WASHINGTON (NNPA)—Last Saturday, thousands of Americans across the country registered their objection to police officers not being held accountable after killing unarmed citizens, many of them Blacks, by mounting massive demonstrations and rallies, the main one held here in the nation’s capital.
Organized by major civil rights organizations, the goal of the protest was to demand federal intervention in state prosecutorial systems that have failed to indict anyone in the police killings of victims such as Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Aiyana Stanley-Jones and Pearlie Golden.
“We must have this nation deal with the fact that just like 50 years ago, the states have taken a position to rob the human rights and civil rights of citizens with states rights-protected laws,” said Al Sharpton, the rally’s chief organizer.
The demands by Sharpton included: expanding the powers for the Justice Department to investigate state prosecution procedures; national legislation to lower the threshold for grand jury indictments of police officers; and independent special prosecutors to examine potential cases of police brutality or misconduct.
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