At least 100 people are expected to participate in a rally and march against alleged police brutality at 4 p.m. Saturday, organizers said.
The march will begin at the Five Points MARTA station and proceed to the Atlanta Detention Center on Peachtree Street.
Tracy Stern of the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation said the group organizes the event every year to protest what the call brutality and harassment by law enforcement officials.
She said the recent crackdown on illegal immigrants, the execution of Troy Davis and last week's death of 19-year-old Joetavius Stafford, who was killed by a MARTA police officer near the Vine City rail station, make this year's march, particularly relevant.
"There's an upsurge of resistance going on generally in America with Occupy Wall Street, which is spreading across the country and the world, and, frankly, the increased insensitivity and repression on behalf of the police, INS and Homeland Security," Stern said.
The rally and march, however, did not appear to be connected to the Occupy Atlanta movement that has been based at Woodruff Park downtown.
In the case of Stafford, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is conducting an inquiry and Fulton District Attorney Paul Howard will decide whether to prosecute or clear Officer Robert Waldo in the killing.
MARTA officials contend that Stafford was armed -- although they have not disclosed whether GBI investigators recovered a weapon. Stafford's brother Rodney Stafford said he saw Waldo shoot Joetavious Stafford while he was unarmed and then shot him twice more while on the ground, a charge that has already prompted criticism of the police.
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