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Hundreds of people in the Washington, D.C., area added their voices to those in New York City who took over Times Square to protest the grand jury’s failure to indict a New York City police officer for the choke hold death of Staten Island dad Eric Garner.
In College Park, Md., protesters took to the XFinity Center, where folks gathered to watch the University of Maryland men's basketball team take on the University of Virginia, to protest the deaths of Garner and Ferguson, Mo.’s Michael Brown, both at the hands of local law enforcement.
According to the Washington Post, protesters were shouting, “Hands up, don’t shoot” and “No justice, no peace, no racist police.”
Among the protesters outside the center was Maryland wide receiver Deon Long, who was spotted holding a sign that read, “Are we still ‘thugs’ when you pay to watch us play sports? #BlackLivesMatter.”
Closer to the heart of the nation’s capital, protests marched in and around Dupont Circle, blocking off traffic from entering the busy circle and chanting, “I can’t breathe and “No justice, no peace,” NBC 4 Washington reports.
The group then headed toward Adams Morgan before heading downtown, the news station reports.
Earlier, demonstrators also targeted the White House, traveling to Union Station and closing down streets, NBC 4 added.
Earlier yesterday afternoon, protesters who were already planning to stand up against last week’s Ferguson grand jury failure to indict former police Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Brown added Garner’s case to their cries, staging a lie-in and also chanting “No justice! No peace!” as well as “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” and “Black lives matter!” There was reportedly a banner bearing the faces of black Americans who lost their lives to police, the DCist reports.
