MOSCOW, August 15 (RIA Novosti) - Hundreds of police in New York City's Theater District have begun releasing thousands of surrounded protesters in groups of five to six, according to a live video stream on the Internet.
A police helicopter is hovering above the cordoned area between 42nd street and 9th street, with several police vans in the area.
The protesters are being surrounded by synthetic orange nets, in a controversial police barricading technique known as "kettling." Police, who also include mounted police are allowing the protesters out of the barricaded area, after which at least four have been detained.
The march began at the city’s Union Square, with thousands joining the rally at Times Square. The crowd was chanting “Hands up, don’t shoot!” protesting the Sunday killing of an African-American teenager in the city of Ferguson, Missouri.
New York is one of the 90 cities holding Ferguson solidarity demonstrations.
On August 10, in the city of Ferguson, a policeman fatally shot Michael Brown, 18 for allegedly resisting arrest. However, an eyewitness of the incident told CNN Wednesday that the officer shot and killed the teenager after he raised his hands in the air to prove he was unarmed and walked away from the officer’s police vehicle following an argument. US President Barack Obama ordered the FBI and the Department of Justice to join the investigation.
Late Wednesday, Washington Post and Huffington Post reporters were arrested as they covered the protests in Ferguson. An OSCE representative for freedom of the press, Dunja Mijatovic, called the detention of journalists “unacceptable” in a press statement published Thursday.
