New Yorkers still angry over the recent cases of police misconduct took their protests to the mayor’s home last night.
About two dozen protesters camped outside Gracie Mansion near 88th Street and East End Avenue around 6 p.m. chanting “I can’t breathe” and “Shut it down,” while Mayor Bill de Blasio hosted City Council members and other guests for a holiday party inside. The protesters picketed in a circular motion with homemade signs around the sidewalk and tried to hand a list of demands to the party guests as they entered.
“”If you don’t hold their feet to the fire nothing changes,” said Bill Dobbs, of SoHo, who held a sign that read “It’s de Blasio time and Eric Garner is dead.”
Representatives for the mayor didn’t return messages for comment before publication.
There have been several major protests in the city and around the nation following the decisions by a Ferguson, Missouri, grand jury not to indict Officer Darron Wilson in the August shooting death of Michael Brown and a Staten Island grand jury not indicting Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner.
Although there have been many arrests, including one after the alleged assault of an NYPD officer, the demonstrations have been largely peaceful.
