About 300 people gathered at the Port of Oakland today to participate in one of many protests across the country against police brutality.
Jack Heyman, a former member of International Longshore Warehouse Union Local 10, said the union organized the rally because it has a long history of standing up against racial injustice.
The union voted to move its monthly labor meeting to today, effectively shutting down operations at the port until this evening.
Among the many speakers at the rally were the family members of Bay Area youths who were killed by police officers.
Mollie Costello of the Alan Blueford Coalition for Justice, said “we need to stop state-sponsored police terrorism.”
Blueford and shot and killed by an Oakland police officer on May 6, 2012. At 10 a.m., protesters who had gathered in front of Berths 60-63 at the port started marching from the foot of Adeline Street toward Frank Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland.
Heyman said the protesters will later join Service Employees International Union members who he said are already rallying at the plaza.
Police were standing by at the rally and helped escort protesters
as they begin marching, but there was no indication of any problems.
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