NY mayor’s plea for pause in rallies rejected

Protesters who have rallied for weeks over excessive use of police force rejected New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plea to suspend demonstrations after the killing of two officers.

De Blasio and other politicians have called for a cooling of tensions after the officers were ambushed Saturday while sitting in their patrol car, shocking a city that had seen largely peaceful demonstrations over decisions by grand juries in New York and Missouri not to indict white police officers in the killings of unarmed black men.

Since Saturday, some activists have woven in protests against the killings of officers Rafael Ramos, 40, and Wenjian Liu, 32, into their rallies and vigils.

Answer Coalition, organisers of a march on 5th Avenue in midtown Manhattan said a “peaceful protest against police violence” would continue as planned. “The mayor’s call for a suspension of democracy and the exercise of free speech rights in the face of ongoing injustice is outrageous.”

The point-blank shootings of Ramos and Liu electrified tensions between City Hall, the police department and the reform-minded protesters who voted for de Blasio, a liberal Democrat, in large numbers last year to run the largest US city of eight million people.

Similar protests have taken place across the United States, provoking a bitter debate about how American police forces treat non-white citizens.

De Blasio on Monday called for a pause in protests until after the funerals of the two police officers.

The gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who was black, in a social media posting linked his plans to the July chokehold death of Eric Garner, 43, in New York’s Staten Island borough and the August shooting of Michael Brown, 18, in Ferguson, Missouri.

Brinsley shot himself to death after killing the officers.