COVER STORY
JUSTICE FOR ALL: THOUSANDS MARCH AGAINST POLICE
VIOLENCE
By Trymaine Lee
this national conversation on police
misconduct,” Michael Wright, a
lawyer for Crawford’s family, said in
a statement. “Ever since the tragic
loss of their son, John H. Crawford,
lll, this past summer, John and
Tressa have been committed to
making sure this type of injustice
never happens to another family.
Being in Washington, D.C. this
weekend is a step toward that goal.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The
growing, national protest movement
against police violence spilled out
into the streets of the nation’s capital
Saturday December 13th.
Spurred by a recent spate of killings
of unarmed black men by cops who
have escaped criminal prosecution,
thousands gathered here to join the
families of many of those who have
been killed in a march and rally
billed as the “Justice For All” march.
Busloads of demonstrators from all
over the country filled the air with
cries of “Black lives matter” and
“I can’t breathe” as they advanced
toward the U.S. Capitol building.
The march got off to a rocky start
when some activists took issue with
the professional tone of the event,
which was organized by the Rev.
Al Sharpton’s National Action
Network and sponsored by dozens
of other organizations from across
the country. At one point a group of
Ferguson protesters stormed the stage
near where they march was planned
to begin, with one activist grabbing
the mike and yelling “shut it down”
before organizers cut her audio.
“We are not here to play big shot. We
are here to win,” Sharpton responded
as he took the stage minutes later,
adding that the Ferguson protesters
on the front lines fought hard and
deserved respect.
Sharpton, host of MSNBC’s
PoliticsNation, called for the march
following a grand jury’s decision
December 3rd not to indict the officer
involved in the chokehold death of
Eric Garner on Staten Island over the
summer. The decision in the Garner
case came just weeks after a grand
jury in Missouri declined to indict
former Ferguson police officer Darren
Wilson in the shooting death of
Michael Brown. The non-indictment
in the Brown case sparked fiery
protests in Ferguson and in dozens of
cities across the country, from New
York City to Oakland, California,
Sponsors for the march include a
wide and diverse group of about 50
national organizations, including
the National Urban League, the
ACLU, the League of United Latin
American Citizens, the National
LGBTQ Task Force and the United
Federation of Teachers.
and internationally, including Paris,
France.
On December 13th, family members
of some of the most high-profile cases
of unarmed African-American’s killed
by police and armed white civilians
joined in calling for justice and
police reforms.
and the families of the victims of
police violence plan to outline what
organizers describe as a legislative
agenda for Congress to bring
widespread police reforms.
The march comes as spontaneous and
meticulously planned protests and
acts of non-violent civil disobedience
across the country have snarled
traffic, shut down retail and big box
stores and even for a time shut down
the Brooklyn Bridge in New York in
recent weeks.
The killing of Eric Garner on July
15th, and less than a month later
Lesley McSpadden, Brown’s
mother, thanked protesters for their
support, saying “You’re helping
our voices be heard!” Esaw Garner,
Garner’s widow, led the gathered
crowd in chants of “I can’t breathe.”
Samaria Rice, the mother of Tamir
Rice, 12, who was shot and killed
by a police officer in Cleveland on
Nov. 22 while carrying a pellet gun,
told protesters “We will get justice
for our chil