Vigils and protests, small and large, restrained in some places, rowdy in others, swept across the nation overnight as one of the worst weeks of racially-charged violence in recent memory ticked down to a merciful end.

In most respects the protests in some 17 cities were not unlike the rallies that had been going on and off ever since the killing of Michael Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., almost two years ago. Demonstrators tried to block highways, and held aloft Black Lives Matters banners. In Minneapolis, they stood in silence.

In others, however, there was a difference — anger mixed with sober reflection over the slayings of five police officers during a Black Lives Matter rally in Dallas Thursday night by a man identified as Micah Xavier Johnson.

As about 300 marched in New York City, NBC New York reported, a protest leader urged marchers to respect police officers patrolling the parade.

“Our condolences go out to those people,” protester Anthony Robeldo told the news station. “The same way we lost family members, they lost family members.”

Outside the White House, Jennifer Jones, a 20-year-old African-American college student from Southeast Washington, said when it comes to the Dallas, the wrong steps were taken.

“I feel like we as a people should not go out and kill off police officers or cops who are killing off our people, because then we’re becoming them,” said Jones, who just finished her sophomore year at Davidson College in North Carolina. “I don’t want to become the oppressor, I don’t want to become the enemy, I don’t want to become the murderer.”

“I want to be the person that can stand up and talk and fight for the right thing to happen,” she added.

Among those marching in Baltimore was resident Tay Parker, 32, who said the week’s violence hit her especially hard. Parker, who is black, said she worries about her three brothers being racially profiled, and now fears for the safety of her girlfriend, a Maryland Transit Authority police officer.

“She’s judged for being in that uniform the same way people are judged for the color of their skin,” Parker said.

Dallas, still in shock, simply mourned amid attempts to absorb a larger lesson. The Rev. Rudy Garcia of the Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe spoke at a prayer vigil for the victims of the attack that drew about 100 people Friday evening. The city will heal he said. But it must “first diagnose the problem.” He called on parishioners to embrace and accept one another, the Associated Press reported, adding that there is still “a long way to go.” Parishioners lit candles and placed notes with messages on a wooden cross outside the church. One read: “We are one. #DallasStrong”.

Demonstrations and vigils filled streets in no fewer than 17 cities, among them, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York, Omaha, Detroit, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Chicago, Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Phoenix and Little Rock. In some places, police stood quietly in the background. In others, they wound up in riot gear as protesters faced them down toe to toe.

In Phoenix, police with shields pushed back against a crowd, and ultimately deployed pepper spray and fired bean-bagbs to prevent a Black Lives Matter rally from blocking ramps to the I-10 freeway. Rocks were hurled at police, according to the Arizona Republic. By midnight a group that started with about 300 people around 8:00 p.m. local time had dwindled to about 50 or 60. Three arrests were reported in Phoenix.

Dallas, still in shock, simply mourned amid attempts to absorb a larger lesson. The Rev. Rudy Garcia of the Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe spoke at a prayer vigil for the victims of the attack that drew about 100 people Friday evening. The city will heal he said. But it must “first diagnose the problem.” He called on parishioners to embrace and accept one another, the Associated Press reported, adding that there is still “a long way to go.” Parishioners lit candles and placed notes with messages on a wooden cross outside the church. One read: “We are one. #DallasStrong”.

Demonstrations and vigils filled streets in no fewer than 17 cities, among them, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York, Omaha, Detroit, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Chicago, Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Phoenix and Little Rock. In some places, police stood quietly in the background. In others, they wound up in riot gear as protesters faced them down toe to toe.

In Phoenix, police with shields pushed back against a crowd, and ultimately deployed pepper spray and fired bean-bagbs to prevent a Black Lives Matter rally from blocking ramps to the I-10 freeway. Rocks were hurled at police, according to the Arizona Republic. By midnight a group that started with about 300 people around 8:00 p.m. local time had dwindled to about 50 or 60. Three arrests were reported in Phoenix.

In D.C., more than 50 people held a vigil in front of the Department of Justice for the two men shot by police in Minnesota and Louisiana before they marched to the White House. While there were fewer people than at a Thursday demonstration, the message was the same: “No justice, no peace,” they chanted.

“Stop killing us” and “Police violence is terrorism” their signs read.

Twenty-five-year-old Denzel Allen of Southeast Washington said he hasn’t cried since he was 12. But then he said he saw adjacent pictures of Sterling and Castile earlier this week, and realized that “criminals weren’t being killed – it could be your brother, your uncle, it could be me.”