NEW YORK, DECEMBER 14 (Sputnik) – Organizers estimated that between 30,000 to 50,000 people rallied in central New York with demands for justice following two controversial grand jury decisions to not prosecute the white police officers who killed African-American Michael Brown and Eric Garner this summer.
BY FAR,best banner/sign of the day!! #MillionsMarchNYC #ICantBreathe #CrimingWhileWhite pic.twitter.com/iw59A2iV2E
— Jackie (@thedahlimmama) December 13, 2014
"We want full employment for our people. And we want an immediate end to police brutality. We need to look at how these police officers are being trained, how they approach situations, so they don't just reach for the guns, Taser people or choke them," organizer Umaara Elliott, 19, told Sputnik Saturday.
Earlier, a New York police spokesman told Sputnik that there had been no arrests or reports of violence during Saturday's NYC protests.
Wearing heavy winter clothing in temperatures of 6 degrees Celsius, one group of protesters assembled banners in a central New York street, revealing an image of Garner's face.
PHOTO: Bird's eye view of #MillionsMarchNYC - LIVE UPDATES http://t.co/w3UiVWzjOd pic.twitter.com/Of1a8tMSYz #BlackLivesMatter (via @edenbrower)
— RT (@RT_com) December 13, 2014
"The protest is powerful. People are marching, screaming and dancing. This is the uprising," 18-year-old protester Wilglory Tanjong told Sputnik.
The demonstrations are being staged in protest against racism within the US law enforcement and organizers are demanding an end to racial profiling by police.
The protests are the latest in a series of nation-wide rallies held in the United States over the Garner and Brown cases.
Let's not forget. Women of color are also killed by cops. For their memory, too, #ShutItDown. #MillionsMarchNYC pic.twitter.com/sRnsqg4zX5
— Y-Love (@ylove) December 13, 2014
Garner, 43, an overweight street peddler selling untaxed cigarettes, died from suffocation when he was held in a chokehold by police officer Daniel Pantaleo in New York on July 19. Brown, 18, was shot and killed by lawman Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 9.
Grand juries in Missouri and New York have decided not to indict the officers, which led to massive and oftentimes violent protests in the country. US Attorney General Eric Holder held a series of roundtable meetings on community trust across the United States as part of a US government response to the demonstrations.
