Protesters marched through the Main Line in another show of solidarity for Mike Brown and Eric Garner.
Students from Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges gathered in Lower Merion Township around 4:45 p.m. Monday. The protesters began their march from Pembroke Arch on North Merion Avenue around 5 p.m. to the intersection of Elliot and Lancaster Avenues.
Around 5:10 p.m. they staged a four and half minute “die-in” at the intersection of Elliot and Lancaster, symbolizing the four hours and 30 minutes Michael Brown reportedly laid on the street in Ferguson, Missouri after he had been fatally shot by Officer Darren Wilson.
They then continued to march down Lancaster to the Haverford College campus where they held a moment of silence for another four and a half minutes.
The marchers then left Haverford College around 6 p.m. and crossed over to Montgomery Avenue from the Haverford Station. The demonstration ended at the Bryn Mawr College campus where a candlelight vigil took place at 7 p.m.
All the roadways the protesters walked through were closed in order to protect the public.
The demonstration was one of many sparked by the recent grand jury decisions not to indict the police officers involved in the deaths of Eric Garner and Mike Brown.
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Brown, 18, was killed after being shot several times by Officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9 in Ferguson, Missouri. Wilson said Brown, who was unarmed, assaulted him and charged at him which prompted him to open fire in self-defense. Brown's family and some witnesses disputed Wilson's report however. A grand jury declined to indict Wilson in the case prompting violent riots in Ferguson as well as protests nationwide.
Garner, 43, died July 17 in Staten Island, New York after police officers attempted to arrest him for allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes. Officer Daniel Pantaleo was caught on video wrapping his arm around Garner’s neck as the heavyset asthmatic repeatedly yelled, “I can’t breathe!” Garner was pronounced dead at the hospital an hour later.
On Dec. 3 a grand jury decided not to indict Pantaleo, a decision which also sparked nationwide protests.
