Protestors Rally In Washington Square Park For Millions March NYC [PHOTOS]

Tens of thousands rallied around Washington Square Park this Saturday for the Millions March NYC, the city’s largest police brutality protest since the non-indictment ruling in the chokehold death of Eric Garner. The march, which traveled to midtown before looping back to Police Plaza, drew over 50,000 participants, organizers say.

Marchers set out from Washington Square Park shortly after 2 p.m., leading chants of “hands up, don’t shoot” and “I can’t breath” as the march wound its way through Manhattan. At its largest, the march spanned up to 19 blocks at a time, organizers say.

Protestors marched alone and with larger groups, many lobbying for specific causes within the movement. Marching behind a “Feminists on the Move” banner, 23-year-old Veronica Agard sought recognition and justice for women of color who have been victims of police brutality. “We’re trying to make sure the conversation on ‘black lives matter’ is inclusive, as opposed to exclusive,” she told Local. “As a black woman, I have to fear for my unborn children. And I say ‘children’ because it’s not just about my sons, it’s about my daughters, too.”

Other large contingents included advocates for increased minimum wages, socialist policies, and criminal justice reform. While overwhelmingly peaceful, the protests culminated in at least one arrest, a 29-year-old CUNY professor accused of assaulting police when a smaller contingent of protestors marched onto the Brooklyn Bridge.

“Our work didn’t begin here and it won’t stop here. It will continue for as long as necessary” Umaara Iynaas Elliott, a Millions March co-founder told press. “However, there are immediate actions that can and should be taken, including the firing of Daniel Pantaleo. Given his illegal policing tactics that resulted in the death of Eric Garner and ruled a homicide, we do not believe that he should be policing our communities.”

“For over three hours we marched throughout Manhattan with the survivors of police brutality and homicide. We cried with them, yelled with them. They marched because their sons and daughters will never be able to march again,” Synead Nichols, the march’s other co-founder said. “Together we peacefully demonstrated that NYC, and people in cities across the country, will not stand for a police system that shoots to kill with no accountability. This is only the beginning.”

Photos from the march below:

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