Kim Moore speaks to crowd that rallied in solidarity in City Heights for Ferguson, Missouri.
From San Diego to Los Angeles and across the nation to New York City, Americans of all colors rallied and held vigils on Thursday, August 14th, in solidarity with the people of Ferguson, Missouri, in their struggle against local police who shot and killed a young Black man, Michael Brown.
The common issue and demand that are uniting Americans is a call to end police shootings of unarmed Black men.
In the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego, more than a hundred people gathered to show solidarity with the people of Ferguson and with the family of Michael Brown. Organizer Kim Moore yelled out:
“Put our hands up, don’t shoot!”
This refrain has become a rallying call for those in Ferguson and in San Diego and elsewhere. Reportedly, Brown, the teenager killed by police, had his hands up before being gunned down. Moore also stated to the SanDiego6 and otherpress:
“Overpolicing, racial profiling, police brutality, sexual abuse, it is all happening within minority communities.
“We let them know, hey, this is not it. We do have next steps. If you want to be part of the decision making process, you have to be present at the table. We start with community meetings, and then we move up.”
Also on Thursday, up in Los Angeles, hundreds rallied and protested at Leimert Plaza Park in South Los Angeles – as part of the nationwide series of protests. At the peaceful event, hundreds raised their hands during a moment of silence for Mike Brown.
“We refuse to live this way,” chanted protesters in Leimert Park.
Simultaneous events also in support of Ferguson took place in Chicago, Detroit, Washington, Boston, Reno, and New Orleans.
New York Protests Take Over Times Square
In New York City, Thursday night, several thousand demonstrators took over Times Square in that city’s protest for Ferguson. Demonstrators chanted “NYPD, don’t shoot!” and “I can’t breathe” – which is a reference to the chokehold death of a Staten Island African-American man). People held signs or just raised their empty hands to the sky. MYFOXNY –
More than 200 people filled Fulton Park in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, shouting, crying, and chanting names of those who had died at the hands of law enforcement across the country. Another 500 gathered at Morningside Park in Harlem on Manhattan’s northern edge, monitoring the situation, pointed to the recent deaths of Trayvon Martin in Florida and Eric Garner, who died after a New York police officer placed him in a chokehold, as other catalysts for the gathering in Los Angeles.
In downtown Baltimore about 300 people marched peacefully to the Inner Harbor after stopping at police headquarters and City Hall, a spokesman for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said. Many chanted, “Hands up, don’t shoot.”
A peaceful protest was held in Philadelphia, and there was a vigil and moment of silence at Boston Common, according to local media reports.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
The first step for San Diegans is to de-militarize the local police department. We don’t need no stinkin’ tanks. We don’t need no stinkin’ Bearcat SWAT vehicles. We don’t need no stinkin’ ordnance laced w/ depleted & undepleted uranium. I would prefer cops that walk the beat over those that shoot to kill.
If I had known I would have been there!
Crazy trigger happy cops are far more dangerous than any evil Muslim terror dudes.
Lol. At least three of my neighbors have run out of their medical marijuana.
Government/Wall Street took away the jobs of these people and sent them to China. Government then made them feel worthless eaters and they respond by rioting. Big government then arms the police with military weaponry. Where does this end?