Mothers for Justice United ,support for hamiltom son's death

 

This year marks the one-year anniversary of the burial of her son Dontre, who was killed by a Milwaukee police officer after being found asleep in a park. That’s why Hamilton and other moms who have lost children at the hands of police spent Saturday marching from Capitol Hill to the Justice Department in the nation’s capital to protest the use of excessive force by law enforcement officers. Dubbed the Million Moms March, the event was organized by Mothers for Justice United, an activist support group that Hamilton founded after her son’s death. 

Hamilton marched alongside numerous other mothers and families, including those of Oscar Grant, the 22-year-old who was fatally shot by a transit police officer in Oakland, California, in 2009, and Michael Brown, the 18-year-old who was killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. Both cases spawned nationwide outrage and led to protests against police brutality around the country.
“I believe Dontre planted, his physical life planted a seed for this movement,” Hamilton told Milwaukee news station WITI at the march on Saturday, which was also her birthday. “I know that his death will never be in vain. I had to let him go in order to have this work done.”
Christopher Manney, the officer who killed Dontre, was fired from the Milwaukee police force but never faced criminal charges.

 

The Million Moms March comes two weeks after six Baltimore police officers were charged in the death of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old black man who died while in police custody in April.
Wearing a T-shirt bearing the phrase “I can’t breathe,” the last words uttered by Eric Garner before he was killed by police in Staten Island, New York, Hamilton made a call for justice reform and nationwide regulation of police officers.
“The first thing police do now is draw their guns,” she told WITI. “We have to take the fear out of them so they can actually police our communities the way it’s needed.”