Protests In U.S. Cities Against Police Violence Prompt Arrests

By Sebastien Malo, Reuters

Protesters in several U.S. cities blocked highways and swarmed police precincts, leading to at least two dozen arrests in demonstrations touched off by fresh cases of police violence against unarmed black men.

Marching across New York’s Brooklyn Bridge, some 250 placard-bearing activists organized by the Stop Mass Incarceration Network protested the latest incidents of violent police tactics used against minorities.

Hoisting signs reading “Stop murder by police” and “Stop killer cops,” they said they hoped to spur national discussion on the issue. At least 12 people, some of whom appeared to be school-aged, were arrested following a brief scuffle with police after they crossed the bridge.

Police in Los Angeles said they arrested 15 protesters in a group of nearly 100 after they stopped on Metro Rail tracks and ignored orders to disperse.

Elsewhere on the West Coast, more than 100 protesters in San Francisco surrounded a police station and disrupted a meeting at City Hall of the Board of Supervisors. In nearby Oakland, demonstrators massed outside the Oakland Police Department and swarmed onto Interstate 880, according to local television images.

Sign-waving protesters marched through downtown Seattle, briefly blocking commuter traffic at various points, though the demonstration was peaceful and there were no arrests, police and transit officials said.

And in Wisconsin, about 100 protesters, mostly high school students, blocked a major roadway in Madison, where last month’s fatal shooting of unarmed black teen Tony Robinson Jr. by a white police office has triggered a series of demonstrations.

Galvanizing their cause was the April 4 fatal shooting of Walter Scott, an unarmed black man shot in the back by a white police officer in North Charleston, South Carolina. The shooting was captured on video, and the officer has been charged with murder…

Another group of protesters, led by Justice League NYC, has embarked on a 250-mile trek to Washington from New York City to demonstrate against police-related deaths. They are due to reach the National Mall on April 21…

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