More than 300 demonstrators in New Haven, Connecticut, joined protests around the country on Friday over recent police killings of unarmed black men.
They chanted “black lives matter” in front of the New Haven Superior Court. Prior to that, they formed a four-block-long human chain from Yale Law School to the court house.
The demonstrators, made up of Yale students, some faculty and other concerned area residents, also laid down flat on their backs on the pavement for four and half minutes in what they called “a die-in” to honor the four and half hours that 18-year-old Michael Brown lay dead on the ground in Ferguson, Missouri, after being shot by a white police officer.
The hope was that the action would help focus public attention on the police killing of unarmed black men, said Jordan Bryant, a second year Yale Law School student, and one of the organizers of the demonstration.
“For many people, something that has been a none-issue has been brought to the light. That is what we want to do,” she said.
The demonstrators read the names of some of the unarmed black men killed by police recently, starting with Michael Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner on Staten Island.