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"Black Xmas" Protests Snarl Traffic, Shopping in Major Cities

The protests, organized by Black Lives Matter, aimed to bring awareness to police brutality and call for systemic change.

Published Dec. 23, 2015

Black Lives Matter (Tony Webster)
Black Lives Matter (Image Via Tony Webster)

Coordinated groups of protesters disrupted traffic in malls and on major freeways across the United States the day before Christmas Eve.

The protests against police violence, which were collectively called “Black Xmas” and organized by Black Lives Matter, interrupted holiday traffic and shopping in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and other major cities.

In Minneapolis, hundreds of protesters met police in SWAT gear at the Mall of America, which was briefly placed under a security lockdown:

The demonstrations also blocked the roads to the Minneapolis airport (with at least eight arrests total) and the San Francisco airport, where at least nine people were arrested:

A release on the Black Lives Matter web site stated:

Black Xmas is here and there will be no business as usual until we get accountability for our dead, and justice for the living. Instead of buying gifts to fuel this system, Black Xmas is a day of action to reject the degradation of Black families and communities by police, politicians, and predatory companies, and declare our inherent worth. We will disrupt business as usual until city, state, and federal budgets stop funding Black death and start funding Black futures.

Brooke Binkowski is a former editor for Snopes.