Ferguson Black Friday Protests: ‘Don’t Shop’ Rallies Greet Bargain Hunters In New York, St. Louis, Oakland

Protesters angered by the Ferguson grand jury decision continued demonstrations on Black Friday at stores across the U.S., including in front of Macy’s flagship at Herald Square in New York City. The protests were part of a coordinated effort to boycott and disrupt the busiest shopping day of the year in response to the Missouri grand jury’s announcement Monday that Officer Darren Wilson will not be charged for killing Michael Brown.

About 200 demonstrators gathered in front of Macy’s in Manhattan Friday afternoon before marching up Sixth Avenue, blocking traffic. Demonstrators said the protest aimed to draw parallels between racial and economic inequalities, according to Reuters. “Voicing your opinion is not enough," Sergio Uzurin, one of the protesters, told the wire service. "You have to disrupt business as usual for this to happen and that's the only thing that's ever made change. It's the real way democracies function." Protesters carried signs that read “Black Lives Matter,” “Don’t Shop” and “Black Out Black Friday.”

Some briefly entered the Macy’s flagship store, but quickly returned to the sidewalk. Several arrests were made, without violence.

Similar demonstrations took place across the country on Black Friday, including in and around Ferguson. The city just outside St. Louis took center stage following the fatal shooting of Brown by Wilson on a street on Aug. 9. Wilson will not face criminal charges for killing Brown after a grand jury found insufficient evidence to believe Wilson had committed a crime. The decision sparked immediate and widespread demonstrations in Ferguson and around the world.

In St. Louis, dozens of protesters disrupted shoppers at several Walmart locations and a Target on Thanksgiving night and Friday morning. Demonstrators held signs that read, “If only America cared about black lives like it cares about Black Friday” and “Ferguson is everywhere, police brutality and murder must stop,” according to the Guardian. Protesters went from one retail outlet to the next, usually entering the stores briefly to shout familiar slogans like “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!”

Police in the St. Louis suburb of Manchester forced about two dozen protesters out of a Walmart early Friday and threatened them with arrest should they get within 50 feet of the store’s entrance, Mashable reported. Hundreds of protesters at the Galleria Mall in St. Louis caused some stores to close their doors to shoppers.

Other protests were staged in Ferguson, but the huge crowds that typically define Black Friday were nowhere to be seen following several days of often violent rioting in the city. That didn’t keep protesters from targeting the few shoppers at Ferguson’s Walmart and Target with their message. “We are calling for a boycott of Black Friday,” one activist shouted at passing motorists, according to the Guardian. “This is not Black Friday; this is Black Lives Matter Friday.”

Meanwhile, in Oakland, California, protesters shut down part of the city’s BART public transit system, leading to delays. Demonstrators held train doors open and chained themselves to station benches to prevent trains from departing, Mashable reported. In Seattle, protesters shut down a bus station and stormed a shopping mall. sAnother demonstration at a Walmart in Washington, D.C., saw protesters hold a four-and-a-half-minute moment of silence for Brown.