Civil rights leaders, families push feds in probes of police-related deaths

Civil rights leaders and the families of people killed by police gathered Thursday in D.C. to call for the federal government to take a larger part in the criminal investigations of the officers involved in the events.

“Whether they wear blue jeans or blue uniforms, criminals must be held accountable,” said civil rights advocate Rev. Al Sharpton during the press conference at the National Press Club. “To act as though no police are wrong, none of the time, is moving this country to a police state where we don’t have the right to question the police under any circumstances.”

The event brought together a coalition of civil rights and legal groups just a few days after a memorial for Michael Brown — the black teen fatally shot last month by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri — was burned down, setting off renewed protests.

Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, said she was “in Washington to ask for help” finding justice for her son’s death.

“Missouri has not showed us anything,” Ms. McSpadden said.

“I’m here to make sure that this doesn’t happen to anybody else’s family,” added Michael Brown Sr., the teen’s father.

The law enforcement officers involved in civilian deaths should be arrested, argued Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, a New York man who died after being put in a chokehold by police.

“They still go home to their families every night, they still have their salaries, but they need to be held accountable,” she said. “We’re supposed to be in a civilized society. Just walking up and killing a man because of his color, is that civilized?”

Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, a civil rights advocacy group, said the nation must work to restore trust in the concept of “justice for all.”

“Today we come to demand justice, we come to demand fairness, we come to demand a full and complete investigation by the United States Department of Justice in Michael Brown’s death and Eric Garner’s murder,” he said.