The five westbound lanes of the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, California, were shut down yesterday (18 January 2016) after Black Lives Matter protesters used different means to block the multi-lane bridge. Demonstrators could be seen with their fists raised standing on the Bay Bridge, causing traffic to become gridlocked.

Aerial pictures showed several protesters being taken into police custody. One woman protester can be seen being taken out of her vehicle and handcuffed after police prised open her car door. Two women protesters, who shackled their arms together, sat on the asphalt in the middle of one of the lanes as traffic slowly started rolling by after police cleared other lanes. The traffic jam shut down traffic heading directly into San Francisco.

Protesters called for the resignation of San Francisco police chief Greg Suhr, on the back of the fatal shooting of a black man, Mario Woods, by San Francisco police officers on 2 December, and for the city to invest in affordable housing options, the local news reported. The day also marked the Martin Luther King Jr holiday across the United States, with protesters aiming to reclaim Dr King's radical legacy over a long weekend of protests and action.

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