Ferguson protests hit Black Friday in US

Hundreds of protesters gathered outside Macy’s in New York as part of Black Out Black Friday demos across US cities.

And we’re on the streets again. RockawayYouth #BlackFridayBlackOut #ShutItDownNYC pic.twitter.com/qUErEhyiuL— saxlepres (saxlepres) November 28, 2014

The action to boycott the shopping bonanza was part of the protests over the killing of unarmed black teen Michael Brown by white police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson Missouri.

The protesters chanted ‘Hand’s up, Don’t shop’, a riff on the original Ferguson protest motto ‘Hand’s up, Don’t shoot’.

“Voicing your opinion is not enough. You have to disrupt business as usual for this to happen and that’s the only thing that’s ever made change. It’s the real way democracies function. And so we are here on the busiest shopping day of the year in one of the commercial centers of the world to remind people that lives matter before profit. You cannot profit without lives,” explained protester Sergio Uzurin.

NYPD officers made several arrests for people blocking streets and jaywalking.

Other protests took place in Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco and Oakland, California.

Back on Market St. #BlackFridayBlackout #SF #MikeBrown #BlackLivesMatter #Ferguson pic.twitter.com/o5VeQmhSzE— Jimi Devine (@JimiDevine) November 29, 2014

Activists shut down one mall near Ferguson with their lie-in protest.

The killing of Michael Brown has highlighted the treatment of African Americans by police and triggered months of protests.

US retailers did mark a slump in sales, although this was attributed to the discounts being spread over two days rather than one.

In separate protests on Black Friday, Walmart workers staged a strike calling for higher wages and improved working conditions.

Bay Area turning out for worker rights. #BoycottBlackFriday DianaValerie #BlackFridayBlackOut pic.twitter.com/XwaXUpQRpE— Shoshanna Howard (Sho_How) November 28, 2014