Washington, DC protesters block streets in Michael Brown solidarity march
A crowd of protesters has taken to the streets of Washington, DC, expressing their solidarity with the people of Ferguson who gathered earlier on Saturday in remembrance of Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager killed by police earlier this month.
Chanting “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” the Washington protesters took over the streets in a northeast neighbourhood, blocking the traffic. Wondering “How many must die?” till police brutality and racism is stopped, protesters demanded “Justice for Mike Brown!”
Stopped at H&8th. Eugene Puryear talking about military-style police checkpoints in nearby #Trinidad. #dcfergusonpic.twitter.com/YdYh7Shy9J
— Cole Stangler (@ColeStangler) August 31, 2014
Happening now on H St. Join us. #DCFergusonpic.twitter.com/9RWzzHASZA
— Shirin (@ShirinGW) August 31, 2014
Earlier in the day, hundreds of people gathered in Ferguson, Missouri calling for justice over the killing of Brown. Protesters said that this is just the beginning of a movement to highlight US racial inequality.
The rally started where the unarmed 18-year old was shot dead on August 9th by white police officer Darren Wilson in the small Missouri town, AP reports. There were children and families among the protesters who wore T shirts and carried banners with the ubiquitous sign “hands up, don’t shoot.”
The march was led by Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden. She and other members of the Brown family, including Michael’s father Michael Brown senior, gathered round the make shift memorial in the middle of Cranfield Drive where Brown died and bowed their heads in prayer. One was led by a Muslim cleric, the other by Rev. Spencer Booker.
#DCFerguson shut down h street! #JusticeForMikeBrown#Fergusonpic.twitter.com/jGen8SBBY0
— Vicki McGill (@nubian_1) August 31, 2014
“We know that his life is not going to be in vain. We know you’re going to even the score God. We know you’re going to make the wrong right,” said Booker through a megaphone.
Jerryl Christmas the St Louis attorney said the march was meant to keep the resulting racial questions that were the result of Brown’s death “in the forefront of America.”
“We're just three weeks into this, and this is only the beginning of this movement. We want the president to come here. He remarked that he didn't have a strategy for ISIS and Syria, but we need a strategy for urban America. The tragedy is this could have happened anywhere,” Christmas told AP.
For days after Brown’s death the area of Ferguson was the epicenter of nightly protests, although during Saturday’s protest there was a muted police presence with the Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson, who was in charge of security, posing for selfies with rally attendees.
