Protests over US police shootings

Hundreds of protesters marched in New York for the third consecutive night on Friday. Some briefly laid down in Macy's flagship store, Grand Central Terminal and an Apple store. They walked down Fifth Avenue sidewalks and other parts of Manhattan, with signs and chants of "Black lives matter" and "I can't breathe."

The family of Akai Gurley, an unarmed black man shot and killed by a New York police officer last month in the stairwell of a public housing project, spoke out for the first time on Friday.

"He hasn't done nothing wrong. He's a good man, good, he loves his family, he loves his baby girl," Gurley's mother Sylvia Palmer told reporters on Friday.

The behavior of the police officers involved in the shooting has also come under scrutiny as the New York district attorney said he would impanel a grand jury to consider charges in this latest police killing of an unarmed black man.

A day after the shooting on November 20, New York police commissioner Bill Bratton admitted that Gurley had been a totally innocent victim who was killed by an "accidental discharge" in an "unfortunate tragedy."

Grand jury

On Friday, Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson said he would present all the evidence for a grand jury to decide whether charges should be brought in Gurley's case: "It is important to get to the bottom of what happened." Thompson did not give a timetable for the jury to be appointed, or for a decision to be reached.

"I pledge to conduct a full and fair investigation and to give the grand jury all of the information necessary to do its job. That information is still being gathered," Thompson said.

Adding to the controversy surrounding the latest shooting, the New York Daily News reported on Friday that the officer who fired the fatal bullet sent a text message to his union official, even as Gurley lay dying. The officer and his partner did not respond to radio contact for more than six and a half minutes, according to the newspaper. The emergency call for medical assistance was reportedly made by a neighbor.

The News quoted a law enforcement source as saying of the pair's decision: "That's showing negligence."

Rallies across US

Two rallies and a candlelight vigil were organized Friday, with a rally in Brooklyn against police brutality planned for Saturday. There were protests in New York, Boston, Chicago, Jacksonville, Florida, Cambridge and other US cities.

In Cleveland, people gathered to protest the death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice who police said had a lifelike air gun and did not comply with an officer's commands. The police officer shot Rice on November 22 within seconds of pulling up in a police car beside the boy at a park.

Rice's family filed a federal civil rights and wrongful death lawsuit on Friday against the city and the police officers involved. The suit says the boy lay on the ground for minutes without receiving medical help.

A Justice Department report published on Thursday reviewed almost 600 incidents of use of force by the Cleveland division of police over three years up to 2013. It found "unnecessary and excessive use of deadly force."

"Our review revealed that Cleveland police officers violate basic constitutional precepts in their use of deadly and less lethal force at a rate that is highly significant,” the report said. It found use of force by Cleveland police was at times “chaotic and dangerous."

Thousands of protesters took to the streets in New York and other major US cities on Wednesday and Thursday after a grand jury on Wednesday decided not to indict another white officer for the July 17 death by chokehold of Eric Garner for selling illegal cigarettes.

Another grand jury decided not to press charges against a white officer responsible for the August 9 shooting of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

jm/av (AP, Reuters, AFP)