In the midst of the Times Square protest, one activist threw fake blood on NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton.
Bratton has been fiercely criticized for the NYPD’s broken-windows policy of policing that focuses on patrolling communities of color and cracking down on low-level crimes. His theory is replicated in police departments nationwide. In Ferguson, Officer Darren Wilson approached Michael Brown for not walking on the sidewalk. Last week, an NYPD officer was patrolling a public housing unit when he “accidentally” shot and killed an unarmed black male named Akai Gurley.
Protesters in NYC used the fake blood that ran off Bratton to send a powerful message on the streets:
Protests also took place in Washington, D.C, Chicago, Seattle, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Oakland, CA.
In Ferguson, police chiefs had refused to rule out tear gas and rubber bullets. Numerous protesters were injured from both. This was the police response to one woman apparently having a heart attack:
The St. Louis County Police Department sent out this absurd lie in a tweet:
More than 100 actions nationwide have been planned around the grand jury announcement.