The Chinatown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. reverberated chants and cries Saturday night as over a thousand protested the police shooting of Michael Brown. Brown an unarmed Black youth, was shot and killed by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. It marked the forth-major local protest in the District since the shooting death two weeks ago.
The National Black United Front and the Answer Coalition were among the groups organizing the march. Among their demands were the prosecution of Darren Wilson, an end to police brutality, a stop to racial profiling, and a review of the demilitarization of local police forces across the country.
The protestors’ objective was to shut down the major economic center and to force Chinatown businesses to focus on injustices of police brutality against minorities. “We need to change our spending habits,” said Kymone Freeman of We Act Radio. Freeman cited several corporations, which contributed to a legal fund that was set up to raise money for the officer who shot Michael Brown. “We need to identify targets we can hit in the pocketbook,” Freeman said.
The march continued for over an hour, past the bustling night businesses, stopping at major intersections. It grew as bystanders joined in, expressing their grief and rage as they wound through the streets and finished their march at the Portrait Gallery steps.
Reverend George Gilbert said, “Some say we are not patriotic because we are standing up to the police in America.” Ferguson police filed a report absent the critical details circumstantial to Brown’s death. “I say to these misdirected individuals that we support the officers who serve the people but not the overseers who stand over the people,” said Reverend Gilbert.
An awakening to police brutality against Blacks in America is underway across the nation. Daily protests, rallies and vigils have spread with over 37 cities seeing protests across the country on Saturday. And more are planned for the coming week, including a protest and petition delivery to the Department of Justice on Thursday.
Many news services and websites are leading with daily discussions and analysis of the Ferguson police shooting and its fallout. Social media is also abuzz with comments on Ferguson and police brutality. On Twitter and Facebook the hash tags #HandsUpFriday, #Ferguson and #HandsUpDontShoot were and remain trending.
Coulter Brown, a member of National Black United Front expressed concern for the state of the country regarding issues underlying police misconduct and killings. “We live in a very Orwellian type of society where everything we do is being monitored,” he said. “The issue of police brutality and the issue of brutalization of Black men and women, Black men in particular, is something that America needs to deal with because Black people are just the litmus test for what is going to happen to the rest of society,” he said.
As anger over the police shooting of Michael Brown intensifies, more reports of police killings are coming to light, further tapping into long simmering feelings that police profile, target, and kill Blacks, while escaping prosecution. Saturday also saw a major protest of 15,000 on Staten Island concerning the NY Police Department chokehold death of Eric Garner, which was caught on video.
“No more killing our children,” said Reverand Gilbert, “We say to America, you should be afraid-you have wakened your worse nightmare-the Hip Hop Generation, the Boys In the Hood-and unless you remove the barriers of your systematic racial injustice you will fall a great fall.”