Demonstrators march on Pennsylvania Avenue toward Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 13, 2014, during the Justice for All rally. WASHINGTON — Thousands of protesters marched across the country Saturday — past the White House in the nation’s capital, along iconic Fifth Avenue in New York and in the middle of Nashville’s honky-tonk district — to call attention to the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police and urge lawmakers to take action.
Chanting “I can’t breathe!” ”Hands up, don’t shoot!” and waving signs reading “Black lives matter!” the demonstrators also staged “die-ins” as they lay down across intersections, and in one city briefly blocked an onramp to an Interstate.
“My husband was a quiet man, but he’s making a lot of noise right now,” said Washington protest marcher Esaw Garner, widow of Eric Garner, 43, who died in July after being put in a chokehold by New York City police during an arrest for allegedly selling loose, untaxed cigarettes.
“His voice will be heard. I have five children in this world and we are fighting not just for him but for everybody’s future, for everybody’s past, for everybody’s present, and we need to make it strong.”
Organizers had predicted 5,000 people at the Washington march, but the crowd appeared to far outnumber that. They later said they believed as many as 25,000 had shown up. It was not possible to verify the numbers; Washington police do not release crowd estimates.