Thursday, 30 April 2015

US: Protests over Death of Black Man Spread to New York

Local Editor

Thousands of people demonstrated in major US East Coast cities Wednesday demanding equal treatment for all by police, following the death of a black man, Freddie Gray, injured in police custody in Baltimore.

The biggest show of people power was in Baltimore itself -- epicenter of the latest racially tinged unrest to convulse the United States -- where several thousand mostly young demonstrators paralyzed city blocks in a major rally through downtown to City Hall.

US Protests over Death of Black Man Spread to New York

Thousands more protested in New York, the capital Washington and Boston in solidarity, as simmering anger over alleged police brutality against blacks and discrimination again bubbled to the surface.

The protests were overwhelmingly peaceful and good-natured, although New York police said they had arrested more than 60 demonstrators. Emotions were running high, with scuffles breaking out.

What appears to be a growing movement for change was focused on Baltimore, where a rally that started at the main train station included black and white demonstrators, some of them linking arms and chanting: "No justice, no peace! No racists, no peace!"

Many in the march were high school or college students.

Questions are swirling around just what happened to Gray, 25, who died on April 19— a week after he was chased and restrained by police officers, and suffered a spine injury, which later killed him, in their custody.