NYC Protests police shootings News

Hundreds of demonstrators marched through the streets of New York last week in a third night of protests against shootings of black men by police officers in Louisiana and Minnesota.

The protesters marched up Broadway from lower Manhattan, paused for speeches in Union Square, then marched to Times Square and around midtown.

As many as 1,000 people joined the protest, but many left when it started raining late Saturday night.

Police officers marched alongside the protesters and tried to keep them on the sidewalk by playing a recorded announcement warning them that they risked arrest if they stayed in the street. A police spokesman said there were at least 20 arrests.

Zayanahla Vines, a nephew of Delrawn Small, who was shot to death by an off-duty officer in Brooklyn during a road-rage incident Monday, choked back tears before kicking off the march.

“My uncle was killed in cold blood by somebody who was wearing a badge and that man’s still walking free today,” Vines said.

He added, “This is about black people in America, this is not about me. This is not about any of us as an individual.”

New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced that he will investigate the death of Small, who was black, as were the men fatally shot by police officers in Baton Rouge and a suburb of Minneapolis.

Protester Cynthia Howell said she wants to see accountability for police misconduct.

“We are not against the police, but we want accountability and we want justice,” said Howell, a niece of Alberta Spruill, who died of a heart attack in 2003 after police threw a concussion grenade into her Harlem apartment during a mistaken raid. “We want those who do reckless, dangerous things held accountable.”

Danny Salk, a filmmaker from Brooklyn, brought his two young daughters, Indigo Hubbard-Salk, 10, and Cypris Hubbard-Salk, 14, to the protest.

“I came out to protest the killing of black people by cops and racism in general,” Salk said. “I think it’s time we stopped racism.”

He said his daughters were the ones who inspired him to come.

“They’re the activists. They said it’s very important that we go,” he said. “It’s very empowering to stand in the street and chant and practice democracy. This is the only way we’re going to wake people up.”

Saturday’s protest against police killings followed demonstrations on Thursday and Friday in New York City and around the country.