Trayvon Martin supporters stand in front of a lighted American flag in Times Square after marching from a rally for Martin in Union Square.
(Getty Images)
Police apprehend a protester during Sunday’s rally. (Stephen Yang)
Protests in a Twitter age: A boy holds an American flag with a hash-tagged slogan in Times Square.
(REUTERS)
KEEPING THE HEAT ON: Thousands of people pack a sweltering Times Square last night to protest the Trayvon Martin verdict. (AP)
KEEPING THE HEAT ON: Thousands of people pack a sweltering Times Square last night to protest the Trayvon Martin verdict. (AP)
MOURNING: Congregant Erin Juarez, wearing her hood up, wipes away a tear yesterday during services at Middle Collegiate Church in the East Village. (Helayne Seidman)
Thousands of people protested George Zimmerman’s acquittal with a march through the city that culminated last night in Times Square, where throngs of demonstrators blocked traffic and jumped on car hoods chanting, “No justice, no peace!”
The rally started at about 2 p.m. in Union Square, growing as it headed some 30 blocks north to the tourist mecca.
“The amount of people here is overwhelming, it’s incredible,’’ said protester Debbie Avila, 19, of Queens. “We want equality and justice — it’s not even a race thing.’’
PHOTOS: PROTESTERS RALLY IN TIMES SQUARE
Gill Acevedo, 26, of the Lower East Side, added, “It’s interruption — interruption so you wake up.
“We will continue to interrupt your lives until we get justice.’’
Once the protesters got to Times Square, a woman with a bullhorn climbed onto the roof of a truck near the TKTS Broadway-ticket booth and shouted “We’ve taken over Times Square! Sit down! Shut it down!’’
Trapped motorists weren’t too happy.
“This is bulls–t. We just came down here to visit, and we got stuck right in the middle. And it’s hot! I can’t keep the car running,” griped Dennis Kozodoy, 23, who was on a road trip with his sister Olga, 16, from South Carolina.
Barbara Ames, 64, in town from Avon, Ind., was stuck in her car with her two granddaughters, ages 6 and 8, on Broadway between 45th and 46th streets.
“First, we thought it was a performance,’’ she said. “But now . . . we’re being terrified. We just want to go home . . . They keep hitting the car and scaring” the girls.
Hundreds of cops who were at the scene took a hands-off approach at first, before beginning to disperse the group at about 9 p.m.
The group shrank to just a few hundred before moving uptown, where at least two men were arrested after bottles were thrown at officers near East 71st Street and Park Avenue.
The Police Department refused to say how many cops were on hand to deal with the protesters, saying only that it was an “adequate detail.’’
One cop at the scene of a fender-bender caused by a running protester in Chelsea said officers had been told not to make any arrests.
An NYPD rep said he wasn’t aware of such an edict.
The protest came as people across the city and nation gathered to denounce the acquittal of Zimmerman, the Florida neighborhood-watch volunteer who shot unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin to death last year.
At Manhattan’s Middle Collegiate Church, many congregants wore hooded sweat shirts — the same thing Martin was wearing the night he was shot. Hoodie-clad Jessica Nacinovich said she could only feel disappointment and sadness over the verdict.
“I’m sure jurors did what they felt was right in accordance with the law, but maybe the law is wrong, maybe society is wrong. There’s a lot that needs fixing,” she said.
The Rev. Jacqueline Lewis, wearing a pink hoodie, urged a peaceful but vocal response.
“We’re going to raise our voices against the root causes of this kind of tragedy,” she said, adding, “We’ll aim our fight for justice against the ease with which people can get firearms in this country.”
In Harlem, about 100 people chanted, “We are all Trayvon Martin!” in memory of the 17-year-old.
Harlem dad and Florida native Andrew Brown said he fears for his 3-year-old son, Tryvaugh, who could one day find himself walking alone on a street, as Martin was doing.
“Nothing’s changed since I was a kid. I moved to New York City from Florida because of stuff like this,” said Brown, 40.
“I’m gonna hug my son because I don’t know when I’m gonna lose him. I’m very hurt [by the verdict].”
In Los Angeles, a bottle-tossing crowd of about 200 shut down a portion of the SB 110 Freeway in Crenshaw.
Additional reporting by Antonio Antenucci and David K. Li