Streets of new york last night, after a grand jury did not indict new York City Police officer Daniel Pantaleo in the chokehold death of 43yearold eric garner. Its a very painful day for so many new yorkers. Arrests made throughout the night as outrage pulsed throughout the city streets for more than nine hours. Black lives matter. Most chanting garners last words before dying on this Staten Island street. I cant breathe. I cant breathe. Police, somehow in riot gear blocking intersections as protesters began shutting down some of the citys most iconic landmarks. Stopping the flow of traffic into and out of the island of manhattan for hours. Some lying down right in the middle of the road. The same inside Grand Central station. I cant breathe, i cant breathe. Where other protesters staged a massive diein as evening rush hour hit its peak. Police heavily guarding the rockefeller treelighting ceremony. As protesters tried to disrupt the show. The citys public outcry reaching a fever pitch nationwide. From los angeles. I am eric garner. To philadelphia. Where protesters took to city hall during their treelighting ceremony holding up signs reading black lives matter. The demonstrations across the country disruptive, but peaceful, fulfilling garners familys wish. Yeah, we want you to rally, but rally in peace. No violence. Officer pantaleo said in a statement, it is never my intention to harm anyone and i feel very bad about the death of mr. Garner. But garners wife says its too late. Hell no. The time for remorse would have been when my husband was yelling to breathe. That would have been the time for him to show some type of remorse or some type of care for another human beings life. A lot of emotion there, police will be conducting their own internal investigation. The u. S. Attorney will be conducting a civil rights investigation. As for the protests, alisyn, those will continue. Okay. Jason, thanks so much for that. President obama says the lack of an indictment speaks to larger issues between minorities and Police Officers. So whats his plan to bridge that gap . Lets bring in senior White House Correspondent jim acosta for reaction from the white house. What are they saying, jim . In a Rapid Response to the eric garner case, president obama promised changes to the criminal Justice System after ferguson and now new york city the white house knows all too well patience is wearing thin. Sensing a crisis that is growing, president obama waited just a few hours to weigh in. After the decision was announced not to indict a new York City Police officer in the chokehold death of eric garner. When anybody in this country is not being treated equally under the law, thats a problem. With emotions already raw across the country after the unrest in ferguson, the president tried to strike a balance. Recognizing the important work of Law Enforcement, while insisting the Justice System must change. Im not interested in talk, im interested in action. And i am absolutely committed as president of the United States to making sure that we have a country in which everybody believes in the core principle that we are equal under the law. Attorney general eric holder who will be visiting five more u. S. Cities to meet with civil rights leaders on the issue says the Justice Department is investigating the garner case. All lives must be valued. All lives. Adding more pressure on the administration, the u. S. Attorney overseeing the chokehold investigation also happens to be the woman tapped to replace holder, loretta lynch. Now our prosecutors will conduct an independent, thorough, fair and expeditious investigation. On capitol hill, members of the Congressional Black Caucus are insisting the president cannot tackle the problem alone. I do hope that the department of justice gives americans an opportunity to take this cancer and cut it out once and for all. Shut it down on the streets of the nations capital, there was a different kind of gridlock as protesters snarled traffic to send a message. Im sorry that travelers are inconvenienced, but its inconvenient to get shot in the street. Its inconvenient to get choked on videotape. President obama says he wants to start rebuilding trust in minority communities, in Law Enforcement quickly. So hes calling on the new 21st Century Policing task force which he launched on monday to issue recommendations within 90 days, alisyn, chris . Jim acosta. Thanks so much. We want to bring in the speaker of the new York City Council melissa mark vivarito. What was your reaction when you heard the grand jurys decision. To be honest, angry and very much frustrated and exasperated. Because we were seeing a sense of injustice that is being meted out in communities feeling that somehow justice is elusive. So we have to heal obviously as a city and we have to consistently demand reform, which many of us are doing. But the anger and the frustration is very valid. And we need to be able to express it in productive ways. I mean you say a sense of injustice, but this is the Justice System. They went before a grand jury with 22 civilian witnesses, 38 interviews were conducted. The officer testified in front of the grand jury and he said, that he was holding on to mr. Garner just to regain his balance. That was one thing he said. He said he was trying to make sure mr. Garner was not injured by the other officers who were rushing into the situation and he wanted to prevent mr. Garner, he says from biting them. And the grand jury believed him. The grand jury got it wrong and i think the grand jurys responsibility was just to determine whether there was probable cause and throw it over to a trial. I think at minimum there should have been a criminal trial to get the facts fully out there. The deliberations of this grand jury are not transparent, it is all secretive right now. We dont know what was presented to the grand jury. We dont know exactly what was said. By the prosecutor. Thats a system that is broken, right, where there is no transparency. We need to seek that kind of change and demand that that sense of fairness in the process as well. So there is a lot of work that we need to get done. But it is wrong to be living in a democracy where certain communities feel a sense of justice is not equal for them. So youve had that problem for a long time, speaker. And the question is now you have new opportunities to address it. What is the fix . One fix was you being present in Staten Island last night. Ferguson saw a big vacuum of leadership. You were out there to let the people know theyre not alone. Those who want to protest the decision, now you get into a secretive and lack of transparency. That doesnt go to the grand jury system. Because we use it well in a lot of ways. It goes when cops are involved and the prosecutors in those communities investigate their own cops. Do you think that has to change . And if so, how do you change it . No, i believe that has to change. I think there is obviously a problem when you have individuals who are elected first of all and second of all, that have a very close relationship they make their cases off the same cops. Exactly. So theres an issue there that has to be resolved. How do you change it . Because thats a big issue. What im concerned about as speaker of the city council and being the legislative body for the city of new york, how do we insure that reform is happening within the nypd in the way they are policing our communities. Thanks to the mobilizations that have happened, consistently, i, as well as other Council Members under the last administration, were asking for reform and changes. Weve seen vast changes, were not going to see the benefits of it overnight. Its very hard to legislate peoples sentiments and feelings. If there is a bias within individuals, who are policing our streets, its very hard to prove that there are greater systemic challenges. I think the president is speaking to it. Eric holder speaking about it, there is bias within the system and weve got to work to uproot that. That is our task. And as legislators and elected officials, we need to show leadership on that front. Why isnt this grand jury releasing the evidence and releasing the testimony in the way that the ferguson grand jury did . The system here in new york is very different and thats the way, the system is set up here. My understanding is that the d. A. Is asking for some aspect of releasing of information. Not all of it. Would that help . Would that go a long way towards the transparency that youre talking about . I believe if people know exactly what was presented. But not how. Its important not to cut you off. Speaker. You could see that. Right. Except youre still not in the room and we all know and i dont know why this doesnt come across clearly enough to people. The grand jury is a tool of the prosecutor. You can indict a ham sandwich because the prosecutor shapes testimony. Influences, weighs and. Because the groors, theyre not set up to investigate this independently, thats not what this is supposed to be. If you have that system. What are the calls youre hearing . Why wasnt there a special prosecutor. Which is what were asking for. But the doj its not that easy in new york. Dont you need legislation in order for this to be a mechanism, every time. That is a broader conversation that we would have to get into. Im not a lawyer, per se. Obviously were interested in the city of new york. Those of us that are Council Members on the ground in our communities every day, and i represent a community that has high levels of interaction with the police. And this is a reality that i hear from my constituents every day. Its a real problem. When africanamericans, when latinos, feel that there is a sense of twotiered system. Thats a very real, thats a reality. We have to face it. These kinds of incidents where we have a grand jury in the case of mr. Garner, and in the case of Michael Brown where people feel that its not fair. That is really a greater challenge that we have. You know, at the end of the day, eric garners family does not have their father coming home at night. Mrs. Garner does not have her husband coming home and those parents dont have their child. There is a real, something really wrong when all of us were able to witness this individual, this man being killed in front of our eyes. When you have eight to nine cops around who still cannot listen to his calls for help. There is something broken here and i think that at minimum that this case should have been taken to trial and that we should have been able to witness that in a fair and open way. Justice was not served here yesterday. The city needs to heal and i and my colleagues are committed to making sure that new york city system, and nationally we have a system that is fair to all. Speaker, thanks so much for coming to new day. Be sure to stay with us late they are morning. We will be speaking with eric garners widow about the grand jury decision coming up in our 8 00 hour. We have other news to tell you about. We want to bring you up to date al qaeda video threatening to kill american hostage, luke somers. Reports say u. S. Special forces narrowly missed freeing somers in a rescue operation just last week. The question is will the u. S. Negotiate with these terrorists . Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joins us now. We know we dont negotiate with terrorists, whats being done . The u. S. Will tell you theyre looking for mr. Somers, al qaeda in yemen posted this video showing him for the first time. He was working as a photo journalist in yemen when he was kidnapped last year. Lets listen just very briefly to some of what he said on the tape. My name is luke somers, im 33 years old, i was born in england but i carry american citizenship and have lived in america for most of my life. Now, as you say, michaela, late last month u. S. Special forces staged a raid inside yemen trying to free him. And other hostagesing he apparently had been moved a short time before the commandos got there. Also on the tape an al qaeda operative makes that statement. Threatening mr. Somers with a quote inevitable fate if their demands are not met within three days. Of course we dont know when that threeday clock runs out. We dont know exactly when this tape was made. The u. S. Policy by all accounts remains intact. They do not negotiate with terrorists. U. S. Officials say they are still looking for him. Michaela . Barbara starr, thanks to you. More victims of Sexual Assault in the military are coming forward. Now according to a new report from the pentagon, obtained by cnn, nearly 5 of activeduty women report being the victims of unwanted sexual contact in the last year. The number of incidents is actually believed to have gone down. But one in four women are now willing to report misconduct. That is up from one in ten just a few years ago. A member of the st. Louis rams is defending his actions following the controversial hands up dont shoot gesture. Some of he and his players did before sundays game, jared cook says he has nothing but respect for police in the community. Take a listen. It was a perfect example of a peaceful protest. If anything, if anything should have been said about it by anybody, it should have been an example of a way to peacefully protest and peacefully get your point across without tearing up your neighborhood. The st. Louis Police Officers association called the gesture tasteless and offensive. How about 2 for a gallon of gas . Its a reality in some parts of the country. In fact a gas station in Oklahoma City had regular gas at under 2 a gallon on wednesday. Parts of virginia, missouri, south carolina, texas and new mexico could see prices under 2 by the weekend. Increased production and more fuelefficient cars are contributing to the fouryear low. The average nationwide remains 2. 75 a gallon. It feels like the 1970s. Its been a long time since weve seen that price. Im going to drive to oklahoma to get that price and drive back. Road trip. A lot of people feel like its the 1970s in terms of what were seeing with the police. We know that the officer in the nypd chokehold case will not face a judge. The question is will he keep his job . Chokeholds are not allowed by the nypd. But it turns out not all chokes are the same in the eyes of the department. We interviewed the new York City Police commissioner about this. Youll hear his explanation. And were counting down as nasa gets set for a big launch. 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It looks bad on its face because the chokehold that seems to be being used is not allowed to be used. So its frustrating to hear for your critics that theres an investigation when the situation seems obvious. It seems to speak for itself. Well, it does not. Thats why we the impression it looks awful. But its lawful. The role of the District Attorney is to determine were any of the actions of the officers involved illegal. My role and responsibility is were any of the actions of the officers involved inappropriate. Could they be illegal but appropriate . No. Theres a potential possibility interestingly enough. They could be illegal, but appropriate . For example, many in the media have referred to the chokehold as illegal. Yes. You cant find anywhere in the statutes of new york city chokehold. So where does that come from . Its a police term of art. Its a policy term. We have a prohibition against