[slideshow_deploy id=’10348′]
Stop Mass Incarceration Network members and protesters carried picket signs and megaphones for the Stop Murder by Police event held in Woodruff Park on Tuesday, April 14 at 2:30 p.m.
The network is concerned with bringing attention to and preventing race-motivated aggression by police, according to their website.
The event called for the skipping of work and school in order to demand justice for crimes committed by police throughout the country, according to the event’s flyers.
Tee Stern, a member of the network, said the main objective was to bring attention to and eventually stop police brutality in the United States.
“StopMassIncarceration.net, which was founded by Cornel West and Carl Dix, has called for a national day all across the country for no business-as-usual, because business-as-usual is the murder of people by police,” she said.
Miranda Mendicino, Georgia State sophomore interdisciplinary law & society major, attended the event and said she was informed about it beforehand.
“I think it’s a very important cause,” she said. “I think it’s time people realize how militant and brutal our police are and how skewed and corrupt our system is.”
David Mournighan, a linguistics major at Georgia State, said he didn’t previously hear about the network or the Stop Murder by Police event but stopped by on his way to class to support the cause.
“I was walking to class and I saw the signs. So I figured that since it’s a cause I believe in I’d stick around,” he said.
Additional events were held in more than 20 cities throughout the country, such as New York and San Francisco, according to the press release.
Families of police brutality victims also spoke out during rallies, according to Stop Mass Incarceration Network’s press release.
“Graphic videotaped police murders of Walter Scott in South Carolina and Eric Harris in Oklahoma underscore the need for people all across the country to stand up and say NO MORE to police being given a green light to murder people,” the press release stated.
Georgia State Police Department Deputy Chief Carlton Mullis said accountability is important to him.
“We have responsibilities ourselves, to be responsible to the community. That is key,” he said. “Police are part of the community. We’re not some separate entity. We grow up, live and work in the community.”
