NEW YORK (AP) — Protests of a grand jury's decision not to indict a white police officer in the chokehold death of an unarmed black man continued around the country, and authorities said a march in California turned violent when masked demonstrators smashed windows and threw objects at police.

A Berkeley police officer received hospital treatment for a shoulder injury, while another sustained minor injuries after some of the protesters threw rocks and other projectiles, spokeswoman officer Jenn Coats said.

She said several businesses were looted and damaged during the march, and officers attempting to get the crowd do disperse used tear gas. There have been no reports of any arrests.

Thousands of demonstrators have protested peacefully in New York and elsewhere since the announcement Wednesday that a grand jury would not indict a white officer in the death of Eric Garner, a black man who gasped "I can't breathe" while he was being arrested for selling loose, untaxed cigarettes. The decision closely followed a Missouri grand jury's choice not to indict a white officer in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old.

The scope of the demonstrations and the lack of violence were moving to Garner's mother and widow, they said Saturday.

"It is just so awesome to see how the crowds are out there," said Eric Garner's mother, Gwen Carr, who added that she ended up stuck in her car after protests shut down traffic.

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Protestors march along 42nd Street following a "die-in" at Grand Central Station against a …

"I was just so proud of that crowd," Carr said. "It just warmed my heart."

Garner's widow, Esaw Garner, said she saw demonstrators from her apartment window and told her son, "Look at all the love that your father's getting."

Officers have said the outcry over the grand jury decision has left them feeling betrayed and demonized by everyone from the president and the mayor to throngs of protesters who scream at them on the street.

"Police officers feel like they are being thrown under the bus," said Patrick Lynch, president of the police union.

Garner's family members joined the Rev. Al Sharpton later Saturday as Sharpton laid a wreath at the site on Staten Island where Garner died July 17 in a confrontation that started when police tried to arrest him.

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The Rev. Al Sharpton is accompanied by Esaw Garner, center, wife of Eric Garner, who died in a choke …

An amateur video seen by millions showed Garner gasping, "I can't breathe" during the fatal encounter.

"All we're concerned about is justice from the police," said Garner's stepfather, Benjamin Carr, who wore a T-shirt with the words, "Enough is enough."

Protests continued in New York City for a fourth day with several dozen people lying down on the floor of Grand Central Terminal and marching into stores in Times Square. There were no reports of arrests.

Protests have also been held in Philadelphia, Chicago, Miami, Las Vegas and a number of other cities.

In Seattle, several hundred people marched downtown to police headquarters Saturday. Authorities said a group then split off from the main protest and tried to get onto a roadway. Police say some protesters threw rocks at officers who blocked them from entering it. Seven were arrested.

Sharpton announced plans this week for a march in Washington, D.C., next Saturday to protest the killings of Garner, Brown and others and to press for change at the federal level.

New York (AFP) - Mourners heard a rallying cry for justice at the New York funeral of an unarmed black man shot dead by police as nationwide protests against similar killings continued for a fourth night.

Akai Gurley, 28, father of a two-year-old daughter, was shot dead when a police officer opened fire in a dimly lit staircase at a Brooklyn apartment building where he was walking with his girlfriend late on November 20.

Friends and relatives filed past Gurley's open gray casket to pay their respects at the Brown Memorial Baptist Church, before the lid was closed and a huge spray of red and white flowers was placed on top of it.

Gurley, whose mother lived in Florida, had been planning a surprise Thanksgiving trip to introduce her to his daughter last month when he was killed.

Activist Kevin Powell, who delivered the eulogy, thanked Mayor Bill de Blasio and the city of New York for covering the costs of the funeral and issued a passionate rallying cry for change.

"Akai was innocent, innocent, innocent," he told the mourners.

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New York Police Department officers watch demonstrators as they lie down on the floor of Grand Centr …

"This is modern-day lynchings, over and over again. Akai Gurley was simply the latest victim of this," he said, calling for homicide charges to be brought.

He demanded police reform and spoke of the recent protests that have mobilized thousands of people across the United States to denounce a spate of killings of unarmed black men by white police officers.

"Let's do everything we can to prevent any more situations like this," he said.

Rev. Clinton Miller echoed the call, saying that clergy and activists would work together to ensure that justice would prevail.

"We ask that you would allow brother Akai's name to live forever in our hearts as we continue to fight for what's right in this country and this world," he said. "We will all work together to pursue justice."

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Akai Gurley's casket is carried into the Brown Memorial Baptist Church on December 5, 2014 in th …

- Nationwide demos -

The Brooklyn district attorney announced Friday that a grand jury would consider charges in one of the cases that has again brought to the fore the distrust felt by many African Americans towards the police.

Gurley's funeral comes amid nationwide protests across the United States against a spate of similar killings of unarmed black men by white police officers, including 18-year-old Michael Brown who was shot dead in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 9 and Eric Garner, a father of six who was killed in a chokehold by police in New York in July.

Protests continued Saturday with civil rights activist Al Sharpton's National Action Network holding an event in Harlem attended by actor Spike Lee.

Other high-profile figures made statements, including Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose, who warmed up for an NBA game in a T-shirt bearing the words "I Can't Breathe" on Saturday.

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Demonstrators in New York City arrive at Times Square to protest against the recent decisions by gra …

Those were the final words gasped by 43-year-old Garner, whom police wrestled to the ground in New York's Staten Island for allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes.

Protests continued in California and Washington, DC, where a main road and bridge was closed as rolling demonstrations moved through the city.

Elsewhere at New York's Grand Central Station, protesters staged "die-ins" lying on the ground of the busy travel terminal and chanting "Eric Garner, Michael Brown. Shut it down, shut it down."

In Berkeley, California, demonstrations turned violent as protesters clashed with police who threw what appeared to be smoke bombs. Demonstrators threw rocks and other items in retaliation, and CNN reported that several businesses were damaged.

- Remembering Gurley -

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Akai Gurley's casket is carried into the Brown Memorial Baptist Church on December 5, 2014 in th …

Saturday's funeral included music from gospel singers, accompanied by a drummer and keyboard player, as well as the reading of a poem by Gurley's sobbing younger brother, comforted by a relative.

A video montage included images of him as a toddler as well as a proud father holding his little daughter and pointing to the camera grinning.

A handful of elected officials, including New York City Public Advocate Letitia James and various activists also attended the ceremony.

Brooklyn district attorney Ken Thompson said he would present all the evidence for a grand jury to decide whether charges should be brought.

"I pledge to conduct a full and fair investigation and to give the grand jury all of the information necessary to do its job," he said.

New York's police commissioner has said Gurley was a totally innocent victim.

After rookie cop Peter Liang discharged the bullet that struck Gurley, he and partner Shaun Landau did not respond to radio contact for more than six-and-a-half minutes, the New York Daily News said.

Instead it was a neighbor who phoned for the ambulance that rushed Gurley to the hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.

December 7, 2014

When it comes to lethal weapons, the U.S. Army has no shortage. Some may be too expensive, some too complex and others may be desired by politicians and defense contractors, but not the troops on the field.

Nonetheless, today's U.S. Army can generate an astonishing amount of firepower and deliver it in a variety of settings from small-war counterinsurgency to big-war mechanized combat. With that in mind, here are five of the best U.S. Army weapons:

AH-64 Apache:

Ironic it is that the best weapon of America's premier land force is an aircraft. But given the conflicts the U.S. military has recently fought and is likely to fight, airpower is the most decisive factor.

Equipped with a 30-millimeter cannon, Hellfire missiles and sophisticated sensors, the Apache combines speed, firepower and range that allows the Army to strike enemies long before they come within firing distance of Army ground troops. It is equally useful at hunting down insurgents or decimating enemy armored columns. The Apache has fought well in conflicts from Desert Storm to the current Afghan war.

Perhaps more important, the Apache is airpower that the Army itself controls, rather than having to rely on the Air Force or Navy aircraft for close air support. An attack helicopter is not, and will never be, a substitute for infantry on the ground. But the ground troops will appreciate the support an attack helicopter can provide.

M-1 Abrams:

Whether the M-1 Abrams is the best tank in the world depends on who you talk to, and more important, what country they are from. But it is indisputably among the world's best.

Weighing in at 60 tons, the M-1A2 has a 120-millimeter cannon, depleted-uranium armor up to three feet thick and a top speed of more than 40 miles per hour. It decimated Iraq's Soviet-made armor in 1991, and quite possibly would do the same to China's advanced Type 99 tank. Very few Abrams have been destroyed in combat; the fact that ISIS has destroyed or captured Iraqi government M-1s says more about the quality of the crews than the tank.

M-109A6 Paladin:

The U.S. Army's hard-hitting, self-propelled howitzers have taken a backseat in America's recent small wars. Nonetheless, they remain highly potent weapons.

The Paladin is the latest version of the venerable M-109 self-propelled gun. It can shoot a 155-millimeter shell up to 20 miles using rocket-assisted projectiles.It can also fire the GPS- or laser-guided Excalibur shell.

TOW Anti-Tank Missile:

Russia (or the Soviet Union) seems to be the king of anti-tank missiles, though this probably reflects the pattern of arms sales, as well as how great a threat Western-designed armor posed to Russia and its clients. So it is easy to forget that the U.S. Army is no slouch, either, at the anti-tank missile game.

The Army's TOW (tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided) anti-tank missile is still going strong after nearly forty-five years of service. It has destroyed tanks—mostly Russian—in Vietnam, the Arab-Israeli Wars, the Iran-Iraq War and now Syria. The newer TOW 2B comes in several versions, including a bunker-busting missile, as well as the Aero model, which explodes above a tank to penetrate its thin top armor.

M-2 .50-Caliber Machine Gun:

It may sound strange to classify an eighty-year-old machine gun as one of the Army's best weapons. But the fact the M-2 "Ma Deuce" is still blasting away after nearly a century and countless wars is testament to the fact that it is a remarkable gun.

Developed when Franklin Roosevelt had just become president and Hitler was just taking power in Germany, the M-2 has seen service all over the world as an anti-aircraft, anti-vehicle and anti-personnel machine gun that's closer in power to a small cannon. A recently upgraded version, the M2A1, features a quick-change barrel and a night flash suppressor.

Michael Peck is a contributing writer at Foreign Policy Magazine and a writer for the War is Boring defense blog. Follow him on Twitter: @Mipeck1.

Image: Flickr/The 621st Contingency Response Wing/CC by 2.0

Half-brother of Akai Gurley, Malaki Palmer, is aided by his father Ken Palmer as he makes a reading during Gurley's funeral at the Brown Memorial Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York December 6, 2014. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

By Robert MacMillan and Andrew Chung

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A fourth night of demonstrations against police violence got off to a slow start on a rain-soaked Saturday in New York, after mourners held a funeral for a black man shot dead by a white police officer in the stairwell of a Brooklyn apartment house.

But protesters in Berkeley, California clashed with police, hurling objects and smashing store windows on Saturday night.

The shooting of Akai Gurley, 28, at a public housing project last month was the latest in a series of incidents fueling outrage over what protesters say is a pattern of excessive force being used by law enforcement against African-Americans.

The killings and decisions by grand juries to return no indictments against officers involved in them have rekindled a national debate over race relations in the United States.

The district attorney in the New York City borough of Brooklyn said on Friday a grand jury would consider charges against Peter Liang, the officer who shot Gurley. Police have said Liang may have accidentally discharged his gun.

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A protester flees as police officers try to disperse a crowd comprised largely of student demonstrat …

In Brooklyn, mourners gathered on Saturday morning at Baptist church to remember Gurley, the father of a 2-year-old girl. Afterwards about 75 people gathered for a vigil and brief march in his memory.

Clinton Jordan, a 40-year-old security administrator at John F. Kennedy International Airport, was born and raised in the Louis H. Pink housing project where Gurley was shot. He said residents felt a mixture of anger and resignation.

"You know in this neighborhood you've seen a lot of police brutality to the point where we're just fed up," he said.

Elsewhere in New York, demonstrations were even more restrained than on Friday, when arrests numbered only 20.

“Seems to be the weather, it's not really making it easy," said a police officer in Times Square who saw about 200 people march through the busy area during the afternoon.

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Family members embrace following the funeral for Akai Gurley at the Brown Memorial Baptist Church in …

A dozen protesters lay down again on the floor in New York’s Grand Central Terminal in one of the now-familiar "die-ins" featured in the wave of protests this week. Tourists and commuters snapped pictures of the silent protest.

"The fact that people are mobilizing is a great thing," said Amine Lazreg, a 24-year-old from Montreal, while sitting in a coffee shop in Times Square. "This type of protest is for social justice -- I don't know anyone who would go against that."

Protesters and police alike have showed restraint and no major violence has flared in New York, but a protest in Berkeley that began peacefully turned violent when some demonstrators smashed store windows and hurled objects at police, who then fired tear gas and rubber bullets, video footage on local news showed.

One man smashed a grocery store window with a skateboard as others proceeded to loot the store, the KTVU-TV video showed.

Berkeley officer Jennifer Coats said police were pelted by missiles from a splinter group of protesters and confirmed that smoke and tear gas had been fired.

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Protesters retreat while police officers deploy teargas to disperse a crowd comprised largely of stu …

One officer hit by a sandbag suffered a dislocated shoulder, while police vehicles and private cars were vandalized, Coats said, while at least two other businesses were looted. She did not have any figures on arrests.

The disturbance forced the closure of the local Bay Area Rapid Transit station.

The demonstrations began on Wednesday after a grand jury decided to bring no charges against Daniel Pantaleo, a New York City police officer, in the July death of Eric Garner, a 43-year-old father of six.

That decision was announced nine days after a Missouri grand jury chose not to indict a white policeman for the shooting dead in August of an unarmed black teenager, spurring two nights of violence and arson in a St. Louis suburb.

Protests have erupted across the country. On Saturday, hundreds of people in Hartford, Connecticut, marched for nearly two miles in the pouring rain to a rally at a city park.

“I’m angry and I’m scared,” said Rev. Henry Brown, founder of Mothers United Against Violence, which helped organized the rally. “This new wave of police brutality must stop today.”

Protests are scheduled for Sunday for New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Miami and Minneapolis and dozens of other cities.

(Additional reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst, Emmett Berg and Richard Weizel; Writing by Frank McGurty Editing by Grant McCool, Chris Michaud and Mark Potter)

The Delta IV Heavy rocket with the Orion spacecraft lifts off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida December 5, 2014. REUTERS/Scott Audette

By Barbara Liston

ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) - Rising seas and pounding waves driven by climate change are chipping away at the coast near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, threatening launch pads and future operations, scientists said on Friday.

"There's reason to be nervous now because the problem is so obvious," Peter Adams, a geology professor at the University of Florida, told Reuters.

Adams and fellow University of Florida geologist John Jaeger released their findings on a day when the space center on Florida’s east coast was celebrating a successful first test launch of the Orion capsule designed to one day fly astronauts to Mars.

Nancy Bray, director of Kennedy Space Center operations, said in a University of Florida news release, "We do consider sea level rise and climate change to be urgent."

Bray added that NASA’s plans for dealing with climate change included a "managed retreat" in which it will move infrastructure, potentially including launch pads, as needed.

Florida coastal communities could experience about a 2-foot (60-cm) rise in sea level by 2060, the U.S. Geological Survey has previously said. The two main causes are the volume of water added to oceans from glacial melt and the expansion of that water from rising sea temperatures.

The U.S. space agency already has erected a line of manmade dunes to replace eroded natural ones that historically protected the shoreline between launch pads 39A and 39B used by the space shuttle and Apollo missions.

"Without that secondary dune line, we could have saltwater intrusion at the launch pad," Bray said.

A series of storms including Tropical Storm Fay in 2008, Hurricane Irene in 2011 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012 washed away the protective dunes, Adams said, allowing waves to crest over an old and little-used space center train track.

A parallel road built over electrical power lines and liquid gas fuel lines could be next, Adams said.

Bray said NASA also has developed a plan for dealing with potential effects of climate change at the Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia.

(Editing by David Adams and Will Dunham)