At least 1,000 demonstrators from across the country marched in St. Louis Saturday for a second day to protest Michael Brown’s death and other fatal police shootings in the St. Louis area and elsewhere.
Marchers began assembling for the “Justice For Us All” march about mid-morning downtown, where later in the day the Cardinals were set to host the San Francisco Giants in the first game of the National League Championship Series.
The crowd was larger than ones that kicked off the four-day event Friday afternoon, when protestors marched outside the office of St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch demanding he charge Darren Wilson, a white officer from suburban Ferguson, in the Aug. 9 death of 18-year-old Brown, who was black and unarmed. A grand jury is reviewing the case.
The main focus of the march, scheduled to wind through downtown streets for several hours, was on the recent police shootings. But participants also embraced such causes as gay rights and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to news reports.
Police officers were stationed around the area. St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson posted on Twitter that officers “support the right to free speech & lawful assembly.”
Organizers had predicted up to 10,000 participants will attend the weekend’s events. Police weren’t able to provide a crowd estimate Saturday, but organizers and participants suggested the march’s size may have approached as many as 2,000.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said “thousands” of demonstrators attended the rally, while the Associated Press listed the crowd at “more than a thousand.”
Meanwhile, tensions increased early Saturday in Ferguson, with hundreds of protesters gathering outside the city’s police department, the AP reported. Some chanted, “Killer cops, KKK, how many kids did you kill today?” as a wall of about 100 officers in riot gear stood impassively.
