Protesters are marching once again in the streets of New York City.What do we want?Justice.When do we want it?Now.This despite the mayor's call to suspend demonstrations over police brutality.Mayor Bill de Blasio asked demonstrators to stay out of the streets until two police officers who were murdered in their squad car on Saturday could be buried.NPR's Joel Rose reports.The march up Fifth Avenue in Manhattan was organized by a group called the ANSWER Coalition.We never considered canceling the protest.Eugene Puryear helped organize the march.Because, from our perspective, there is no connection between the protest movement and the killings of the police officers in Brooklyn.Like countless other marches in recent weeks,it's intended to protest the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, two unarmed black men who died at the hands of police.In both cases, a grand jury decided not to indict the white officers involved.These are issues that cannot be swept under the rug, that are far too serious to not be addressed.This demonstration was planned before the deaths of NYPD officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu.They were shot in their squad car on Saturday by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who then turned the gun on himself.Brinsley claimed on social media that the shootings were in retaliation for the deaths of Brown and Garner,and police in New York say Brinsley attended a demonstration here earlier this month.That led Police Commissioner Bill Bratton to make this connection during an interview Monday on NBC's Today show.It's quite apparent ― quite obvious that the targeting of these two police officers was a direct spinoff of this issue of these demonstrations.
