so most of those folks are stranded here. we thought we d go outside and give you an idea of what manhattan looks like when a big snowstorm conspires to shut it down. up 7th avenue, look at how desolate this is. that s broadway coming in and 7th avenue. no one. they are walking in the middle of the street. the taxi cabs diminished. so unusual not to see a cab here in times square. west side highway, how often do you see this? no cars. never see this. the folks coming on shift right now will face two to four inches per hour. even if we made a pass you could see another four inches within that next hour. it has been a little icy. it would be nice if we could keep people off the road. make our job go a little smoother. reporter: let me know what residents in west new jersey are dealing. this pile of snow is what has been plowed just from a parking lot. it just keeps getting bigger and
the brooklyn bridge to the staten island ferry to the west side highway and in cities around the country. the images, they are remarkable. the motivation for all of it, one man s death. one grand jury s decision and all the larger issues. we look at the death of eric garner. legal, medical, societal. we begin though out on the streets. i want to go to deborah feyerick who is standing by. deborah, where are you and what are you seeing? reporter: so, anderson, we re walking up 7th avenue now in the direction of madison square garden. it s very interesting. it feels a lot different than it did last night because what police are doing is they re really trying to choke off the crowds much more quickly than they did yesterday. you can see everybody walking. this is what we experienced last night, the first night of the protests. but just before, they re trying to choke off the demonstrators, they got them off the west side highway and trying to get back on to the west side highway and
there was a sense of urgency. all of these police cruisers at top speed started racing to try to cut them off. there was actually an accident with one of the vehicles crashing into another car. we can tell you, a police presence. they re staging in areas and trying to just rouse people away. they walk up 7th avenue. not sure where the end point is but they re walking and they re determined. in terms of the organization of this, are there, a lot of times in demonstrations you ll see organizers, people in different colored t-shirts or people with microphones or walkie-talkies with civilians. do you see that or, who s deciding where to go? reporter: it s interesting.
feyerick. in times square. are you seeing arrests? reporter: yeah, seeing a lot of arrests. see the woman on the end of the line actually. there are about 15 people just ahead of her. i will tell you the police were much more aggressive. especially here at times square. and it almost appears as if they re using ambulances to disperse the crowd. the crowd was peaceful. walking against the flow of traffic. up 7th avenue. then am bah lenses stabulances . protesters would get out of the streets. once on the sidewalks. police were corralling them there. preventing their flow. they were walking in unison. then the groups. 100 people. 50 people. and then 100 people. nobody knew where to go. got to a point. stopped. walking in the streets. arrests began. it appears the police are fed up. they didn t want any protests here in times square. it shumet it down yesterday.
more, that have been called in to handle security, and i don t know if you can see up 7th avenue, they will fill this all the way up 7th avenue to central park, and the weather is fantastic, so, we do expect big crowds out here tonight. and, in addition to the police officers that you see, many more you cannot see, and, also, they are sealing manhole covers and mailboxes and chemical and biological and radiation detectors, and bomb sniffing dogs, and they have helicopters in the sky, and boats on the rivers to make sure that nothing happens, and they have been on high alert since 9/11 but the commissioner has assured us and does each year this is be as safe a new year as you could possibly have. trace: they always make a big deal out of the ball that drops at midnight. reporter: the ball is bigger and beggar than ever. we will show you the poll