NEW ORLEANS (AP)—New Orleans residents held a “die in” at a holiday light show to protest grand jury decisions against indicting white police officers in the deaths of a black man in New York City and a black teen in Ferguson, Missouri.
Some carried signs and chanted “Black lives matter” while others lay down in the road near Gallier Hall, where the LUNA Fete light show was held Wednesday night, NOLA.com ‘ The Times-Picayune (http://bit.ly/11ZgygK ) reported.
They also chanted “I can’t breathe,” referring to Eric Garner’s words before his death after a New York officer put him in a chokehold. A grand jury declined on Wednesday to indict the officer.
Police separated the protesters from LUNA Fete spectators, some of whom yelled back at the demonstrators. One woman shouted, “Shoot ’em!”
“People are tired. Today, a decision was reached to not indict a cop who on camera killed an innocent man, and this is the third decision we’ve got in a seven-day span that has shown us that no matter what we do, even if it is captured on camera, nothing will be done,” activist Kadesha Minor told WVUE-TV (http://bit.ly/1vrbsFY).
The protest was starting while New Orleans Police Chief Michael Harrison and other panelists spoke at a community discussion on interactions between black males and police officers—a session scheduled after a Missouri grand jury declined to indict the officer who shot Michael Brown in Ferguson.
Before the discussion, Harrison talked about the New York grand jury’s decision.
“I did see that video, I saw uniform officers there, and whether there was adequate supervision, what policies were in place and maybe violated, which would have lead me to maybe a different decision maybe not a different decision, but there are a lot of questions I would ask,” Harrison said. 
During the panel discussion, Harrison said the New Orleans Police Department’s policy is to be “hard on problems, soft on people.” He also said being as transparent as possible is the best course of action for a police department, and noted that NOPD officers wear body cameras.
   
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