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After a day in which peaceful demonstrators carried signs and chanted after the handed down a not guilty verdict, police reported that some protesters were turning \"disruptive.\"

E. 9th/Prospect, officers responding for reports of disruptive members of large crowd spraying random citizens with pepper spray.

— Cleveland Police (@CLEpolice) May 24, 2015

Protests began immediately after the verdict, with demonstrators outside the courthouse chanting \"Hands up! Don't shoot!\" -- a rallying cry linked to the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Sheriff's deputies stood outside the courthouse carrying shields, blocking the demonstrators from entering.

In a demonstration that had already been planned to mark six months since the killing of Tamir Rice, a black 12-year-old carrying a pellet gun who was shot by a white rookie officer, about 200 people walked in a mock funeral procession. They carried a black, plywood coffin and softly sang \"I'm going up yonder, we're marching, we're marching.\"

Some protesters also carried signs making reference to another pair of deadly encounters with police: the chokehold death of Eric Garner in New York City and the death of Freddie Gray, a Baltimore man who suffered a spinal injury while in custody.

The protests continued into the evening, when a crowd temporarily blocked downtown street intersections and chanted anti-police slogans. Demonstrators also marched past sports fans getting out of a Cleveland Indians-Cincinnati Reds game, adding to the congestion.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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