Protesters Nationwide Denounce Police Shootings, Condemn Dallas Attack

Demonstrators returned to the streets Friday in major U.S. citites to protests the police shootings of black men in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and suburban St. Paul, Minnesota.  

Friday's protests came a day after the deadly sniper attack on police officers in Dallas. Black Lives Matter condemned the violence in the Dallas attack, calling it a tragedy not just for those affected but the nation as well.

[NATL] Photos: Police Shootings of Black Men Spark Protests Across U.S. Cities

NEW YORK

Rochester police arrested 74 people for disorderly conduct during a protest by hundreds of people over the shootings of black residents across the nation.

Police in riot gear were patrolling the streets after the protesters marched.

Chief Michael Ciminelli says there were no injuries or property damage during the Friday night march. He estimates as many as 400 people participated.

In New York City, about 300 people took to the streets to protest Friday night. They gathered in Manhattan's Union Square for speeches before splitting into small groups escorted by police.

One group marched across the Williamsburg Bridge into Brooklyn while another went uptown and marched through Grand Central Terminal, chanting "black lives matter." The protesters mostly kept to the sidewalks.

CALIFORNIA

Rappers Snoop Dogg and The Game led a peaceful march to Los Angeles police headquarters, where they met with the mayor and police chief and urged improved relations between authorities and minority communities. [[386062751, C]]

A commencement ceremony for recruits was taking place and the rappers said they planned the walk not knowing it would coincide with the graduation.

"This is even better because now these students that are about to hit the streets can know that there is some sort of dialogue going on and they don't have to be fearful," Snoop Dogg said.

In San Francisco, about 2,000 protesters marched across downtown to a rally outside City Hall under a huge banner that read, "Stop the Racist Police Terror in the U.S." An organizer urged the crowd to remain peaceful.

"Our anger must be controlled and strategic," Lawrence Shine said. "Love will overcome hate."

#Shutitdown: Protest Against Police Violence in Oakland

In Sacramento, guards closed the Capitol early in expectation of a protest Friday evening. Several dozen demonstrators marched around the Capitol carrying posters demanding justice for black men killed by police across the country.

FLORIDA

Hundreds of people marched in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale as part of the Black Lives Matter movement in demonstrations that ended peacefully. 

Protesters in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday chanted "No justice, no peace" and "Hands up, don't shoot." At one point the protest stopped outside a Broward County jail and prisoners banged on windows in support.

The demonstrations came after police shootings of black men in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and suburban St. Paul, Minnesota, and the deadly sniper attack on police officers in Dallas. 

A Palm Beach Post reporter tweeted a photo of a protester shaking a police officer's hand as the West Palm Beach protest disbursed. 

A third protest was planned in Miami on Saturday evening.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Simon Huck, left, and Jonathan Cheban arrive to Heidi Klum’s Halloween Party in New York, Sunday, Oct. 31, 2010. (AP Photo/Charles Sykes)

A few dozen people rallied peacefully outside the U.S. Department of Justice headquarters, holding candles and quietly singing "We Shall Not Be Moved" amid a heavy local and federal police presence.

Howard University student George Wyche, who's from Houston, said he was worn out emotionally from the racially tinged violence of this week. He said he believes there are no easy answers to the tensions plaguing the country.

"It's a time for belief in the greater good of humanity," Wyche said.

More demonstrations are expected at the nation's capital throughout the weekend, D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said at news conference Friday.

ILLINOIS

Members of Chicago's Black Lives Matter movement and other groups played dead outside President Barack Obama's home in an effort to push the president to act on the violence occurring between police officers and black people.

Activist Jedidiah Brown said there is more the president can do than just speak about the violence. [[386094741, C]]

Hundreds of protesters staged a die-in at the Taste of Chicago festival before marching into the city's downtown core to block city traffic. 

In another demonstration, activist priest the Rev. Michael Pfleger, along with actor-comedian Nick Cannon and NFL player J'Marcus Webb, led 100 people through the city's violence-plagued Auburn-Gresham neighborhood.

"It's very apparent that we're all in pain and we're frustrated," Cannon said, adding that he wanted to do more "than just a hashtag."

PENNSYLVANIA

Pittsburgh's police chief walked along with protesters at an activist march downtown on Friday and said it was peaceful.

Organizers billed the march as a protest against "growing inequality and a toxic atmosphere of hate." Police Chief Cameron McLay shook marchers' hands and chatted with them.

In Philadelphia, about 250 people marched for the third consecutive night to protest the deadly shootings of black men by police in Louisiana and Minnesota.

The demonstrators, ranging from young children to seniors who recalled marches by civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., held signs and chanted.

MASSACHUSETTS

Religious leaders gathered at an interfaith service in Boston to pray for an end to the racially tinged violence racking the nation.

Nancy Taylor, senior pastor of Old South Church, told the gathering she was weary of the mounting death toll.

"I'm here to say that I'm tired of praying," she said. "Tired of praying over dead bodies, the young dead. Sick and tired of praying over those killed by gun violence."

The Rev. Laura Everett, of the Massachusetts Council of Churches, called on people "to do the work of dismantling the systemic racism that pervades our American society."

ARKANSAS

About 300 people gathered in front of the state Capitol to seek solutions to racial strife, which Little Rock knows so well.

The pastor of the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in North Little Rock said Friday everyone should be working to end the nation's unsettled time.

"The question remains, 'When will enough be enough?'" Earl Graham Jr. asked.

The crowd chanted the question back to him.

Little Rock was the scene of one of the nation's first desegregation battles in 1957, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent troops into the city to escort nine black children into Central High School.

ARIZONA

Freeway ramps were closed and pepper spray and tear gas were used during a protest in downtown Phoenix.

Police deployed the deterrents as demonstrators moved toward a freeway.

The Arizona Department of Transportation tweeted that multiple Interstate 10 ramps were closed.

About 1,000 people chanted "black lives matter" and "hands up, don't shoot" as they marched.

The few dozen officers initially escorting marchers mostly wore plain clothes.

Later, officers wore uniforms and riot gear.

Minor scuffles broke out when a man wearing a "Make America Great Again" T-shirt and holding a Donald Trump campaign sign interrupted the protest. Police pulled the man aside to let the marchers continue.

COLORADO

Black Lives Matter supporters said they plan to continue a sit-in in Denver in response to the police shootings of black men in Minnesota and Louisiana through Tuesday for a total of 135 hours. That's an hour for each of the black people they say have been killed by police across the country this year.

The gathering, across from the City and County Building, began Thursday afternoon, several hours before police officers were killed in Dallas.

People have been dropping off food and water for those camped out on chairs and blankets in Civic Center Park.

GEORGIA

Several thousand people flooded the streets of downtown Atlanta to protest recent police shootings of African-Americans.

Marchers brought traffic to a standstill downtown after gathering at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights near Centennial Olympic Park. Drivers in cars honked their horns as protesters holding signs and chanting "hands up, don't shoot" streamed beside them.

Police Chief George Turner and Democratic Mayor Kasim Reed urged protesters to cooperate with law enforcement. The march appeared peaceful.

LOUISIANA

A few hundred protesters have gathered at the Baton Rouge Police Department.

The demonstrators gathered Saturday to protest the shooting death of a black man, Alton Sterling, by two white police officers at a convenience store parking lot last week. 

The protest was tense earlier as police in riot gear came out, apparently to clear the road so traffic could pass through. 

A police spokesman said two firearms were confiscated and several arrests made. 

Police later went back inside their headquarters and traffic reopened. 

Baton Rouge resident Marie Flowers came to the protest in with her three children. She said people in the north Baton Rouge neighborhood where the shooting happened are frustrated. 

Protesters waved homemade signs while drivers honked their support and some stopped by with bottles of water.

MICHIGAN

A peaceful protest against police brutality drew more than 1,000 people to Campus Martius Park in Detroit.

Nickell Young, 25, a black student at Central Michigan University, said she wasn't surprised by the fatal attacks on police officers in Dallas.

"They put on the uniform, and that represents brutality," she said. "The police who say they are good and they are not speaking up" against the officers who violate the rights of blacks.

NEBRASKA

About 300 people gathered in southwest Omaha to protest the recent fatal police shootings in Minnesota and Louisiana.

Protest organizer Rene Harper said the Dallas shooting kept some people away.

The group discussed how to conduct a peaceful protest before moving with signs to all four corners of an intersection.

Police were present. Several police cruisers were in the area, and police officers were stationed on the roofs of nearby businesses.

UTAH

Two of Utah's top law enforcement leaders say they won't change the way their agencies patrol or handle protests following the shooting of police officers in Dallas but want the community to work with police to break down barriers of mistrust.

Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder said that happened in Dallas was "a classic ambush."

Salt Lake City police Chief Mike Brown said residents need to remember officers are mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, not just uniforms.

UNITED KINGDOM

Hundreds of people took part in a Black Lives Matter protest in London on Friday.

Large crowds of people marched through busy streets in the central part of the city as drivers honked their horns and passers-by pumped their fists.

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Rodrique Ngowi in Boston; Kelly P. Kissel in Little Rock; Cain Burdeau in New Orleans; Corey Williams in Detroit; Jonathan Landrum Jr. in Atlanta; and Ross D. Franklin in Phoenix.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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