Despite Mayor de Blasio's Request, Protests Continue in NYC

By Dustin M Braden - 24 Dec '14 12:35PM

Despite requests from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to to suspend protests until after the funerals of two slain New York City Police Department officers, New York City saw numerous streets closed and business entrances blocked as people upset with the legal system's failure to indict police officers for excessive force resulting in death.

De Blasio made the request after a man shot his girlfriend in Baltimore and drove to New York City and killed two police officers sitting in their patrol car. Posts on social media framed it as an act of revenge for the death of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. The New York Times reports that man responsible for the officers' death had a long history of mental illness.

This led to the head of the police union using inflammatory language that blamed de Blasio for the officer's death and described the department as "war time," despite the fact that the month of protests after the failure to indict Daniel Pantaleo for using an illegal maneuver to kill Eric Garner have been peaceful.

These protests continued in an environment of heightened tensions after the mayor's request that people deny themselves their first amendment rights.

NOW: Malcolm X Blvd shut down! We need stuck together cuz every 28 hrs our people are killed #ShutDown5thAve pic.twitter.com/tA1NDy2AMc

— ANSWER Coalition (@answercoalition) December 24, 2014

NYPD has march surrounded on sidewalk, issuing dispersal order. WATCH: https://t.co/5SaSR4t4Cn #ShutDown5thAve pic.twitter.com/TLyvd0Iw0W — Keegan Stephan (@KeeganNYC) December 24, 2014