Beginning at noon on Sunday, Dec. 21, protesters donning all black will march at New Rochelle City Hall to shout things like “Hands up, don’t shoot,” and “I can’t breathe,” – and a social media rallying cry – related to the pair of deaths.
Protests began in earnest earlier this year, after a pair of African-American men – Michael Brown and Eric Garner – were killed by police in separate incidents. The protests became more volatile in nature when the two officers involved in the deaths were not indicted for their actions.
Earlier this year in Staten Island, Garner was accused of selling single cigarettes illegally, which led to his resisting arrest from the officers attempting to detain him. In the ensuing scuffle, he suffered a heart attack and could be heard gasping “I can’t breathe” before dying in a hospital an hour later.
On Dec. 3, a grand jury decided not to indict New York City Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who had put a choke hold on a resisting Garner, which led to public protests and rallies statewide.
In August, violent protests broke out in Ferguson, Mo., when Darren Wilson, a local police officer, shot unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown. The shooting sparked a series of protests throughout the country, which only increased when Wilson was not indicted for his role in the shooting.
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