Protests against police racial profiling to continue: Activists

Protesters slamming police brutality in the United States have defied calls to end demonstrations.

On Tuesday, a national coalition of activists announced plans for a mass demo in New York on New Year’s Eve.

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio called for an end to the protests after two NYPD cops were killed by a deranged man on Sunday.

Protesters defied the call and attended a march down the city’s 5th Avenue, one of the busiest shopping districts in New York, carrying signs that said “jail killer cops.”

“They have no right to tell us that we should back off our protests and we should silence our voices. Our voices must be heard,” said Carl Dix, the co-founder of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, outside City Hall. “Our stance should be as long as these murders by police happen, as long as the criminal justice system refuses to indict and convict any of these killer cops, then our resistance must go on.”

The group called for more protests in Times Square, where thousands traditionally gather on New Year’s Eve.

“We’re here today to call on people to rock in the New Year with resistance to police murder. No New Year under this old system,” said activist Travis Morales, urging protesters to take to the streets on December 31.

Protests were triggered by a grand jury decision not to indict police officer Daniel Pantaleo in Eric Garner’s chokehold death in New York City, two weeks after another grand jury decided not to indict former policeman Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

Unlike the fatal shooting of Brown, the chokehold death of Garner, a father of six and grandfather of two, was recorded by a cell phone and widely seen, contributing to the public outrage. In the video, Garner repeatedly told police officers “I can’t breathe!”

On Monday, the New York City sought to reduce tensions with the police after Officers Rafael Ramos, 40, and his colleague, Wenjian Liu, 32, were shot dead in Brooklyn inside their patrol car by 28-year-old Ismaaiyl Brinsley.

Brinsley, an African-American, had warned about retaliating for the killings of unarmed black people by white police officers.