D.C. parade of tears in cop killings
RELATIVES OF some of the country’s highest-profile black men killed by police are poised to join the Rev. Al Sharpton in a march on Washington Saturday.
The “Justice For All” rally will be led by family members of nearly a dozen men — including relatives of Eric Garner, Michael Brown and Amadou Diallo. Also on hand will be the parents of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old Florida boy gunned down by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman.
“To my memory, this has never happened where we have so many families of victims coming together and leading a march,” Sharpton (below) told the Daily Newson Friday.
“It puts a face on what we’re talking about. These are the wounded.”
More than 100 buses are expected to leave the city for the nation’s capital early Saturday.
Participants are slated to march down Pennsylvania Ave. starting at noon, massing in front of the Capitol.
The event was organized in the days after it was announced that a Staten Island grand jury voted not to indict NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the July chokehold death of 43-year-old Garner.
Sharpton, joined by members of dozens of religious and advocacy groups, is calling for congressional hearings into the recent spate of police-involved killings. The Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into Garner’s death — but more systemic changes are needed, Sharpton said.
“There must be some relief from the Justice Department but there must be some longstanding change in terms of law, which requires Congress,” Sharpton said.
Meanwhile, NYPD supporters are planning a procop rally at City Hall next Friday.