Justice for All and Million March NYC police brutality protests – how the day unfolded

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2014/dec/13/police-killings-protests-washington-new-york-live-coverage

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8.12pm ET01:12

With that, we’re going to wrap up our coverage of today's protests around the country. Thanks for joining us throughout the afternoon and evening.

8.11pm ET01:11

Summing up

From coast to coast, tens of thousands of people marched – and were still marching, as night came on - in solidarity with the families of those killed by law enforcement officers. The protesters, who were black, white, Latino, Asian, young and elderly, streamed through the city streets in Washington, New York, Boston, Chicago and Oakland. They carried protest signs that read “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” and banners that read “Black Lives Matter”.

Here’s a look back at the day’s key events:

Updated at 8.18pm ET

7.53pm ET00:53

An NYPD police spokesman, who was quite curt, told the Guardian the situation on the Brooklyn Bridge was “ongoing”. He said he would not comment on how police were dispersing protesters and said no arrests had been made. He said the bridge was “not shut down” and that cars were still able to move on the bridge.

Reliable reporters who are on the bridge have said police wielded batons – though with no indication that they used them – and have reported at least one arrest.

Protesters berate the one black cop: "you scared? You scared of your own people" https://t.co/2GRAL05f8g

7.29pm ET00:29

Protesters briefly halted traffic on Brooklyn Bridge, but it appears to moving again, slowly. Stalled drivers are honking in support.

Supportive drivers honking on the Bk bridge https://t.co/gyjPmDo6YM

7.24pm ET00:24

Protest moves to Brooklyn Bridge

Protesters in NYC are streaming on to the Brooklyn Bridge, to halt traffic. According to reports, a handful of quick-footed protesters manoeuvred their way around a wall of police officers to run on to the bridge.

DNAinfo reporter Danielle Tcholakian is reporting live from the bridge.

On the Brooklyn Bridge, in stalled traffic: "my black students have dreams." https://t.co/UTBNa1nnvq

7.15pm ET00:15

My colleague Steven Thrasher, who marched for more than four hours with protesters through the streets of New York, has filed his final dispatch for the day:

The march was supposed to end at One Police Plaza but Foley Square, in front of it, was jam-packed – far more so than it was at the protest the night after the Garner non-indictment was announced. There were multiple helicopters overhead, and Twitter had it that the crowd extended all the way back to Union Square. Noticeable in the march was the presence of young people, from many infants to young white boys chanting, to young teenagers singing.

The worry of friction with those partaking in Santa Con always loomed, but never happened. Protesters attempted to get Santas to come “out of the bars and into the streets” but the Santas mostly behaved themselves. As I’ve noticed over the past two weeks, there was incredible restraint by NYPD foot patrol, even though the ridiculous numbers of choppers overhead was surely meant to intimidate. I did not see one arrest, or even hear a police officer tell marchers to keep moving when spontaneous ‘die-ins’ occurred. While there very well could have been arrests, I didn’t see any, unlike during Occupy Wall Street, when the Michael Bloomberg/Ray Kelly NYPD was constantly arresting protesters, journalists and people nearby who didn’t even plan to be involved.

Noticeable too was a protest contingent as diverse as the city itself, with Muslim, Christian, Jewish, black, white, Hispanic, Native American and Asian New Yorkers out in large numbers. This, too, was very different from Occupy Wall Street.

By the end of the march, it seemed lower Manhattan was safe for those Santas to take over – and vomit over – late into the night.

Updated at 7.17pm ET

7.11pm ET00:11

Cast members from Netflix’s Orange is the New Black put their “Hands up” in solidarity with protesters during the Million March in NYC.

“@powerpuffqueer: orange is the new black cast participating in #MillionMarchNYC pic.twitter.com/lc4CPue96x” this will go down in history

Updated at 7.11pm ET

7.07pm ET00:07

A New York Police Department spokesman said there have been no arrests during today’s four-hour, miles-long march through NYC.

6.45pm ET23:45

The mother of Oscar Grant, a young black man whose fatal encounter with an Oakland transit police officer in 2009 was recently made into a film, Fruitvale Station, is speaking to the crowd gathered outside the Alameda county court house in Oakland.

“We want officers to be held accountable for their actions ... Feel that pain just as we have to feel it,” Wanda Johnson said.

Wanda Johnson, Oscar Grants mother, speaking on the courthouse steps #MillionMarchOak #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/wdJ18wYXbf

6.30pm ET23:30

An estimated 3,500 protesters in Oakland, California, are approaching the Alameda County court house. Oakland saw intense - and at times violent - protests in the wake of the grand jury decisions not to indict officers in the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown.

Arriving at courthouse. #Oakland #MillionsMarch https://t.co/f6GK3z7POa

6.13pm ET23:13

Reports suggest there have been no arrests so far in New York, though local television has pictures of a police car with its back window broken, possibly with a thrown trash can. We'll try to confirm the arrests figure – or lack of one.

5.58pm ET22:58

Audio

Steven Thrasher now files an audio report, from Broadway and Broome in New York. That’s just below the Guardian office, meaning it’s taken him 40 minutes to get about 10 blocks down the island since his last filing. His report captures the atmosphere of the march…

Updated at 6.13pm ET

5.48pm ET22:48

There is, as usual in such circumstances, disagreement between organisers and police (and no doubt different figures posted by different reporters) about how many people are marching today in New York:

NYPD officer told me they estimate 12k protesters at today's #MillionsMarchNYC but protest organizer tells me their count is 50k.

No word yet on any arrests in New York – we're chasing that number down for you.

5.33pm ET22:33

Reports coming in that numbers in Oakland are passing 1,000:

Approaching 1,000 at #MillionsMarch 14th/Broadway #Oakland ... Many more appear on the way from #berkeleyprotest pic.twitter.com/NM8J4gw4JY

5.29pm ET22:29

More on the arrests in Boston

The Massachusetts State Police arrest figure for Boston is still 23. The police say “15 men, 8 women” have been held, and add: “All have been charged with disorderly conduct, one of the males arrested was also charged with Assault & Battery on a Police Officer.”

State trooper Dustin Fitch, whose Twitter profile identifies him as a “Social Media Specialist”, says the protests are now dispersing and adds:

To MEDIA: We confirm several arrests so far, we will post on MSPnews .org when we have more info. #NoNeedToCallUsRightNow

Updated at 5.35pm ET

5.18pm ET22:18

Steven W Thrasher files for the Guardian from Union Square, which means he’ll be passing the office shortly:

I’m at Union Square which appears to be about the halfway point of planned march route. I hear the March roughly extends [back] from 14th to 32nd on Broadway. There are periodic funny interactions between Santa Con Santas – mostly drunk white guys – and protesters, who exhort them “out of the bars and into the streets!”

Funniest was when a black guy in a Santa suit just wandered by, intoxicated, and some black women protesters yelled at him “Oh come on! Your parents would be ashamed of you not joining us! They regret sending you to private school!”

He was too drunk and busy eating pizza. He didn’t seem to notice.

5.14pm ET22:14

The scene outside Guardian HQ, on Broadway in Soho, New York, 10 minutes ago. Marchers are still streaming past, chanting at bemused shoppers.

Throngs of protesters marching through Soho chanting "don't just watch us. join us. Join us" #MillionsMarchNYC pic.twitter.com/g1lXXgfmNz

5.06pm ET22:06

According to the Associated Press, three cardboard cutouts of black men were found hanging by nooses Saturday on the Berkeley campus of the University of California. This from the AP report:

A school spokeswoman, Amy Hamaoui, said police were trying to determine who hanged the effigies, which were found at two prominent campus locations on Saturday morning.Hamaoui said the effigies appeared to be connected to a noontime demonstration nearby planned to coincide with a national protest against police brutality dubbed “#blacklivesmatters”. The effigies appeared to be life-size photos of lynching victims.

The effigies had names of lynching victims and the dates of their death. At least one effigy had “I Can’t Breathe” printed on the front. Hamaoui said it was unclear who hanged the effigies.

“We are unsure of the intent,” Hamaoui said.

4.53pm ET21:53

A compelling collection of photos from the NYC protest. In the photo in the bottom left quadrant, a group of protesters are carrying panels that show Eric Garner’s eyes. We’re looking for a better photo to show you...

Powerful images coming in from #MillionsMarchNYC #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/CgVYAOqiNl

Updated at 4.54pm ET

4.40pm ET21:40

A picture from Boston, where Massachusetts State Police say they have made 23 arrests of protesters today…

4.35pm ET21:35

Massachusetts State Police have arrested 23 protesters in Boston, according to an update posted on its website at 4.25pm. All have been charged with disorderly conduct.

Updated at 4.37pm ET

4.31pm ET21:31

“Eric Garner, Michael Brown. Shut it down, shut it down.”

4.29pm ET21:29

Hundreds march in Chicago, as they’ve done so many times since the Missouri grand jury decision late last month.

#LetUsCross And the march continues #HandsUpDontShoot #Chicago pic.twitter.com/bsz2pcDdsk

4.17pm ET21:17

Native New Yorker and colleague Heidi Moore captures a very New York moment: SantaCon meets the Million March

4.13pm ET21:13

My colleague Matt Sullivan shared this image from from the Million March in NYC.

4.09pm ET21:09

A pretty remarkable showing in New York City.

View right now at 6th and 30th #MillionsMarchNYC pic.twitter.com/4wk98oP0Ti

4.03pm ET21:03

The Boston Globe is reporting that police made “several arrests” during Saturday’s protest.

State Police arrested several people participating in a protest that drew hundreds of people to downtown Boston this afternoon, authorities said.

The arrests were made outside the Nashua Street Jail “after some demonstrators failed to comply with orders to obey the law,” according to David Procopio, a State Police spokesman. Procopio could not confirm the number of arrests as the protest continued this afternoon.

“We have been particularly emphasizing preventing demonstrators from trespassing onto state highways,” Procopio said in an e-mail.

3.56pm ET20:56

Utter confusion as protesters meet Christmas shoppers around 6th Ave in New York.

3.51pm ET20:51

Kayla now reporting that DC protesters briefly disrupted a quaint Christmas market in a posh downtown area.

#justice4all protesters disrupts Christmas market on F street in DC https://t.co/2HSGgYswF9

3.45pm ET20:45

My colleague Kayla Epstein spoke to that family she talked about earlier, the mother and her two young sons. Here’s what they told her.

Even though it was a chilly December day in DC, Tiffany Proctor thought it was important for her and her young two sons, Ahmir, 8, and Ahmar, 10, to witness the protest.

“These are my future,” she said, placing her hands on her sons’ shoulders. “And this is their future. The way things are going - it isn’t right.”

“It’s sad that there’s racism,” Ahmar said quietly.

The family woke up this morning and made signs to carry at the protests. Each boy traced his hands in the “Hands Up,” gesture and wrote, “Don’t shoot me”, and “my life matters”.

3.38pm ET20:38

I was just on the phone with a spokeswoman for the Boston Police Department who said she couldn’t say how many arrests had been made until after the march ends. We’re seeing on Twitter that there have been dozens of arrests.

3.23pm ET20:23

This is Steven’s picture of the sign he discusses in the filing below:

3.18pm ET20:18

Steven Thrasher is wearing his “columnist hat” to, as he notes, file the following “from a gutter”:

This ‘Apartheid’ sign drew strong reactions. The word apartheid has always drawn strong reactions, when lobbed at the United States, Israel/Palestine, or even at South Africa itself back in the day. I understand why the marchers are using it here, for black Americans are living under different standards of American law and even of life itself. That’s why this is about #BlackLivesMatter and now #AllLivesMatter, because under American law, lives do not matter. That’s why everyone is out here.

There is a soft, but often accepted, level of racism taken in accepting the status quo, and the status quo is disrupted when people protest that there is a separate state of being for white and black folk in America. This reminds me of a deeply offensive Op-Ed in the Ithacan from Ithaca, NY I read this morning, which complained about Ithaca College student protesters “disrupting the lives of common, law-abiding citizens and depriving them of their rights to travel freely and to conduct business were justified by a perceived loss of the rights of an individual”. It is likely that it had a negative impact on some that shared the views of the protestors. It is difficult to agree with a group that is preventing you from getting to work or possibly making you late for a job interview. It is almost certain that those who disagreed with the protesters have not changed their minds.”

I spent time in Ithaca and this is precisely the type of mostly white place where self-described hippies don’t want to be inconvenienced. But it is because, as the marchers here in NYC are pointing out today, that there is an apartheid when it comes to who is considered a “common, law-abiding citizen” and who is not. There is a difference in who has the “right to travel freely and conduct business” and who does not.

Clearly, if anything, the past few months have pointed out that black men in America do not have these rights. That is the apartheid – the differences for different races enshrined in the execution of law – which the protestors are out here marching about.

Steven’s Instagram post can be found here…

Updated at 3.26pm ET

3.10pm ET20:10

The Guardian’s Steven Thrasher is with the New York marchers…

Turning from 14th north onto 6th Ave. March is noticeably more agitated than when it began, more "fucks" and yelling

3.02pm ET20:02

“We’re hear marching for justice,” Gilead, 13, told Steven. Eli added: “What’s happening is not right.” It was the first time coming to a protest for everyone except Gilead.

2.58pm ET19:58

A view from above the NYC protest

#MillionsMarchNYC Protestors are pouring in. Estimate of 34,000. #ericgarner #michaelbrown #blacklivesmatter pic.twitter.com/4uRfvuEfKC

2.56pm ET19:56

Summary

Here’s where we’re at mid-afternoon on Saturday

2.35pm ET19:35

Video catches an altercation between police and protesters during a Day of Resistance march in Boston as the Millions March in New York gets underway. Will bring you more...

Updated at 2.39pm ET

2.25pm ET19:25

In New York City, protesters gather in Washington Square park in preparation for a 2.30 kick off.

Guardian columnist Steven Thrasher has sent us this photo from the rally.

Updated at 2.26pm ET

2.18pm ET19:18

My colleague Kayla Epstein filed this report from DC:

The protesters are thousands strong. They’re very diverse. They are black, and white, young and old; there are lots of children.

The march began in Freedom Plaza and the marched along Pennsylvania Ave to the Capitol. At the rally in Freedom Plaza there were people selling “Black Lives Matter” protest signs, even a calendar that marked the day a person was fatally shot by police, for about $5 or $10. That felt a little odd.

When the march began, everyone walked together. They chanted “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot,” and sang “We’re not going to take it” .

There was one sign that really moved me. A mother with her two young children were carrying a “Hands up, don’t shoot” sign. On the poster, her boys traced their small hands and scribbled: “Don’t shoot me”.

Hundreds of people who didn’t participate in the marched lined Constitution Ave to watch the procession and listen to the speakers. In general, people are incredibly energized, though it’s very cold in DC, so people are bundled up and hopping around to stay warm.

The march stopped in front of the Capitol where Rev Al Sharpton was joined on stage by the family members of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Akai Gurley, Trayvon Martin and Amadou Diallo.

The overall mood sombered when the victims’ families took the stage to address the crowd. The crowd became very quiet, and listened carefully to what each speaker had to say.

When Leslie McSpadden, the mother of Michael Brown, took the mic, the crowd shouted “I love you”.

Several speakers decried the role of the media in covering the protests. I noticed many people in the crowd shook their heads in agreement.

Protesters bow heads as speaker leads a prayer at #justice4all march. pic.twitter.com/IXiJ7GusN4

Updated at 2.50pm ET

1.50pm ET18:50

“We will get justice for our children. Believe that,” Samaria, the mother of Tamir Rice, said, addressing the thousands who’ve gathered in DC.

My son was 12 year’s old, just a baby. A baby. My baby, the youngest out of four. If he were here with me right now, this is what he’d want me to do.

She ended with this: “Hands up don’t shoot. I can’t breathe. Please don’t shoot. I want to grow up to.”

Updated at 3.03pm ET

1.32pm ET18:32

Rev. Al Sharpton said he's inspired when he sees young white kids holding up signs that say black lives matter in DC pic.twitter.com/ibLTFHZKpa

Rev Al Sharpton shouting with everything he’s got:

This is not a black march or white march. This is an American march for the rights of American people .

He shouts that he’s not as polished as the civil rights leaders who’ve come before him, and not as well-read as his friends who’ve gone to law school. But he does have that voice.

When you come up the rough side, sometimes your legs get scarred and you might get a little mud on your coats but I come to Washington anyhow because God gave me the light. And i’m going let it shine. I’m going to shine on Michael Brown I’m going to shine on Eric Garner.

Updated at 1.45pm ET

1.29pm ET18:29

Rev Al Sharpton speaking in DC:

We’ve seen in Ferguson, Missouri, we’ve seen in Staten Island where state grand juries have suspended the right of due process and we come to Washington to call on this Congress and national government to do what was done before. We need national legislation and intervention to save us from state grand juries that say its our right to choke people on tape and you won’t bring them to court. It’s our right to have prosecutors have private queries and, if we question them, we are starting trouble. We didn’t shoot anybody, we didn’t choke anybody. We don’t come to Washington as shooters and chokers. We come as the shot and the choked asking you to help deal with American citizens who can’t breathe in their own communities.

You may bury but you didn’t know you were burying seeds. When you bury us we sprouted up and start blocking traffic. Our seeds grow.

Updated at 1.43pm ET

1.26pm ET18:26

Photographer JM Giordano is in DC, covering the march there. His instagram account is here.

1.19pm ET18:19

The Washington Post reports:

“I can’t breathe,” the last words spoken by Eric Garner who died after being placed in a banned police chokehold are 2014′s most notable quote, according to a Yale librarian.

Updated at 1.22pm ET

1.17pm ET18:17

A contingent of around 400 protesters from Ferguson, Missouri, were bussed to DC to take part in the march there.

A man named Josh (featured in the Vine video earlier) reportedly told the crowd that he spent five days in jail after violent protests broke out in August in response to Brown’s death. Brown’s body was left in the street under the baking sun for hours after he was shot.

“We are tired of being shot down in the streets like dogs,” Josh said.

1.01pm ET18:01

Protesters are demanding justice and calling for legislative action. Their demands include:

12.55pm ET17:55

For $66.99, you can get yourself a body camera hidden in a Christian cross.

This is the type of stuff that's happening at this @NationalAction march! Selling "I can't breathe" shirts & bodycams pic.twitter.com/7Pfwfcjam3

12.40pm ET17:40

Protesters chant: “No justice, No peace. No racist police.”

"No justice, No peace, No racist police." Justice for All March. https://t.co/y8gGJRGtO4

12.36pm ET17:36

Eric Garner’s mother Gwen Carr marches arm-in-arm with Cynthia Davis from Rev Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, a co-conveners of the Justice for All march.

Eric garners mom Gwen Carr and Cynthia Davis from NAN march in DC pic.twitter.com/r99VmEjPKB

12.29pm ET17:29

St Louis county prosecutor Bob McCulloch releases more Ferguson Grand Jury documents, and apologizes for causing confusion.

View transcript here.

Here it is: long-awaited transcript of FBI/police interview of Dorian Johnson, friend of Michael Brown #Ferguson https://t.co/NOOV9IF8wo

Updated at 12.32pm ET

12.26pm ET17:26

The Associated Press reports that as many as 10,000 protesters converged on the nation’s capital on Saturday:

At Freedom Plaza, the rally was interrupted briefly by more than a dozen protesters who took the stage with a bullhorn. They announced that they were from Ferguson, Missouri – where Michael Brown died – and demanded to speak.

Large numbers of protesters on the ground supported the group, some chanting, “Let them speak.” But rally organizers called the interruption unnecessarily divisive. Speakers were delayed about five minutes.

Grand jury decisions not to indict police officers who killed Eric Garner in New York and Brown in Missouri unleashed a fury of protests across the country, revealing a growing inter-generational divide between legacy civil rights activists and the relatively young protesters who have taken to the streets in recent weeks.

Updated at 12.34pm ET

12.08pm ET17:08

And they’re off!

March toward Capitol Hill has begun at justice for all rally in DC pic.twitter.com/eWcden062F

Protesters are marching from Freedom Plaza toward Capitol Hill.

Updated at 12.09pm ET

12.05pm ET17:05

At the rally in DC, the mother of Tamir Rice, 12-year-old boy fatally shot by a rookie Cleveland cop who mistook his toy pellet gun for the real thing, addressed the police: “Don’t shoot. Our children want to grow up.”

Tamir Rice's mother "the police force, don't shoot our children...to all the fam that experience the same pain as me, we will have justice."

Medical examiners in Cleveland ruled Rice’s death a homicide on Friday.

11.52am ET16:52

Amid mounting tension between New York protesters and the New York police department, the New York Post reports that the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association (PBA) is urging officers to ban Mayor Bill de Blasio from their funerals, should they be killed in the line of duty.

The group reportedly distributed a flier to members that read, in capitals: “DON’T LET THEM INSULT YOUR SACRIFICE!”

De Blasio recently refused to endorse the New York grand jury decision not to indict officer Daniel Pantaleo over the death of Eric Garner, and doubled down on comments about advice given to his son, Dante, to be more careful around police officers because of the colour of his skin.

Police were encouraged to sign a waiver barring the mayor, who traditionally attends such funerals, and city council speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.

The waiver states: “I ... as a New York City police officer, request that Mayor Bill de Blasio and city council speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito refrain from attending my funeral services in the event that I am killed in the line of duty. Due to Mayor de Blasio and Speaker Mark-Viverito’s consistent refusal to show police officers the support and respect they deserve, I believe that their attendance at the funeral of a fallen New York City police officer is an insult to that officer’s memory and sacrifice.”

Updated at 11.56am ET

11.22am ET16:22

Updated at 11.40am ET

11.19am ET16:19

DC and New York aren’t the only American cities participating in the #DayofResistance protests against police killings. There are protests planned in Charlotte, Detroit, Los Angeles, Seattle and many more cities.

Check here to see if there’s a protest staged in your city.

Updated at 11.24am ET

10.50am ET15:50

My colleague Steven Thrasher, who is in Washington Square park with the NYC protesters, wrote this column today on why Americans can’t let the march in Washington slow down what’s happening in the streets.

A movement of, for and about everyday people doesn’t necessarily require reenacting MLK’s greatest hits. It requires new kinds of protest nationwide – sometimes, but not exclusively, marching in the streets, in response to the people on the margins being killed in the streets. It requires protesting in every street, not just on the National Mall.

What happened in Ferguson, and New York, and Cleveland, and Miami Gardens, weren’t aberrations in black: we are facing a national crisis of black life being devalued. Some 1,581 police departments racially profile more than the Ferguson police department.

So how do we move forward nationally, without losing what’s powered the movement so far?

Follow Steven: @thrasherxy

To that point...

All protest is local. The context of protest matters. #Ferguson

There is SOFT JAZZ playing!!!!! What in the hell is this?!?!? NAN, this is out of control and a total waste of ENERGY. All this energy.

Updated at 10.56am ET

10.39am ET15:39

In DC, protesters are gathering in Freedom Plaza, where, in 1963, Dr Martin Luther King Jr spoke those four immortal words: ‘I have a dream’ . The plaza is named in his honor.

Updated at 10.40am ET

10.30am ET15:30

My colleague Oliver Laughland reports that:

A nationwide coalition of civil rights groups, joined by the families of African Americans killed by police and gun violence, will march on the United States Capitol on Saturday to call for Congress to legislate against perceived discrimination by police.

The DC march will be led by the parents of Michael Brown, the mother of Tamir Rice, the mother and widow of Eric Garner, and the parents of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old shot dead in February 2012 by George Zimmerman, an armed neighborhood patroler, in Florida. It will be the first time the group of bereaved relatives has come together in such a way.

“We stand in solidarity with social justice activists from all over the country who call for an end to racial profiling and police brutality,” NAACP president and chief executive Cornell William Brooks said in a statement.

Updated at 10.41am ET

10.00am ET15:00

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of what organizers have called a National Day of Resistance.

Thousands of protesters are due to take to the streets in Washington DC, New York and other cities across the US on Saturday afternoon, in protest of police killings of African American men.

Demonstrators are demanding justice for Michael Brown, an unarmed black teen from Ferguson, Missouri, who was shot dead by white police officer, Darren Wilson, in August. A grand jury decision not indict the officer sparked violent protests in Ferguson and touched off mass protests around the country.

Protesters will also march for Eric Garner, a Staten Island man who died in a police chokehold in July. A grand jury declined to indict the white police officer implicated in his death, Daniel Pantaleo, less than two weeks after the Missouri decision.

They will also march for Akai Gurley, an unarmed 28-year-old man who was shot dead by a rookie cop in the darkened stairwell of a Brooklyn public housing complex, in what New York police commissioner Bill Bratton said was an apparent accident involving a “total innocent”.

And they will march for Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old black child shot dead on a playground by a white Cleveland police officer who believed the boy’s toy handgun was real.

In Washington DC the Justice for All rally and march, led by the Reverend Al Sharpton and families of those killed in recent encounters with police, is due to begin at 10.30am at Freedom Plaza.

In New York City, the Millions March is due to kick off in Washington Square Park at 2pm.

We’ll have updates from both main marches and other events around the country throughout the day.

Updated at 11.25am ET