Protesters Have Killing Of Rayshard Brooks On Their Minds As They March And Rally In Manhattan, Brooklyn
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Demonstrators took to the streets of the Big Apple on Sunday for the 18th straight day of protests.
The promise of police reforms have not slowed down protesters. Several groups were seen marching through Manhattan and Brooklyn and holding rallies for a third straight weekend, CBS2's Christina Fan reported.
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Rather than celebrating a package of bills signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday, many protestors still felt lots of anger, saying their cries in recent weeks seem to have fallen on deaf ears. They were particularly miffed at a comment the governor made this weekend when he called on protesters to end their demonstrations, saying, "You don't need to protest, you won."
"I keep coming back because right now justice calls for us to be here," said Michele Williams of the Lower East Side.
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The bills signed into law include a ban on police chokeholds and making complaints against officers public. Protesters said much more needs to be done locally and nationally.
"There's more issues that need to be solved. We're talking about qualified immunity. That still hasn't been accomplished yet. We need to repeal that, as well as take police unions' abilities to disciplined officers away," said Jarett Payne of Queens.
Williams was visibly upset over the death of yet another black man, Rayshard Brooks, this times at the hands of police in Atlanta.
"It's another black body. It's another black body piling ... and we cannot have this continue," Williams said.
"That's the world that we live in. That's the new normal, but we can't become desensitized. I refuse to become desensitized," said Derrick Ingram of Hell's Kitchen.
Several of the groups walked for many hours. No conflicts were reported. Protesters getting riled up were being warned by others not to agitate NYPD officers and to keep everything peaceful.
