"Million Moms March" against police brutality during National Police Week
On the 9th of May, mothers of African-American men murdered by police marched at the head of a column of supporters from John Marshall Park by the courthouses to the Dept of Justice and back. Marchers demanded an end to police murder violence in the wake of police brutality cases and uprisings from Ferguson to Baltimore.
The mothers whose sons were slain by police wore white, and marched over to the Dept of "Justice" from the main march on Penn Ave by themselves. The rest of the march was then called in to join them. The Department of "Justice" was slow to send out anyone to speak to the mothers, but finally did send out a representative. After that discussion, however, the march returned to the streets with renewed vigor, this time taking over all of Penn Ave from curb to curb for the march back to the park.
Later the same day, a remembrance was held in Anacostia for Rafael Briscoe, killed by a DC Police jump-out squad back in 2011.
I can think of no stronger refutation of the cop-worship peddled at National Police Week than the mothers of those the police killed marching one day before the start of their main events, and after the Tuesday "Blue Mass." The march was scheduled for Mother's Day, not as a counterprotest to National Police Week but the cooincidence is interesting coming just one week after the uprising in Baltimore.
Youtube video of meeting of mothers with the DOJ: youtube.com/watch?v=hIwwxSujFe4&
Two young children at Rafael Briscoe's memorial in Anacostia-photo by Yasmina Mrabet
