By Brandt Williams

MPR.org/90.1 FM

MINNEAPOLIS — Protesters blocked Interstate 35W Thursday afternoon then rallied at Minneapolis City Hall protesting police brutality around the country.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation closed I-35W northbound at Exit 14, near Lake Street, in Minneapolis for roughly an hour as more than 100 protesters staged a sit-in on the highway.

The march and blockade were tied largely to outrage over the refusal of grand juries in New York and Ferguson, Missouri, to indict police officers who killed black men during confrontations.

Protesters were heard chanting “I can’t breathe,” reportedly the last words of Eric Garner, who was subdued in a choke hold by New York City police. It’s become a rallying cry for those protesting police brutality. At City Hall, the rally moved from the rotunda into council offices where several Minneapolis council members addressed the crowd

The demonstrations were peaceful and so far, there have been no arrests. Another march against police brutality is scheduled for tonight in Minneapolis, where Police Chief Janee Harteau asked for “everyone’s help in maintaining a safe and secure city while respecting private property.”

The demonstrations began Thursday, as more than a hundred people gathered in the intersection of 34th Street and Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis.

Many of them were part of a group that gathered inside a nearby Burger King restaurant to voice support for an increase in the minimum wage for fast food workers.

But as they closed traffic along both streets, they turned their attention to the long list of people, mostly African-Americans, killed by law enforcement officers, or shot by vigilantes as Trayvon Martin was in Florida.

Protest organizer Mica Grimm became overwhelmed as she read the list of names and had to pause.

“I literally can’t finish this list,” she said. “We don’t have the time to finish this list.”

Some of the protesters in the largely white crowd carried signs saying “I can’t breathe,” the phrase repeated by Eric Garner, the unarmed black man who died earlier this year in New York City after an officer used a chokehold to subdue him.

This protest and others in cities around the country were sparked by a grand jury’s decision to not file charges against the officer who choked Garner.

To ensure equality for people of color, everyone must get involved, demonstrator Sabri Wazwaz said.

“It’s time to look around everybody,” Wazwaz said. “This is what changed America. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, they had people like us — every race, everybody, every ethnicity together.”

The group marched south on Nicollet Ave as Minneapolis police cars cleared the way and kept traffic off the street. Tina Linton watched from a gas station parking lot as the group passed by.

“Well I think like they’re saying, the whole system is guilty,” said Linton, who is African-American. “I think it’s a shame that our children are constantly dying in the streets and the people that’s supposed to protect and serve us is the one that’s killing us.”

Next to her was Al Hawkins, another African-American, said he’s glad to see people taking to the streets in protest. He says the system has to hold police officers accountable for the deaths of unarmed black men.