Protesters block New York streets after police officer cleared in chokehold death

Thousands of demonstrators disrupted New York City traffic into early Dec. 4 after a grand jury decided not to bring charges against a white police officer in the chokehold death of an unarmed black man.

Mostly peaceful protests sprung up on Wednesday evening at locations throughout Manhattan, including Grand Central Terminal, Times Square and near Rockefeller Center, after the panel returned no indictment against Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner in July. The U.S. Justice Department said it was investigating to determine whether Garner's civil rights had been violated.

The 43-year-old father of six was accused of illegally selling cigarettes on a sidewalk when Pantaleo put him in a chokehold from behind and tackled him with the help of other officers. Police said he had resisted arrest. The city's medical examiner had ruled the death a homicide.

The deadly encounter on Staten Island, New York City's least populous borough, was captured on a video that quickly spread over the Internet and fueled debate about how U.S. police use force, particularly against minorities.

President Barack Obama said the grand jury decision spoke to "the concern on the part of too many minority communities that law enforcement is not working with them and dealing with them in a fair way."

The decision poses the biggest challenge yet for New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who came into office in January promising to mend strained relations between black New Yorkers and the police department.

It was the second grand jury in just over a week to decline to prosecute a white policeman in the death of an unarmed black man. The decision by a panel in the shooting death of black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri,...