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Celebrities, university students, religious congregations, activists, and community housing projects commenced the final day of the Rise Up October campaign against police brutality marching to the heart of Manhattan on Saturday morning, defiantly condemning "police terror" against U.S. citizens just a day after protesters were arrested for trying to shut down New York's notorious Rikers prison.
Local and international media followed protesters as they chanted slogans like “Justice Now!” and “The Whole Damn System is Guilty as Hell!.” While, quiet tears and sometimes painful screams could be heard among the crowd as mothers who lost their children lamented the lack of justice in the United States when it comes to police brutality.
Tensions and emotions of pain and anger were clearly high as the protests unfolded. One young Black woman activist on a megaphone condemned the Black police officers on patrol at the protest, calling one officer a “House Negro.” The emotions reflect how many communities of color in the United States are “sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
The march is the culmination of a three-day action in New York that sought to keep the focus on police harassment and brutality that activists say targets the most vulnerable in United States, especially economically marginalized communities of color, leading to a culture of impunity for police violence.
"Millions of people all across the country and around the world will hear our powerful cry - WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? Millions more are gonna say, okay, I gotta choose sides and many of them will decide they have to be with the ones trying to STOP this," read a statement by organizers of the protest on The Stop Mass Incarceration Network's Facebook page.
RELATED: #RiseUpOctober: The Movement Against US 'Police Terror'
The group also said the action would be supported in various cities across the United States, including Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, New Orleans and Mississippi. On Friday, at least 10 people were arrested in protests calling for the closure New York prison facility Rikers, sources told teleSUR, as part of a three-day demonstration across the United States against police brutality.
Under the #RiseUpOctober banner, around 200 protesters gathered in Queens to disrupt the detention center by lying on the ground outside. Critics say detainees are systematically abused at the center. Eyewitnesses said that demonstrators were then zip-tied and dragged away to a prison bus by waiting police.
“They went for the front gate to the prison and police deployed officers wearing gas masks with dogs,” independent video journalist James Woods told teleSUR.
teleSUR English: Live Updates of the Rise Up October Protests
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