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Hundreds With Occupy Wall Street Rally Against Police Brutality

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Hundreds of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators are rallying Saturday with the family of man killed by a police officer to protest police brutality.

About 500 Occupy members marched from Zuccotti Park to Union Square with the family of John Collado, who was shot by a plain clothes police officer last fall.

Police say that Collado had the officer in a chokehold, but the victim's family says he was simply trying to break up a fight between his friend and another man, who he didn't know was a cop.

City Council member Ydanis Rodriguez is taking part in the demonstration and says they are also protesting violence by the NYPD against the protestors.

"They cannot pretend that this movement will disappear from the City of New York by some NYPD members using excessive force," he said. "Enough is enough."

Rodriguez says he believes that the NYPD needs to keep citizens safe, but in doing so, respect their rights.

"When we gather in any peaceful manner in the City of New York, the NYPD should know that as we respect the work that they do, we also expect that they have a clear understanding of our Constitutional rights," Rodriguez said.

Councilman Jumaane Williams, who is also taking part in the rally and march, says the protestors are being arrested and their voice surpressed by NYPD.

"We need leadership from the mayor, we need leadership from the commissioner. They're using lazy policing tactics, they're using lazy answers to all of these things because the questions are hard ones, but we can't ignore them," he said. "People are getting more and more upset and more and more frustrated. OWS is not going away."

Williams also says City Council will push for a protestors bill of rights in New York City.

"Maybe to help us explain to the protesters what the actual rules are because every time we tell them and they follow the rules, the police change it," he said. "The police should be here to protect everyone's rights, including the protesters."

At 5 p.m., the activists plan to protest worldwide pollution at Dag Hammerskjold Plaza near the United Nations.

What is your take on the ongoing protests today? Are you with the Occupiers? Sound off below...

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