Police arrest five protesters during downtown Dallas march over New York chokehold case
UPDATE AT 12 a.m.
Four women and one man were arrested Thursday night. They face a charge of obstructing a highway or passageway, a class B misdemeanor, police said.
No one was injured during the protests, which were mainly peaceful.
UPDATE AT 11:35 p.m.
The group has arrived at Dallas Police headquarters and is dispersing.
The protesters are planning another night of demonstrations Friday night, starting at 8 p.m. at 1100 Commerce St. in downtown Dallas.
UPDATE at 11:25 p.m.
About 25 people remain in the protest group, and the chanting has slowed down. The group is making its way to Dallas Police headquarters.
UPDATE AT 11:15 p.m.
The group of protesters, which continues to get smaller, is once again on the move. They are walking south on Lamar in the direction of the Dallas Police headquarters just south of downtown.
Although the group is dropping in size — fewer than 50 are with the group — police presence remains strong. There are more officers than demonstrators.
UPDATE AT 10:45 p.m.
Though the group of protesters has gotten smaller, about 50 people have taken up location just outside the Earl Cabell Federal Building and Courthouse in downtown Dallas.
Officers in patrol cars have surrounded the group, and at least one other person has been detained.
UPDATE at 10:30 p.m.
Close to 100 protesters have turned around and appear headed back in the direction of the Dallas police headquarters.
A small number of demonstrators seem determined to stay put, despite police objection and the detainment of other protesters.
UPDATE at 10:20 p.m.:
The group appears to be splintering, with the majority turning around a smaller number of protesters focused on making it on to the highway.
A line of police officers are creating a blocking the group from doing so.
The situation has created the most tense moments of the evening.
Police have begun to detain people who were seated in the middle of the road. At least two women were removed.
“We asked you to clear the streets,” officers said. “We asked you not to be in the streets.”
UPDATE at 10:05 p.m.:
The protesters are marching south on Houston Street and have reached the east-west streets at Dealey Plaza. There, police have blocked off all eastbound access that might otherwise allow the group to reach I-35E and the site of last week’s dangerous incident.
UPDATE at 9:40 p.m.:
Dallas police said they briefly shut down northbound I-35E in anticipation of the threat of protesters entering the freeway, but the department just announced all lanes are reopened. No marchers ever got onto the highway.
UPDATE at 9:30 p.m.:
Protesters have made their way to a spot under Stemmons Freeway at the convergence of Hi Line Drive and Victory Avenue. While activists chant “No justice, no peace!” officers have surrounded the crowd on all sides, blocking access to I-35E in an attempt to prevent a repeat of last week’s mayhem.
ORIGINAL POST:
Dozens of people are marching through downtown Dallas to protest the decision by grand jurors not to indict the New York police officer accused of killing an unarmed black man this summer — and what activists say is a nationwide pattern of police abuse of black men.
The protest began mid-evening outside Dallas police headquarters on Lamar Street just south of downtown.
Many people held signs saying “We can’t breathe,” a reference to some of the final words that 43-year-old Eric Garner of Staten Island could be heard saying in videotaped footage of the incident in which Officer Daniel Pantaleo had placed him in an apparent chokehold.
The gathering outside Dallas police headquarters was low-key, but activists became more animated as they began marching toward downtown, chanting “No justice, no peace!” and “I can’t breathe!”
Dozens of police in squad cars and on bicycle accompanied the crowd as it made its way through downtown toward American Airlines Center. At the center’s south end, protesters laid down, chanting “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” and “I can’t breathe!”
Tonight’s marchers — a mixture of races and ages — have been consistently peaceful. It’s a departure from some of last week’s protests that involved combative activists briefly taking over Interstate 35E near Dealey Plaza in response to a grand jury’s decision not to indict the white officer who killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. Several people were arrested in that protest.