Mr Grant was shot as he lay face down on a train platform on New Year's Day in 2009 on an Oakland train platform in an incident that was compared to the 1992 beating of Rodney King.
During protests last night, at least a dozen businesses were damaged, bank windows were smashed, fires were started and a small bomb exploded near a police station but caused no damage.
'This city is not the wild, wild west,' said Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts. 'This city will not tolerate this sort of activity.'