BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Hundreds of protesters marched from the Reggie Lewis Center to the Massachusetts State House on Monday in honor of Rayshard Brooks, a black man killed by police in Atlanta.
The event was organized by Violence In Boston Inc. and Black Lives Matter Boston.
Rally organizer Monica Cannon-Grant called on protesters to put pressure on Gov. Charlie Baker and other elected leaders to defund the police and reinvest funding into black and brown communities.
"We have to do exactly what they've done to black people, which is to have our foot on the back of every politician," Cannon-Grant said.
Cannon-Grant said she takes issue with Baker's proposal to give officers $5,000 bonuses for taking on additional training.
"Nobody should have to pay you to not be racist," Cannon-Grant said. "That's not an incentive; that should come as part of the job. It's a slap in the face to every black person to be paid for you to have cultural sensitivity, not be racist, and not kill us. So essentially, he wants to pay them to not kill us. That's how I take that."
Eric Garner Jr., the son of Eric Garner, also participated in the march. His father died in New York in 2014 after being put in a chokehold by police.
"It's important for me to come out here because there's not a lot of young people out here," Garner Jr. said. "I feel like I'm the voice of the young people. I came out here to get some justice."
WBZ NewsRadio's Kim Tunnicliffe (@KimWBZ) reports
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(Photo: Kim Tunnicliffe/WBZ NewsRadio)