US protesters march on Washington to protest police killings

Protests are continuing throughout the United States to denounce grand jury decisions not to indict white police officers in the shooting death of black men in New York City and Ferguson last summer.

Demonstrators protesting police violence marched on Monday night outside the US Capitol and the US Justice Department, bearing the names of black Americans killed by police.

Protesters chanted, “black lives matter” and “off the sidewalks, into the streets.” One woman held a sign that said, “Stop killing us.”

Protesters also laid down in the streets to simulate being dead, blocking rush hour traffic on a major thoroughfare that connects the White House to upper northwest Washington.

It was one of several rallies planned for Monday night across the US, days after a grand jury decided not to indict police officer Daniel Pantaleo in Eric Garner’s chokehold death in New York City and two weeks after a 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! I can’t breathe!”

In New York City, a large crowd of demonstrators swarmed the streets outside the Barclays Center, chanting “hands up, don’t shoot” and “black lives matter.”

“What’s happening in these cities in these last several days is incredibly important to show we have a unified voice,” said Judi Flournoy, who was participating in a New York protest.