enforcement. coming to meamerica, the du and duchess head to the states. and drinks to our past, new research on why humans like alcoholic beverages. hello, everyone, welcome to weekends with alex witt. here s what s happening out there. protests over the ferguson and new jersey grand jury decision show no signs of letting up. protests in chicago this afternoon with demonstrators gathering in the middle of an intersection there. last night, police in berkeley, california, fired tear gas in an attempt to disperse crowds that were blocking traffic. but as you can see, windows of some businesses got broken and two police officers were injured there. demonstrators staged a dye-in, later marched at time square. they also took to the streets and other cities. more demonstrations are expected later on today. president obama in an interview today with b.e.t. urged those seeking equal
protests around the country, the narrative is that the police are bad. you re in danger of the police, not the hoodlums and the hooligans and the bad people that are out will. so, what can we take away from this? what can other cities learn from berkeley to make sure the protests remain peaceful? we ve seen huge protests, massive protests all over new york city, and the police there seem to be doing something right. well, what they re doing right is, again, though, the protesters are driving this. so, the police are giving them as much leeway as possible. if they shut down highways, so be it. if they go into a store like apple and have a dye-in or a sit-in or disrupt business, but it s only for a short period of time, allow it. but you know, all it s going to take is one or two people to really start bombarding the police with any debris that could be dangerous or shots fired or actual looting. and you ll see a whole different reaction from the police. and i think there were some p
protesting. and we see these images. they were out near a tree lighting ceremony here, they were out in time square. they held what they called a, quote, dye-in in grand central station. all of this and the police trying to keep things calm. how do the police play that dual role here. especially if some of them do feel sympathy with the officer as they go out and try to patrol these kind of protests fairly and uniformly. most police are professionals. let s say 95% of them do their job and do it right. and they are law-abiding citizens and go home at night. what they showed here in new york city was restraint. and they know exactly what to do. did you notice, nobody died. even when they had to arrest some people for disorderly conduct. nobody died. they showed great restraints. and i give kudos to new york city police officers, they did a great job last night. great point to end on.