.
