the protesters are gathering and marching here in new york city, the world will be watching. thank you so much for joining us tonight. we have much more of our breaking news coverage continuing right now with ac 360. >> erin, thanks very much. for the second time in nine days, people are protesting in the biggest media spotlight on earth reacting to a grand jury's decision not to indict a white police officer in the death of an african-american man. you can debate the rightness of those decisions. our director, spike lee, certainly will. no argument here from this. the crowds on all sides of the issue president obama on down and new york city staten island today, matters very deeply. today staten island grand jury decided not to indict the police officer of garner. the allegations of garner selling tax-free loose cigarettes or loosies as they're

called. all appearances was called a chokehold. a short time later, mr. garner was dead. unlike in ferguson, the fatal encounter was caught on camera. >> i'm minding my business, officer. leave me alone. i told you the last time, please leave me alone. don't touch me. [ bleep ] don't touch me. >> you hear mr. garner repeatedly saying there, i can't

breathe. i can't breathe, i can't breathe. today, having seen that and heard testimony from the officer, a grand jury made up of 14 white and non-white members decline to indict him. >> it's a very emotional day for our city. it's a very painful day for so many new yorkers. that is the core reality. so many people in the city are feeling pain right now. and we're grieving again over the loss of eric garner who was a father, a husband, a son, a good man, a man who should be with us and isn't. >> that's new york mayor bill de bl blazio earlier today. in the wake of ferguson, president obama also spoke out today. >> this is an issue we've been dealing with for too long and it's time for us to make more progress than we've made. i'm not interested in talk. i'm interested in action. i am absolutely committed as

president of the united states to making sure that we have a country that everybody believes in the core principle that we are equal under the law. [ applause ] >> well, we're waiting to hear from the garner family themselves and they are expected to speak in harlem any minute now at a press conference. we'll bring you that news conference when it happens and believe we'll be speaking with them individually on this program. we have correspondents around the city. chris cuomo out on the streets of his hometown in new york. alexander field, what are you seeing, also, chris, what are you seeing? >> reporter: we're in times square here. they blocked it off and thought the protesters would be, anderson. they had a couple hundred here. they tried to go to the tree lighting, pushed away by police there. they want to keep it an event-friendly situation. they moved to union square and

circled back. had about 500 protesters walk down west 44th street in times square filled with people for the holidays and had about 50 riot police. the new york police department has a task force for crowd control. they have 50 guys, almost all of them guys in riot gear ready to push them out and blocked traffic. now, that exceeds the lawful protest rights that are outlined by the city. they are chanting can't breathe. they are chanting hands up, don't shoot. they're chanting, new york says no. the situation right now is, what will the officers do, anderson, to create a flow of traffic here again which is the busiest christmas spot in manhattan? >> chris, thank you. we'll check in with you the two hours we're on the air and alexander field in union square. where are you and what's around you? >> reporter: anderson, we are down in union square where a couple hundred people have

joined in the protests right now. you might be able to hear them chanting. this is one of the protests that come out somewhat organically. there was significant media traffic earlier. certainly, you can see the crowd that some people brought signs that they were prepared to be here but we've been here since the beginning of this. around 7:00 and what you got at the start was a group of people, about a dozen people standing with their hands up. they were completely silent for a good 15 minutes and because we're in a high traffic area, people walk down the street and join in. putting their hands up and then eventually joining in these chants we've heard "i can't breathe" over and over again. hands up, don't shoot we heard in ferguson. i want to give you a little bit of a perspective of the police swichgs down here. you've got the crowd and have a number of officers who are out here. they've been here basically since the beginning, actually even before the protesters arrived. we saw the police cries down

here. these guys were ready for a crowd to come. they had anticipated no confrontations here. the police sort of lined up on one side and the demonstrators on the other side. they're just repeating these chants but other than that, anderson, no conflict. >> alexander, is it clear where this demonstration goes next? >> reporter: at this point it isn't. there was some discussion about the fact that people might, actually, starting to move right now. there was some discussion that people would sort of proceed uptown and we see them shift for the first time. they've been down here for more than an hour now. they are starting to march. not entirely clear where they're going to go. you can see the police are staying in place on the street. the crowd has to stay on the sidewalk, not to get into the street where the cars are. they've also sort of cordened off the street where the police cruisers and caravans here. you can see the crowd has grown

in the last hour. a few hundred probably at its largest point. more people coming down here bringing down signs and not just talking about eric garner. obviously, that's what's prompted this demonstration today, but certainly they're talking about michael brown. they're talking about the excessive use of force. this is a case where people are just feeling that moment where they think they need to come out here and want to be heard. this is that opportunity to speak up. they're in staten island earlier. it was the same thing. people want to come forward and speak. this is a case that's difficult for a lot of people to understand. a lot of people expressing their outrage and fury the fact there wasn't an indictment of eric garner and what adds to this confusion, anderson, these people out here, a lot of these people who are marching saw the video of eric garner taken out on the sidewalk. they know he died but they don't know the details of what the grand jury discussed because here in new york state, we know the grand jury is governed by state laws. state laws are different state to state and in this case, the

district attorney doesn't release the details of the evidence that's presented to a grand jury. a lot of people here are venting their frustration because they simply can't understand why a grand jury chose not to indict offic officer. >> from those not from new york, new york is downtown in the island of manhattan, is that different than the crowd we just saw a relatively short time ago moving up through columbus circle in new york which is around 58th street to 60th street on our screen right now? are there multiple demonstrations going on or is this one large crowd? >> reporter: no, absolutely. totally different demonstrations going on all around the city. you saw the demonstration in times square, rockefeller center and then in columbus circle. this is entirely different. we're a couple miles south of columbus circle where these people have gathered. some of these demonstrations

seem somewhat linked in the sense that there was this social media traffic recruiting people to come out and suggesting different places they could go to and different areas of the city they might mark between but anderson, just have to highlight the point that we've seen down here is that this really is one of those protests where people didn't plan to demonstrate but people just out here on a busy evening around rush hour 7:00 out of the subway coming home from work. they saw this and people just looked at it for a while and joined in the crowd, put their hands up or began to chant or a silent moment to appreciate or respect or show solidarity for what's going on here. these are different scenes you see across the city right now. a lot of people are just sharing the similar feeling and sentiment, want to express it. right now they're doing it in a peaceful way, a way police are able to respect. they're walking, marching, and signs, chanting, they're well

within their right to do. >> alexander field, appreciate your reporting. we monitor the protests throughout the hour. bring our legal analyst in. jeffrey toobin and mark garygo. when you heard the grand jury was not moving forward with the indictment, what did you think? >> i immediately thought of ferguson and i was stunned, quite frankly. as a native new yorker, i just didn't think that this would happen in new york. i am still stunned. >> this happened in new york many times in the past. >> it has and i thought for some reason it would be different now given the zimmerman case, given the jordan davis case. given ferguson that just happened nine days ago. quite frankly, i thought the tenor and the tone had changed in new york. that is what was surprising to me and surprising having seen the video where you see an unarmed person.

you see someone that is not aggressive. you see someone, quite frankly, a police officer use a chokehold which has been banned practice. you have a medical examiner who ruled it a homicide. we see it on video. we see someone die on video and no indictment. i'm still stunned. >> jeff toobin, were you surprised? >> i usually play the reasonable guy here and try to see both sides but i mean, this sure looks like it stinks. i tell you, the crime for which eric garner was arrested may be the single least significant crime. >> allegedly selling loose cigarettes. >> loose cigarettes, not pot, cigarettes and not paying taxes. now, it's sort of amazing it's even illegal at all but you look at the confrontation and you look at what eric garner is saying and you can tell he's a new yorker. he's talking the way we talk in

new york. leave me alone. what are you doing here? why are you bothering me? and then they just attack this guy. and then he dies. and no one gets prosecuted? >> it's all on video. >> that's right. there's nobody -- one word against another. >> the representative from the police organization who represents the police officer involved in this said had he not resisted, this never would have happened. >> it is far from clear to me watching that video that he resisted. i mean, he's a big guy. he was unhappy to be arrested. you know, part of the rules of police work is most people in the united states don't welcome being arrested. they are unhappy to be arrested. >> particularly with someone's hands behind your neck. >> right but this was not an aggressive fighting of the police officer. mostly what you hear him say over and over, the police officer can't breathe.

that's not resisting arrest. that's dying. and that -- >> the police though, i'm just wanting to present what they're saying here is that when the officer tried to put his hands behind his back in order to handcuff him, he resisted and broke away with his hands and that's then when the officer moved around his neck. >> that's right. another thing the police are saying is given the fact he was overweight and given the fact he had asthma, he had preexisting conditions that made a normal arrest a fatal event. that's a big part of this. >> the coroner did say the asthma, his weight contributed but they ruled it a homicide. >> by chokehold. homicide by chokehold. >> chest compression with the officer being on his back with him face down on the ground. >> that's what they said and you think about the incredibly tiny crime investigated here and you see a swarm of cops on this guy.

why? why? >> it's the very definition of excessive force. i mean, are our eyes deceiving us? are my eyes lying to me? i'm a proponent of body cameras on police officers, or i thought would protect not only citizens but police officers but here, we have the video and still no indictment. i don't know what the answer is now. >> it's just fascinating listening to these former prosecutors. i asked either one of these former prosecutors, have you ever gone in front of a grand jury, in all the times, if they were federal, were doing a lot more almost always and not gotten a grand jury indictment? >> never because you'd become the laughing stock of your office with that one. >> against somebody in proper. twice in two high profile cases involving police officers. we've had this discussion so

many times. the cops get a benefit that nobody else gets. anybody else, you have a dead body, you arrest first and ask questions later. a million dollar bail, a preliminary. you don't get the benefit of a prosecutor becoming like mccull lock did in front of a grand jury. this whole system turned the grand jury on its head. originally, the grand jury was here as a bull work against excessive government interference. it slowly evolved and for the last 100 years, the grand jury is nothing but a rubber stamp for the prosecution. a bare bones case, get them to indict and then don't mess around with the defense lawyers. now what happened twice in ten days is a prosecutor go in and i guarantee you, this d.a. or prosecutor, he wasn't asking for an indictment. if he was asking for an indictment, he would have gotten an indictment. >> based on the prosecutors, is this true? prosecutors using grand juries

in the case where police are involved because they don't want to -- >> it sure seems that way. >> -- going against the police officers on a regular basis and throw it up leaving it to the grand jury. >> yes, i think that's certainly a reasonable interpretation of what went on. remember, this is staten island. outside of new york, most people don't know the politics of new york. staten island is the smallest, whitest and most conservative of the five boroughs of new york. he answers only to the voters of staten island. he is not someone looking to ingratiate himself with the civil rights leadership, the al sharptons of world. he has a conservative electorate including many cops who live in staten island. so of all.

>> 23 non-white african-american and hispanic. >> more diverse than i would have expected. >> you still have to get that majority. >> i'm sorry, eric garnspeaking. let's listen. >> he should be here celebrating thanksgiving and christmas with his children and grandchildren and he can't. why? because a cop did wrong. somebody that get paid to do right did wrong and he's not held accountable for it but my husband's death will not be in vain. as long as i have a breath in my body, i will fight until the end. thank you.

>> may we hear from the mother of eric garner? >> good evening, everyone. given honor to god who is first in my life but i am here, i am truly disappointed in the grand jury's decision this evening. i don't know what video they were looking at. evidently, it wasn't the same one the rest of the world was looking at. how could we put our trust in the justice system when they failed us like this? then it not only failed me, but many of us. if we don't take care of us, they may fail you in the future. we got to make this right. and we're so happy that the

federal government is now talking about taking over and investigating? we asked them twice before but now they see how important it is for them to come in and take this case and as well as the other cases, the brown case. i think national action network, reverend sharpton, reverend daughtry. oh my goodness, this is just so emotional for me. we thank reverend kooerston for standing with us. because we need all of your support. we need your support and we need peace, but we need peace throughout the support. yeah, we want you to rally but rally in peace. make a statement, but make it in peace. do what you have to but do it in

peace. okay? but i think eveank every one of tonight for coming out and showing support. my son, i will never see again. this is breaking and pulling me apart but thank you, thank you so much. [ applause ] >> again, the leadership in the morning and the march and what we will do. >> try to get some quick reaction from our panel. jeff, obviously, hearing from the wife of mr. garner, the mother of mr. garner, it's understandable that they are shocked by this. >> yes, and they're not alone. you know, the question that's certainly on my mind and i suspect is on a lot of people's minds, what does a cop have to do in this country to get indicted? >> well, my question is i'm not

going to say i know the ins and outs of this, but if this is just a tax -- a cigarette tax violation, why is that an arrestable offense and you have the right to resist an illegal arrest, so if the arrest was illegal, he had the right and here, it wasn't even a resistance. >> it's also interesting when you watch the video and one with some edits in it but the guy vapiva videotaping it, also indicted on another charge. the guy videotaping it is indicted on a weapons charge in an unrelated incident, he's told to move back, to go home. it's almost at times, you watching that and seems like some of the officers are as concerned about or more concerned the videotaping of the incident than the incident itself. >> we've seen that often, haven't we? >> i have worked with cops. i love cops. most cops are great.

there are cops i assure you who are at that event and thought, what the held is going on? why are we doing this? why are we jumping this guy over non-sense? over a ridiculous. >> it did seem like there was some history with some of the officers. you're constantly harassing me. >> hooez been arrested many times and so i suspect that they did know him but did it take six officers to arrest him for what i believe is probably a fineable offense and also, when you look at the video tape, this officer took him from behind. he had his hands up and the officer choked him from behind. how could you resist arrest in that way? >> we've got to get to a quick break. sunny, jeff, marks thank you very much.

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the grand jury, i'm wondering, what through your mind? >> in fact this morning, i bought some more flowers for the murals and i was thinking, this was happening in ferguson. so this is twice in nine days, and ferguson, okay. he say, she say. this one, we have -- and the guy was here before. it was not a three second tape. i have a copy of it. it's 14 minutes. it's 14 minutes. and this is evidence. if you have guys, you see what happens and i thought about, wait a minute. simi valley, did rodney king beat it? they got off too. so i was very pleased that

attorney general eric holder and the feds were stepping in. >> do you think that will make a difference? >> oh, yes. >> you do? >> they made a difference in overturning simi valley. >> a lot of times like in the michael brown case, the federal government getting involved, the federal government case is a much harder case. a civil rights violation is a lot harder case to bring the best chance of an indictment if one wants an indictment. >> what they didn't have in ferguson was the 14 minute tape by ramsey. i mean it says deadly news images. it's ramsey who gave the copy. he's the one that did it. so i think -- >> and the grand jury -- >> i don't know what they're looking at. >> everybody's been saying, once cameras are on police officers, it's going to be making a big difference. >> you say, what body cameras

make a difference if it doesn't work for ramsey's shot? the chokehold was based on michael stewart. i hope to god when the whole thing said that we're going to not do this anymore, i thought it would go away. >> back in the '90s the nypd said we're not going to do the chokehold. back in '93, i was reading an article, we haven't taught the chokehold in ten years but not going to do more unless the officer is absolutely threatened. but no chokeholds or movements where the windpipe is constricted. >> i feel horrible. of course, nothing compares to the families of ferguson and staten island. but people are enraged.

people are losing faith in the justice system because, again, we see with our own eyes. >> do you think things have gotten better? i grew up in new york city. i remember a case in the '80s, a young african-american man was playing basketball. his basketball accidentally got thrown on to a police car, ended up he got killed in a chokehold by the police officer. the police officer went before a judge and wasn't found guilty. i mean, do you think things have changed for the better? >> i keep hoping. but hope's not working. hope's not part of the grand jury the last nine days in ferguson and staten island. >> do you have faith in the system? do you think -- >> i have faith in eric holder. i have faith in the attorney general, and i think justice

will, in this case at least, because we have the evidence. there's a 14 minute tape by eric garner's friend who spent a lot of that day with him. i don't know how, what the grand jury was looking at that they could not bring a charge. >> when you see these protesters out and we show one of the side screen with the protesters in the city, does that inspire you? >> oh, yes. i was telling you earlier, last tuesday night, i call my wife tanya watching you, cnn, and you had the helicopter shots. they're blocking fdr. they go to times square. i said, tanya, i'm going up there. i got on my bike. 49th and 7, two or three hours, and for me, to see -- >> were people like, is that spike lee on a bicycle? >> not about that though.

i told you before, it was diverse new yorkers. black, white, brown, asian. all chant. >> you inspire me to get out the there. >> i appreciate you taking the time. >> i'm going out there tonight. >> you're going to the protest? stick around for a few minutes, we talk to the family of mr. garner and talk right after that. >> i'd love to. >> we're going to wait to speak to eric garner's family members any moment now. also the incident proved that banning chokeholds does not necessarily stop police officers

from using chokeholds. we'll dig deeper into that. we take a short break. the family of eric garner is up next. breather. a mouth breather! well, put on a breathe right strip and shut your mouth. cold medicines open your nose over time, but add a breathe right strip and pow, it opens your nose up to 38% more. so you can breathe and do the one thing you want to do, sleep. add breathe right to your cold medicine shut your mouth and sleep right. breathe right. and look for the calming scent of new breathe right lavender, in the sleep aisle.

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protests here in new york. if you're just joining us after grand jury indicted the police officer in mr. garner's death. spent the last minutes of his life in a choke hold in thompsonville section. he was illegally selling loose cigarettes. he was, as we reported, unarmed. joe johns outside of the store where some protesters gathered. candles lit. joe joins me now. what's the scene like, joe? >> reporter: anderson, as far as people go, it's sort of died down over the past hour or so. there's a makeshift memorial right there with candles, with some signs, some flowers. it's been a very non-violent and peaceful scene out here throughout the evening. i think you can say people have been exasperated. there's been a certain amount of

anger expressed. a certain surprise that there was not an indictment on any charge at all, especially given the fact that there was video that was pretty compelling. the father of eric garner came out for a while when there was a larger crowd. he had a microphone. not a lot to say except to tell the people and anyone listening that there should be no violence. that they should keep it peaceful because as he put it, he didn't want any other family going through what the garner family has gone through since july when it all happened right out here in the street in staten island. so i talked to people in the street. there was one man, an african-american man with a suit and tie who expressed a lot of frustration, a lot of emotion about the fact that no matter how you dress or who you are, if you're african-american, there's always a danger of stop and

frisk and even worse. this is seen as an example of that. >> joe johns, appreciate it. in staten island tonight. there's a lot going on in different places throughout the city. you see the images from earlier this evening. joining us now is the attorney for the family of mr. garner. the family is now unavailable. the attorney, jonathan moore, is with us. what are t-- one of the things e kept hearing is only if there was a video recording, there might have been a different outcome. what happened to eric garner was on video. why do you think that wasn't enough for the grand jury? >> i don't know what was in the minds of the grand jury but it is surprising to me that with the video evidence and the medical examiner's report which had eric garner dying from the

neck and chest compression. if you look at the video, the rough treatment mr. garner was being subjected to not just by one but several officers, it defies belief. on the smallest amount of assault up to second-degree murder. it defies belief that there was no indictment here on one of those charges. >> the reason police said they were talking to mr. garner in the first place is selling loose cigarettes. is that even to your knowledge an arrestable offense? is that something normally just ticketed or would somebody normally be arrested for that? >> well, you know, i think it's probably a summonsable offense. i think you can get a summons. but they had a suspicion he was

selling looseys. there was nothing on him to indicate he was doing it. it's even less of a defense, if you will, than they say it was. in any event, nobody should die for this. you know? >> to your knowledge, in the video, mr. garner seems to be indicating there's some kind of a history with some of the officers. the officer has harassed or bothered him in the past. do you know anything about the nature of that history? >> i don't know specifically the nature of that history. i know that generally, he was being harassed in this way over a number of months about what he was doing out there and you can say what you will about whether he should have been selling loose cigarettes. eric garner was a family man. he was married for 27 years. he had five children he supported. he had grandchildren. this is how he made his living.

there's a lot of people who live in the underground economy because of a lot of conditions that exist in our society. and i just keep coming back to the point that he didn't deserve to die for whatever he was doing. and the other thing is you talk about in the michael brown case that there was -- they didn't know if his hands were up. if you watch the video, eric garner's hands were up. he's saying, my hands are up. and it's unconscionable that there was no indictment here. >> the federal investigation now that's been announced by eric holder tonight, what do you hope to come out of that? because a lot of people often say that the bar for a federal charge is often higher. the best case for an indictment, if you want an indictment, is at the state or local level. >> well, that's generally true. i think if you have an independent prosecutor who's honestly looking at the

evidence, i think for whatever reason, this prosecutor didn't do that. it's not unprecedented that the federal government would step in these cases where the state decided not to prosecute or the prosecution led to an acquittal. it happened in the new york before with the bye z case with officer livoti convicted under a federal law. rodney king case is another example. you know, it's a well-established procedure. what we're looking for with an independent review of the evidence. let me tell you why i don't think there was an independent review of the evidence. if i may, sorry -- >> no, go ahead. >> i'm upset about what happened here. it became clear today to me for

the first time that all the officers who were present here were given immunity for their testimony which means they could never be prosecuted criminally for what happened. the focus was solely on pantaleo. i don't think that was a mistake. i think that was deliberate because they wanted to be able to say, this is all about a chokehold. it's not just about a chokehold. it's a chokehold and compression on the chest that caused his death. that's what the medical examiner said. all of those officers should have been targets of the grand jury, not just pantaleo. they're all going home tonight to their family. they have their job. their lives ahead of them. eric garner does not. >> right. because you say, rightfully, this is called a chokehold death. according to the medical examiner, it was the chokehold as well as the compressions on mr. garner's back while he was

laying face down with an officer sitting on his back. and that is what led to his death. >> correct. correct. and i called benjamin front today after he heard the grand jury had decided not to indict and you obviously know who he is. >> the attorney for michael brown. >> the attorney for michael brown. i said they brought back a no true bill on this case. and he said to me, what? they have a video. how could they do that? i think that's everybody's reaction here. it's just hard to believe that this jury could have done what they did. i think it had to have been directed by the district attorney working on the case. >> thank you very much. we dig deeper into police tactics after this as protests continue in the city of new york.

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protest at grand central terminal. protesters chanting i can't breathe, what mr. garner said repeatedly before he died. questioning police policy.

what they can and can't do when they subdue someone. ceo of global security group and former nypd group and former secret service agent, dan bongi bongino. you don't believe this was a choke hold, correct? >> it was called a ka -- carotid restraint. >> this this case, you say this was a carotid restraint? it was the neck compression as well as the back compression. >> you wouldn't say, i can't

breathe. was he experiencing a con stricture, a lessening of his airway? absolutely? >> do you believe the police handled this appropriately? >> it's always monday morning quarterbacking. once you make the arrest, you have the right to use whatever force. someone says six on one, this is not a fair fight. if you come with me peacefully with no resistance, i'm not going to put my hands on you. in this case on a larger gentleman, perhaps he was intimidating to the police officer, i don't know. i wasn't there. other ways to handle it? sure. but here i am months and months later, what would i have done? >> you're former nypd, the tactics we see, in particular, what appears to be the choke hold or strong arm hold, whatever you want to call it, were they justified in your opinion? >> you know, anderson, he brings

up an important point, david. the tracheal choke versus the carotid choke. they have different outcomes. i bring this up for a reason. a tracheal choke is banned by most police department that would completely cut off any air by compressing the windpipe. that's deadly force. a carotid choke that stops blood flow temporarily or conscious. if you watch the video in the beginning and closely, it doesn't look like that's what he's doing. it looks like the officer is trying a takedown that unquestionably turns into a choke on the ground. i don't know if that played into the grand jury's decision. but trying to take him down from behind is justified but the choke, although legal, is not an administrative policy the nypd can do. >> correct me if i'm wrong, but

the nypd basically stopped training in any and told police officers not to use any hold that restricted the windpipe back in the mid '90s. >> the golden rule of the nypd when i was there was basically stay away from the neck. it's just not going to end well. they try to implement that but keep in mind, it's not banned under all circumstances either. if you are in a deadly force scenario which they were going for the gun and that's all you had to stop the person, you could, but that wasn't this case. >> this was a quality of life crime that's alleged to have taken place. could not they have just summoned the guy? >> i don't know why they arrest rather than summons. i'm sure the grand jury does. but by the nypd bans choke

holds, but taught approach from behind, across the windpipe and pull. that is absolutely forbidden and banned. the carotid restrained if properly applied instead of saying, listen, you can't go for the windpipe. the carotid restraint, it's been used judo since it became a sport in the 1880s. >> using your arm around the neck. that's not a carotid restraint. >> it looks like he was going for a headlock or takedown and got too much of his arm on the windpipe. there's 0 chance he wanted to take him down to death. unfortunately, he had pressure on his windpipe. he's asthmatic. once the pressure on the chest, the situation is doubly compounded. it's an awful circumstance. >> david, i appreciate you being

on. bongino as well. the compression and prone positioning restraint by police. by the way, this is the west side highway, i'm told. >> this is the west side highway right now. there is a number of protests that seem to be moving around the city. reported there trying to make contact on that. the medical examiners report the asthma, obesity, high blood pressure, the contributing factors in his death, it was ruled a homicide. sanjay gupta joins me now. can you take us through what the medical examiner described as the cause of death? >> they were pretty succinct in this. they called it a homicide. there's a manner of deaths. i can show you a list of some of them but everything from an accident, a suicide. there's an undetermined sort of

natural causes. that's an important point as you might imagine, but also, this notion that it was a choke hold that led to his death with combination of being on his chest and having pressure applied there. but they didn't mince words but describing the narrative of the homicide. >> the contributing factor, adding obesity, cardiovascular disease. what do you make of that? clearly the weight of other people on his back and the compression on his neck. >> i wouldn't read too much into the contributing factors. when you look at death certificates, they often have some of the other conditions the person may have had. but often, the primary cause of death, the underlying cause of death, specifically, homicide due to the reasons we talked about. the question seems to be almost and i was trying to think about how to present this, but the

idea that if he did not have obesity and did not have asthma with underlying conditions, would he be alive? the answer is we don't know. we can't know that. but if he had not had a choke hold placed on him with pressure on his chest, would he still be alive? the answer is yes. that's sort of the bottom line. regardless of what these other secondary conditions or contributor conditions are, the choke hold was the primary driver. patients come to hospitals all the time, anderson. they've been in a car accident, for example. they have a head injury and die a day later because of an infection. what caused the death? it was the car accident and the head injury. not the infection. >> sanjay gupta, i appreciate you being on. i want to go to debra on the west side highway. what are you seeing, what are you reporting? >> reporter: we're at the west side highway. we are right by the cruise terminal where the ships leave. you can see where it says that.

it's a huge crowd blocking the west side highway. officials wanted to try to keep protesters out but after they moved from near the rockefeller center where they tried to get to the tree lighting, they decided to come to the west side highway. across manhattan, there are different groups that are hitting different areas. this one was able to make it here. when they were pulling up, we got word from an official that there was a large group of people as you can see here. about 40 police officers simply ran past us at full speed. we didn't quite know what was going on but they were serious. we heard there was a fight that broke out. you can see as we're walking into traffic right now on the west side highway following these protesters, it's hard to get an accurate number. i think you have aerial shots but has to be a couple hundred people who are here protesting and we do want to point out,

they're largely peaceful. we also want to point out that the police presence, while heavy, is in fact keeping the crowd very controlled. they were making sure that the protesters were able to move and walk which is what they're doing now. you can see we're going right through traffic. but again, the groups of protests are sort of moving, going against traffic and just walking up the highway. we don't even know how far traffic goes, but the police have blocked everything off to 45th street on the west side highway, anderson. >> we continue to check in with you live throughout the next hour here on cnn. we join to you from new york, 9:00 p.m. just about 9:00 p.m. here in new york where people have taken to the streets. protester taking parts of the west side highway in new york, obviously, the one of the main arteries in new york city.

there's also protesting in grand central station and in harlem and elsewhere, the grand jury's decision not to indict a new york city police officer in the death of an african-american man after the officer put him in a choke hold. the man was ruled to die of the result of the neck compression and check compression. the officers were kneeling and sitting on him as well. eric garner, 43 years old. father of six. unarmed, died in july after a scuffle for allegedly selling tax free cigarettes outside of a score in the city's staten island borough. the decision came. in midtown and the justice department is investigating the incident. president obama is weighing and new york's mayor. that's the video. so many shocked in this city and around the country where eric garner with a