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Protesters in Washington during the Justice for All march
Photo : Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
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A human tide to say no to police violence. Tens of thousands of people gathered today in Washington and New York, among others, for a day of anger. The move follows the deaths in recent months of unarmed blacks killed by white police officers who have not been charged.
In the capital, the procession started at noon and blocked Pennsylvania Avenue, between the White House and the Capitol. Some 20,000 people took part in the demonstration, reports Radio-Canada correspondent in Washington, Christian Latreille.
The procession included family members of Eric Garner and Akai Gurley, who were recently killed by New York police officers, as well as Michael Brown, killed by an officer in Ferguson, Missouri. Relatives of Trayvon Martin, shot dead by a volunteer neighborhood watchman in 2012 in Florida, were also present.
Protesters marched peacefully with banners that read: “We march to end racial profiling”, “Racism is disease”. Other slogans called for the arrest of “killer police”.
Christian Latreille’s report
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Civil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton, whose National Action Alliance called for this protest in Washington, demands action. He wants Congress to pass a law that allows federal prosecutors to hear cases involving police officers.
It is not enough to talk, we need legislative measures that will change things both in law and on the ground.
Responsibility for investigations is currently devolved to local prosecutors, who work regularly with police officers and then sometimes have to investigate the same police officers, which creates conflicts of interest, he said.
Politicians are also calling for better police training and changes to the decision-making process of “grand juries”.
“This is not a march of blacks against whites […] It is an American march for the rights of American citizens, ”said Reverend Al Sharpton.
Thousands of people also protested in New York and Boston.
Discrimination and impunity denounced
In recent weeks, demonstrations, some of which have turned into riot, have taken place in several cities across the country. These events have resurfaced the racial divide in the United States.
Thousands of American citizens, of all origins, are protesting against the decision of a grand jury not to prosecute a white police officer responsible for the death of a black father, Eric Garner. The latter died on July 17 during a police intervention. The 43-year-old, obese and asthmatic, was suspected of reselling cigarettes. He was pinned to the ground by several police officers and died as a result of the intervention. No charges were laid against the officers.
Eric Garner’s case is not unlike that of Ferguson, where the young black Michael Brown was shot dead by a police officer. There too, a grand jury decided not to prosecute the white policeman, which sparked riots and protests against the excessive use of police force.
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