But some are choosing to do so more violently than others.
Chokehold protests turn violent
Berkeley protesters take to the streets
Federal response needed in Garner death?
Death on tape: Where's the line?
Demonstrators flooded a
highway in Oakland, California, prompting a heated standoff in the
freeway between protesters and California Highway Patrol.
Some threw explosives, bottles and rocks at officers, authorities said.
Officers responded by deploying gas and arresting eight protesters.
Gurpreet Heer, a student
at the nearby University of California at Berkeley, said he saw people
throwing glass and rocks at police.
"People were vandalizing police cars and jumping on the cars," Heer said.
Police said five patrol cars had been damaged.
In the city of Berkeley,
some protesters looted and vandalized businesses late Sunday night,
police spokeswoman Jennifer Coats said.
One protester was struck
in the head with hammer when he attempted to keep fellow protesters
from damaging and looting a Radio Shack, Coats said. The man was
hospitalized, but his injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
Coats said some arrests were made, but could not confirm the number of arrests.
The acts of violence
were apparent anomalies in a sea of protests nationwide decrying a grand
jury's decision not to indict the officer who killed Garner, an unarmed
black man.
Garner's last words -- "I can't breathe" -- have become a protest chant.
Caroling their grievances
Some demonstrators are getting more creative.
In New York, protesters at Penn Station sang "justice carols," such as these lyrics to the tune of "Little Drummer Boy":
"Help, he told them,
pa rum pum pum pum,
I cannot breathe, you see,
pa rum pum pum pum,
Our city's finest bring,
pa rum pum pum pum,
Death to this human being."
Hundreds of protesters
also gathered at Grand Central station and Macy's in Herald Square --
sites of multiple "die-ins" over the past few days -- before barging
through the nearby Toys R Us to lie on the floor en masse.
One young couple made the event a family affair, lying on the floor with their toddler between them.
Garner's mother said Sunday she's proud people protesting the death of her son have been peaceful for the most part.
"The riots have been so beautiful, so nicely done," Gwen Carr said at her church on Staten Island, according to CNN affiliate NY1. "And peace is the message. We don't want any violence but keep on moving on."
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