Massive protests slam police brutality across US

Hundreds of thousands of protesters have marched in major US cities, highlighting a “Week of Outrage,” to protest against rampant racism and police violence in the country.

Anti-racism protests were being held Saturday in the streets of Washington, as well as Chicago, Boston, and New York — where protestors flooded from regions as far as Florida, Connecticut, and Pittsburgh by bus.

Washington demonstrators gathered in Freedom Plaza, a couple of blocks from the White House, before starting a three-mile march down Pennsylvania Avenue to the US Capitol.

Protesters say they will not back down until there is systemic change, accountability, and justice in cases of police misconduct.

People in the US have been simmering with rage following the death of several unarmed black Americans at the hands of police and grand jury decisions not to indict two white police officers in Missouri and New York.

Families of recent police murder victims including Eric Garner and Akai Gurley, who were killed by New York police; Trayvon Martin, killed by a Florida neighborhood watchman in 2012; and Michael Brown, killed by an officer in Ferguson, Missouri attended the Washington protest. Samaria Rice, the mother of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, shot and killed last month by a Cleveland police officer, and civil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton were also present.

“This is a history-making moment,” said Gwen Carr, whose son, Eric Garner, died after a police officer put him in a chokehold.

“It’s just so overwhelming to see all who have come to stand with us today,” she said. “I mean, look at the masses. Black, white, all races, all religions… We need to stand like this at all times.”

“What a sea of people,” said Lesley McSpadden, the mother of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old murdered in August by officer Darren Wilson, among the crowd. “If they don’t see this and make a change, then I don’t know what we got to do. Thank you for having my back.”

Among the major organizers of the Saturday’s Justice for All protests are Stop Mass Incarceration Network, National Action Network, and National Action Alliance.

As the Washington march was winding down, social media users reported that thousands of protestors were rallying at #MillionsMarchNYC.