In a second day of protests against the jury verdicts in the Eric Garner and Michael Brown cases, protestors in Atlanta held a silent march at 2 p.m. in front of Lenox Mall and Phipps Plaza.
The “Power of Our Dollar,” march is also being billed as a buy-in where, at the conclusion of the march, protestors plan to shop only at black-owned businesses in one of the city’s busiest shopping districts on the last weekend before Christmas. The march is scheduled to start at the corner of Peachtree and Lenox roads, move on to Piedmont Road, and to circle back and conclude at Phipps Plaza. The National Action Network, the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference are sponsoring the “Our Dollar,” march, said Mary-Pat Hector, national youth director for the National Action Network.
This march follows a “die-in” held in the same location on Saturday. That action, led by a different group of protesters called “Rise Up Georgia,” clogged traffic around the malls for about 90 minutes. Marchers said they were protesting police shootings of unarmed black men and children around the country. At the end of the protest, 13 people were arrested by Atlanta police. The group was released from the Fulton County Jail after posting bond Sunday morning.
The die-in happened less than an hour after a man with Georgia ties and a lengthy metro Atlanta arrest record allegedly gunned down two New York City Police officers in Brooklyn. New York Police said Ismaaiyl Brinsley, opened fire on officers Wenjian Liu, 32, and Rafael Ramos, 40, as they sat in their patrol car. Brinsley then ran to a subway station where he killed himself, according to police.
According to news reports, on an Instagram page Brinsley cited the deaths of Brown and Garner as a possible reason for the police killings.
Hector said march organizors are “totally against” Saturday’s shooting which New York officials are calling an assassination.
“We do not condone violence whatsoever, whether it’s a cop shooting an unarmed black man or a black man shooting a cop,” Hector said. “It’s sad and it takes away from the message of peaceful protest.”
Hector said the silent march will go on as scheduled.
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