Washington : Angry protesters gathered in the US state of California for a second night to condemn recent deaths of black suspects by white officers in the US, with some demonstrators vandalizing, looting and clashing with police.
Several hundred protesters gathered last night and continued marching into early today in the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, California, according to police.
Some smashed store windows and looted shops, while a fire was burning on one residential street in Berkley. The marchers blocked a major highway as they moved to neighboring city of Oakland amid heavy police presence.
Berkeley police said protesters lobbed bottles and overturned trash cans, which they also set ablaze. “We have made some arrests I don’t know how many at this point,” said Berkeley police spokeswoman Jennifer Coats.
Police also reported that at least one person was assaulted trying to stop a rowdy demonstrator from looting a shop. Demonstrations turned violent Saturday in Berkeley, where police used tear gas after clashing with crowds who threw objects, looted shops and vandalised cars. Officials said several officers were injured.
Demonstrations have erupted across the United States over the past two weeks, sparked by a grand jury decision not to indict a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri after he shot dead an unarmed black teenager in August.
Protests were bolstered by other similar killings, including the July choking death of Eric Garner in New York by a white police officer who wrestled the black 43-year-old father of six to the ground for allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes. The white officer involved in that case was also not indicted by a grand jury last week, provoking a fresh wave of demonstrations in several US cities.
