US Protests against Police Brutality Continue

US Protests against Police Brutality Continue

Demonstrations about police brutality against black men continued around the United States into the night Saturday and early Sunday.

Days of protests began in response to police shootings last week of two black men— one in Louisiana, the other in Minnesota.

Saturday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, DeRay McKesson, a Black Lives Matter member and one of the founders of the activist collective known as Campaign Zero, was arrested while live streaming at a demonstration about the police shooting of Sterling.

“He was clearly targeted,” Brittany Packnett, a Campaign Zero co-founder, told The Washington Post.

Baton Rouge police say they only arrested people who stepped into the street instead of remaining on the sidewalk. The Advocate, a Baton Rouge newspaper said when protesters “… ventured into the street— and sometimes even when they appeared not to— police were quick to arrest.”

Earlier Saturday, The Advocate reported about 500 people walked from City Hall through downtown Baton Rouge, often in total silence while holding their fists in the air in honor of Alton Sterling, a father of five killed by police Tuesday.

Elsewhere in Baton Rouge, demonstrators kept up their vigil outside the convenience store where Sterling was killed. One woman held up a sign that read “I can’t keep calm, I have a black son.”

Rallies elsewhere

In Minnesota, protesters shut down a major highway near the site where Philando Castile was was shot dead by a police officer Wednesday.

In San Francisco Saturday, California Highway Patrol closed access to the Bay Bridge at least two times when protesters took over freeway ramps, causing traffic to back up.

Protests were held in other cities, including Washington, New York, San Francisco, Nashville and Indianapolis.

Tuesday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, cell phone footage showed police shooting 37-year-old Sterling at point-blank range as he was being held down by two police officers.

Wednesday evening in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota, the fiancée of Castile managed to livestream on her private Facebook account just seconds after a police officer shot Castile several times after pulling them over for a broken tail light. Diamond Reynolds and her 4-year-old daughter were in the car when the officer opened fire.

A peaceful demonstration about the police brutality Thursday in Dallas, Texas, ended violently when a lone gunman opened fire on police standing guard over the crowd, killing five officers and wounding seven others.

 

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