Late last year, protests sprang up across the United States in an effort to shed light on and combat racially motivated police brutality. This movement specifically gained momentum from the Ferguson and Eric Garner decisions, and accumulated attention through widespread protests across the U.S. condemning the killings of these two unarmed black men.

The shooting in Ferguson, Missouri occurred August 9, 2014, when Officer Darren Wilson shot an unarmed Michael Brown. The shooting took place after Wilson asked Brown and his friend to walk on the sidewalk instead of down the middle of the street; Brown subsequently began behaving in a threatening manner toward the police officer.

Earlier in the year, on July 17, 2014, NYPD officers confronted Eric Garner over selling loose cigarettes on Staten Island. An officer then put Garner in a chokehold; Garner later died partly due to the chokehold. The police officer involved in each instance was not indicted by a grand jury.

These grand jury decisions caused waves of protests across the U.S., the most notable ones occurring in Ferguson, Missouri and New York City. Many protesters felt that these shootings by the police had been racially motivated and took to the streets to demand change. Racial tensions were fueled in Ferguson due to the fact that an almost all-white police force polices a predominately black community. However, in comparison, the NYPD is much more diverse. 54% percent of the NYPD is white, while 16% is black and 24% is Hispanic.

Catherine Metcalfe ‘16 felt that the unrest stemming from these grand jury decisions are rooted in the “’shoot first, ask questions later’ phenomenon” and went on to suggest that “this issue needs  to be addressed if there is to be an improvement in the relationship between the police and minorities.”

In an opposing view on the Ferguson decision, Social Studies teacher Ms. Wolf felt that “two different juries couldn’t indict the police officer, so the shooting seems to be neither racially motivated nor a civil rights issue.”

Although the protests across the U.S. were widely peaceful, there were several instances of violence and unrest. In Ferguson, there were several instances of lootings and torching of businesses and cars. In New York City, protesters obstructed traffic on the West Side Highway and two police officers were assaulted while trying to prevent protesters from entering the Brooklyn Bridge. In Brooklyn, two NYPD officers, Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, were shot to death by a gunman claiming that he avenged Garner and Brown. The fatal shooting of the two NYPD officers served to deepen the rift and heighten tensions between the NYPD and Mayor De Blasio, who has been previously accused of not defending the NYPD against criticism.

Many were shocked by the violence stemming from these protests. Jack de Poortere ‘16 commented on the violence: “Protests in Ferguson and New York got out of hand. There are methods of attaining civil rights goals other than looting stores, killing cops, and wreaking havoc in the streets.” It will be interesting to see what impacts these widespread protests will have on race relations and the public’s relationship with police forces in the long run.