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VIDEO: Car drives into crowd of peaceful protesters in Minneapolis

Posted at 6:44 PM, Nov 25, 2014
and last updated 2014-11-26 11:15:06-05


MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — A Star Tribunereporter on scene in Minneapolis Tuesday afternoon said that a vehicle began honking at a crowd of protesters before running down a woman.

The group was peacefully assembled near the Minneapolis Police Department’s 3rd Precinct, the news organization reported.

The video shows the crowd attempt to get the driver from the car, as others work to free the woman stuck under the front left wheel of the vehicle.

The Star Tribune reported that the vehicle was stopped a few minutes later by authorities and they are speaking with the driver.

Protests around the nation after grand jury decision

Hours after protests over the grand jury decision in Michael Brown’s death rocked Ferguson, Missouri, people across the country took to the streets to voice their anger again Tuesday.

In Washington, protesters lay down on a sidewalk outside police headquarters as if dead, according to a tweet by Nikki Burdine, a reporter for CNN affiliate WUSA.

Some had handwritten notes on their chests: “Black lives matter.”

The protest was similar to one Monday night outside the White House.

In Chicago, a few dozen protesters gathered Tuesday morning on a downtown street corner ahead of another protest at City Hall, CNN affiliates WGN reported. About 200 members of the Black Youth Project staged a sit-in outside Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office Tuesday afternoon. They plan to be there for 28 hours.

There were also large demonstrations in Atlanta, outside CNN Center, and Baltimore, near Morgan State University.

The protests follow peaceful ones there Monday night in which several hundred people marched from police headquarters to downtown. They stopped traffic at times, but no property damage was reported and no arrests were made, the station said.

“I think what happened yesterday is a great injustice to everyone that’s been fighting for equality in this country,” one Chicago protester told WGN on Tuesday. “And I think that just because a bad decision was made doesn’t mean people who believe in equality are going to fall silent.”

In Minneapolis, students at several high schools staged sit-ins to protest the decision, the city’s public school district said in a statement.

“We will not discipline students for the act of protesting as long as the protest remains peaceful,” the district said. “However, prolonged sit-ins may result in an unexcused absence from class.”

As of midday, more than 130 protests had either occurred or were planned for Tuesday in 37 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and Canada, according to information compiled by CNN from organizers, media reports, social media and a site set up to help organize protest efforts.

The planned demonstrations ranged from Bangor, Maine, in the east to Portland, Oregon, in the west; from Edmonton, Alberta, in the north to Miami in the south.

Protests sprang up around the nation Monday night, after the announcement of the grand jury’s decision not to charge Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson in Brown’s August 9 death.

Most were peaceful, compared with the protests in Ferguson. There, demonstrators set police vehicles ablaze and officers responded with round after round of tear gas, as well as shooting bean bags into the crowds.

In Richmond, Virginia, about 500 students turned out for a calm protest at Virginia Commonwealth University on Monday night, according to CNN iReporter Alexandria Cooper. “I am deeply saddened by the decision to not indict Officer Wilson,” she said.

In New York, a roving crowd accompanied by police wound its way through the city, surging to more than 1,000 in Times Square before heading toward the Upper West Side, CNN’s Miguel Marquez tweeted.

Police arrested a 21-year-old Brooklyn man after he allegedly threw red liquid resembling blood on police Commissioner William Bratton as Bratton walked through Times Square, CNN affiliate WABC reported.

Earlier in the evening, about 200 people flocked to Union Square, brandishing signs that read “Jail killer cops” and a large display, in lights: “Black lives matter.”

Protesters knocked down barricades and headed toward the West Village before turning north, accompanied by police.

Emotions boiled over in Philadelphia, too.

“Shouts of ‘f— the police’ at word of no indictment,” a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter tweeted. “A man with the mic: ‘we don’t need to get mad.’ Others: ‘yes we do!’ ”

Two people were taken into custody, according to CNN affiliate WPVI. The protesters were arrested when a crowd tried to march onto Interstate 95, the station said.

In Oakland, California, shop owners posted signs in their windows that said “We support Michael Brown” as marchers took to the streets.

A crowd filled the intersection at 14th and Broadway, and some demonstrators lay down in chalk outlines, reports on social media showed. Later, they merged onto Interstate 580, shutting down traffic.

Some protesters stood on top of an unmarked police car and spray-painted it, according to CNN affiliate KTVU.

In Seattle, anger turned to violence as protesters threw bottles, rocks and cans of food and fired a powerful firework toward police, according to CNN affiliate KIRO.

Five people were arrested, the station said, citing police.

“Same story every time, being black is not a crime,” protesters shouted, KIRO reported.

In Los Angeles, a city still scarred by the riots of 1992, silent protesters staged a demonstration at the intersection of La Brea and Wilshire. On Tuesday, Los Angeles police said on Twitter that three people had been arrested in Ferguson-related protests.

A group also assembled in front of the Colorado Capitol in Denver calling for nonviolence, according to CNN affiliate KMGH.

In Atlanta, birthplace of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., about 200 students gathered at Morehouse College Monday night to hear the grand jury’s decision. A collective gasp rippled through the crowd when it came.

Some of the students at the historically black men’s school looked at one another in disbelief, others started to tear up, and a few stared ahead as their jaws dropped.

Police sirens wailed in the distance as the students chanted: “Ferguson’s hell is America’s hell.”

Kevin Harvey, a senior dressed in a blue blazer, button-down shirt and penny loafers, walked away from the demonstration with his head down. He said he was angry and bewildered by a storyline that’s become all too familiar.

“I’m afraid to raise my son in this country,” he said. “When I do have a family, I’m afraid to raise him in this country and that’s a terrible thought. Because I know that he is not valued.”