People protesting the Ferguson, Mo., grand jury decision took to the streets in cities across the U.S. for a second day Tuesday, showing that the racially charged case has inflamed tensions thousands of miles from the predominantly black St. Louis suburb.

Peaceful demonstrators marched in Seattle and Albuquerque and disrupted traffic in St. Louis and Cleveland. Rallies also formed in Michigan, Maine, Georgia, Wisconsin and other states.

For many, the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson recalled other troubling encounters with law enforcement. The refrain "hands up, don't shoot" became a rallying cry over police killings nationwide.

Thousands of people marched for a second night in Manhattan, gathering in Union Square before splitting into several smaller groups, chanting "No justice, No peace." Some held signs saying "Jail killer cops" and "Justice for Mike Brown."

One group marched uptown to Times Square, meandering between lanes of traffic as police followed. The protesters, who seemed to grow in number as the night wore on, disrupted traffic on the FDR Drive and congregated at the entrances to the Williamsburg and Manhattan bridges and the Queens Midtown Tunnel.

A rally in Minneapolis turned scary when a car struck a protester and then burst through a pack of others who surrounded it. A woman suffered minor injuries.

In Los Angeles, a few hundred protesters took to the streets, engaging police in a standoff at a freeway off-ramp and surrounding a Highway Patrol car in a tense scene in South Los Angeles.

To the north in Oakland, protests resumed a day after 43 people were arrested in a melee that escalated after some protesters shut down traffic on a major highway.

He said three officers were injured, including one who suffered a cut to the head after being hit by a brick.

"We will not tolerate assaults on our staff or vandalism and destruction," he said.

CLEVELAND

Several hundred people marched down a freeway ramp to block rush-hour traffic while protesting the Missouri developments and Saturday's fatal shooting by an officer of 12-year-old Tamir Rice of Cleveland, who had a pellet gun that looked like a real firearm.

"The system wasn't made to protect us," said one of the protesters, 17-year-old Naesha Pierce. "To get justice, the people themselves have to be justice."

ST. LOUIS

Protesters disrupted downtown traffic for several hours by blocking major intersections, an interstate highway and a Mississippi River bridge connecting the city to Illinois.

Riot police arrested several demonstrators who sat in the middle of Interstate 44 near the Edward Jones Dome. They used pepper spray to disperse the crowd.

Demonstrators also swarmed the steps of the federal courthouse chanting, "You didn't indict! We shall fight!"

ELSEWHERE

Several hundred people from historically black schools Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University in Georgia held peaceful demonstrations. But as the night wore on, some groups split off and tried to block a freeway, and police said some windows were broken.

Police said 21 people were arrested, mostly for failure to disperse when asked, but one person faces a weapons charge.

In Chicago, protesters who had hoped to spend the night inside City Hall left after most of the day when they were threatened with arrest.

In Portland, Oregon, a rally drew about 1,000 people who listened to speeches then marched through downtown. A splinter group of about 300 people kept going, marching across a Willamette River bridge into east Portland. Bus and light rail traffic was disrupted, and police used pepper spray and made several arrests.

Demonstrations in Washington, D.C., and Albuquerque, New Mexico, also blocked traffic at times but were generally peaceful.