PORTLAND – A protest against excessive use of force drew hundreds to the Moda Center Thursday night in Portland.
The protest was in response to the grand jury decision that a New York City police officer would not be indicted in the July chokehold death of an unarmed man in Staten Island, NY.
Event organizers in Portland staged two peaceful marches, one starting at the downtown Justice Center and one at the Portland Police Bureau's North Precinct, which coincided with a community discussion about the Ferguson protests held at the neighboring Boys & Girls Club.
The rallies started simultaneously at 6 p.m. with plans to meet at the Rose Quarter during the Blazers Game.
Around 500 people RSVP'd to the Portland protest Thursday. Despite the cold, drizzly night, hundreds still marched through city streets.
Around 7:30 p.m., a moment of silence was held for Lloyd Stevenson, a black Portland man who was killed in 1985 after police subdued him in a chokehold. Portland police now consider chokeholds to be deadly use of force.
Both groups then converged near the Moda Center. Police in riot gear waited inside the arena's doors and some MAX trains were delayed due to the protests.
Protesters were peacefully speaking at the Moda Center while the Blazers played. As the game ended, fans streaming out had to work through the dense crowd of demonstrators. It was generally peaceful despite the police presence and the sudden convergence of protesters and fans.
Protests erupt after grand jury rulings
Protests against excessive force erupted around the nation after the New York grand jury decision was announced Dec. 3.
Eric Garner, 43, was allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes in July when Officer Daniel Pantaleo tried to arrest Garner and put him in a chokehold. Cell phone video from the scene shows Garner, who had asthma, shouting over and over: "I can't breathe."
He died in a hospital hours later and a medical examiner ruled that his death was a homicide.
The grand jury found "no reasonable cause" to indict Pantaleo.
In New York, thousands protested the decision, marching through the streets of Manhattan and Staten Island. Large protests also erupted in Atlanta, Philadelphia and San Francisco, among other cities.
Similar protests have been bubbling up across the country since August, when unarmed black teen Michael Brown was killed by white police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri.
A grand jury also exonerated Wilson in Brown's death, however, many have been divided over that decision following contradictory reports of the events leading up to Brown's death.
The grand jury decision in Garner's death -- which came a week after the Ferguson announcement -- drew much greater consensus from both sides of the political aisle. Conservatives and liberals overwhelmingly condemned the decision, saying it was clearly excessive use of force.
The Department of Justice also admonished the Cleveland police department Thursday, with Attorney General Eric Holder saying the city's police used unreasonable force and, in some cases, that excessive force was approved by supervisors.
Cleveland was the location of another deadly shooting in November that incited protests. A 12-year-old boy with an air gun was shot and killed by a cop who had been let go from his previous job for poor handgun performance and emotional issues.
The Cleveland police force subsequently agreed to overhaul its department following the DOJ report.
