The scene in Missouri has improved, but things are heating up across the country

Tonight rallys and protests occurred all over america, in response to an ever growing feeling of distrust toward the police in the united states, a theme brought to a head as a result of the recent tragic shooting of unarmed teen Michael Brown in Ferguson Missouri.

Many rallied around the idea and hastag of #NMOS2014 (national moment of silence) and used it as a focus among most rallies which began around  7pm est.

One such rally was organized, mainly via social media in Union Square, NYC.  The Source was on the scene.

More photos of the Union Square protest in this gallery

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The rally eventually turned into a full on march through the streets of New York city where thousand’s of protesters made their voices heard, chanting “Hand up, please don’t shoot” ,”No justice, no peace, for racist police” and many other charged up chants.   The march eventually surged and initially came to a center at the always jam packed time square.  Pictures in the gallery below.

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Eventually a large portion of the crowd again began marching down 42nd street where they were eventually stopped by police, and then “kettled” in against their will with large orange nets, a tactic which the legality of has long been debated.  Typically kettling is only  legally acceptable when violence is imminent, a far different scenario then what seemed to be afoot here.

A live streamed video of the entire interaction with the police can be seen HERE, via James FromTheInternet.
In the video, you can see a number of people who are being hauled into police carriers, one of which is reported to be Jason Woody,  a well known protester of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

 

Another great account of the night comes from the twitter timeline of @ReqCartier, who through many vine clips you can see started at the Union Square protests, and was eventually arrested on 42nd & 9th, seemingly for no reason.

 

 

Piecing together the chain of events in the man’s videos you can see that police became frustrated that people were going into building’s in order to hide themselves from being kettled, via the orange nets, with other unwilling protestors.  Safe to say it was more than a “twitter event”.

A final  count of how many were arrested, detained, etc is not yet available, but we will keep you updated via this post as this story develops.

 

Spencer @sjeezs

August 15, 2014