New York – Activists and family members of those killed by police recited names and talked about their loved ones at a rally Thursday in Times Square, the start of three days of protests and marches speaking out against violence at the hands of law enforcement.
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“We need to put an end to police brutality and police murder,” said Nicholas Heyward Sr., whose 13-year-old son, Nicholas Heyward Jr., was killed by a police officer in 1994 while the boy was playing with a toy gun at a Brooklyn housing project.
He told the small crowd, “We are talking about innocent lives that are being taken constantly and they never, never are being held accountable for the crimes they are committing.”
While Thursday’s protest and other events been in the works for some time, they’re coinciding with a tragic event — the killing of a New York Police Department officer, Randolph Holder, in the line of duty on Tuesday night. Holder, a decorated five-year veteran of the department, was shot in the head after a chase. A 30-year-old man with a history of arrests has been charged with murder.
Playwright and activist Eve Ensler, who spoke at the rally, told The Associated Press afterward that the officer’s death was terrible. But “that murder does not discount the hundreds of deaths that we are seeing and continuing to see and the lack of any indictments and the lack of any justice and that’s why I’m here today,” she said.
Those who spoke at the rally included family members of people killed in interactions with police all over the country, both recent deaths like that of Akai Gurley in November 2014 and others going back years, like Heyward Jr’s. The RiseUpOctober events were the brainchild of activist Carl Dix and academic Cornel West, and are scheduled to culminate on Saturday with a march in Manhattan.
Recent deaths at police hands have spurred protests nationwide over police use of force.
“We are talking about something that is widespread and intense when we talk about losing their lives at the hands of law enforcement,” Dix said Thursday.
what about the police officers who get shot? do these innocent tzadikim protest over that? it is murder and brutality regardless of who the victim/perpetrator is.