Anti-racial protests continue in US

Hundreds of demonstrators have taken to the streets of California to continue protests against racial profiling and police killings of unarmed black men in the United States.

In Berkeley, protesters blocked traffic on highways on Tuesday and called for justice for the slain African-Americans.

The protesters were stopped Tuesday night at City Hall, where a city councilman promised the crowed that he would ask for an investigation into the police response to the protests.

More than 150 protesters were arrested around the city overnight.

On Monday, police fired tear gas and threw smoke bomb at the protesters in northern California. Several protesters were also arrested.

Similar rallies were held in dozens of American cities, including New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Miami, and Minneapolis on Monday.

Demonstrations in New York and Missouri started out peacefully last week, calling for police reforms after a grand jury decided not to indict a white New York police officer who choked unarmed black man Eric Garner to death in July.

The protests came amid angry demonstrations against the death of African-American teenager Michael Brown, who was shot dead by another white police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson in August.

US police shoot and kill an average of 1,000 people a year, 1 in 4 of whom unarmed, according to a report by the Police Policy Studies Council.

Based on a recent study by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, 313 black people were killed in 2012 by police officers, private security guards and members of the public and in most cases, the perpetrator was not indicted.