May Day rallies broaden to address police brutality, race
Last edited Fri May 1, 2015, 07:26 AM - Edit history (1)
Source: AP-Excite
By AMY TAXIN
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Activists who are marching for labor and immigrant rights in U.S. cities on Friday will broaden their message to direct attention toward police brutality as tensions simmer in communities across the nation.
The marches on May 1 have their roots in labor movements, which hold annual demonstrations in a myriad of countries calling for workers' rights. In recent years, marches in the United States got a boost from immigrants seeking authorization to live and work in the country legally.
Now, some of the activists in cities from Boston to Oakland, California, say they are also rallying in support of "Black Lives Matter" — the slogan of the growing movement in the wake of a series of high-profile deaths of black men as the result of a police encounter.
"It is important to support movements and struggles that stand up for people being singled out by the system. Right now, immigrants share that distinction with African-American youth, that we are being targeted by the system," said Miguel Paredes, membership coordinator of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.
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Protesters rush a police line after a rally at City Hall in Philadelphia on Thursday, April 30, 2015. The event in Philadelphia follows days of unrest in Baltimore amid Freddie Gray's police-custody death. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
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