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Thousands of demonstrators began gathering in Washington, D.C., on Saturday to protest the killings of unarmed black men by U.S. police and to urge Congress to protect citizens.
Organizers said the protests planned in Washington, New York as well as cities across the U.S., would be among the largest over police tactics and the killings of black males by officers in New York, Cleveland and Ferguson, Missouri.
The lack of criminal charges from grand juries in the New York and Ferguson cases have galvanized protests around the United States.
"We need more than just talk; we need legislative action that will shift things both on the books and in the streets," civil rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton, whose National Action Alliance is heading the Washington protest, said in a statement.
Sharpton said Congress needed to pass legislation that would let federal prosecutors take over cases involving police. Local prosecutors who wo
