Berkeley protest clashes

Violent protests erupted for the second night in a row late Sunday in northern California. Demonstrators angry over the failure to indict the police officers responsible for the deaths of Michael Brown in Missouri and Eric Garner in New York clashed with officers, vandalized businesses, and fought amongst themselves, according to officials.

The protests began peacefully at the University of California, Berkeley, near San Francisco. They spilled into the streets of downtown Berkeley and then Oakland, and even onto a freeway where they blocked traffic. Police said the protesters threw rocks and bottles at them as well as attempting to set a patrol car on fire. Officer Jennifer Coats said one protester who tried to quell the violence was hit with a hammer. She also said in a statement that five arrests had been made after several Berkeley businesses had been significantly damaged or looted.

Television footage showed the demonstrators smashing doors and windows and setting trash cans on fire or throwing them into the street.

Demonstrations also took a destructive turn in Seattle on Saturday, with protesters throwing rocks at police and trying to block the highway.

Both Republican and Democratic politicians have been calling for calm after a grand jury declined to bring charges against Darren Wilson, a white police officer who shot dead a black teenager, Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri. This was followed by another grand jury refusing to indict Daniel Pantaleo, another white police officer who was caught on video placing another black man Eric Garner in a choke hold, leading to his death.

Cornell William Brooks, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), spoke on American television advocating the use of body-worn cameras on police officers' uniforms to help curb police violence.

"We have to change the model of policing," Brooks said.

es/bw (AP, Reuters)