Washington Protesters Condemn US Police Brutality, Violence against Muslims (+Photos)
WASHINGTON DC (Tasnim) – A group of activists held a protest rally in front of the US Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., to condemn US police brutality, discrimination against African-Americans and violations of Muslim rights.
Demonstrators were carrying placards during the Thursday gathering, urging respect for the lives of African-American people and Muslims in the US.
Protesters also condemned police brutality and violation of American people’s civil rights by the security forces.
Speaking to Tasnim reporter, a marcher referred to the suspicious death of Ibragim Todashev --a Muslim American citizen killed by the FBI in 2013-- saying Americans should not trust the FBI agents and let them in their houses for investigation.
28-year-old Todashev was shot dead by FBI agents on May 22, 2013, at his apartment in Orlando, Florida, during an interrogation of his possible friendship with a suspect in the April 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
The investigators later alleged that Todashev tried to attack the FBI agents, with a pipe or stick, while writing a formal statement about the Boston Marathon bombing and a triple homicide in Massachusetts.
However, a photo of Todashev’s body, obtained by Tasnim from his mother, shows Ibragim has been shot in the back multiple times.
The Washington protests follows a wave of unrest in the US following the unexplained death of a black man in police custody in Baltimore. 25-year-old Freddie Gray died on April 19 after suffering a spinal injury while in custody.
With his death, Gray joined a long list of black men who have died under questionable circumstances during police encounters in recent months. Last year, weeks of protests followed the fatal shooting of unarmed black teen Michael Brown by a white officer in Ferguson, Missouri, and the chokehold death of Eric Garner in New York City.