Protesters flood California highway, throw rocks, bottles at officers (blog 7)

      Over the past few weeks protests have been getting out of hand because of the Eric Garner and the Michael Brown court case decisions to not indict either one of the corresponding officers. Recently, there has been an incident in California where a large group of people flooded a highway and attacked responding police officers with throwing explosives, bottles, rocks and glass at them. In much needed retaliation the officers threw gas and arrested 8 protestors. This is not just a problem in big cities, it has been reported that students attending Berkeley University were found to be throwing rocks and glass at police officers and vandalizing police cars by jumping on the hood. Other protestors have looted and vandalized many businesses in the city of Berkeley, while doing so 2 officers have suffered minor injuries and 5 people have been arrested. Protests have also been occurring in New York City. In Penn Station people were found to be singing “justice carols” about the death of Eric Garner. Another peaceful protest going on was the “die-ins” in toys-r-us where people would lie on the floor en masse. "What's happening in these cities in these last several days is incredibly important to show we have a unified voice," said Judi Flournoy, who was participating in a New York protest. Although many of these protests have been about racism with cops, many of the protestors are not black. Garner's daughter Erica said she was deeply moved by the diversity of protesters who have demonstrated across the country. "This is not a black-and-white issue. This is a national crisis," Erica Garner said. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has announced a federal civil rights investigation into Garner's death.

      I believe that many of these protests have gotten out of hand.  I am a fan of the peaceful protests going on in New York City, but the protests and attacks happening in California are unacceptable. I feel that if you are trying to prove a point to the government that something is wrong with the way cops are punished by doing the wrong thing in these kinds of situations then violent protests are not the way to go. It proves nothing and only causes harm to the area in which these people live and shop every day. If people really want to send a message to the government that’s ok, but violence is not the answer. I think that the peaceful protests are more powerful than the violent ones because if police are not able to break up or put an end to the peaceful ones then the message can be more clearly stated to the rest of the world. Hopefully the effects of these protests will be spread around the entire country and there can be a change in the way cops must do certain procedures.