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Defense lawyers march to protest criminal justice system's handling of police killings

Associated Press
Published | Updated

A group including lawyers Michael Coard, center face down, Lloyd Long III, center with sign, and others stage a 4:30 minute "die-in" protest Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014, at the criminal justice center in Philadelphia. A number of protests have been staged around the country following recent grand jury decisions not to indict white police officers in New York and Ferguson, Mo., over the deaths of unarmed black men. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) (The Associated Press)

A group including attorney Leo M. Mulvihill, Jr., foreground, lawyers and others stage a 4:30 minute "die-in" protest Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014, at the criminal justice center in Philadelphia. A number of protests have been staged around the country following recent grand jury decisions not to indict white police officers in New York and Ferguson, Missouri, over the deaths of unarmed black men. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) (The Associated Press)

A group including lawyers Michael Coard, center face down, Lloyd Long III, center with sign, others stage a 4:30 minute "die-in" protest Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014, at the criminal justice center in Philadelphia. A number of protests have been staged around the country following recent grand jury decisions not to indict white police officers in New York and Ferguson, Missouri, over the deaths of unarmed black men. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) (The Associated Press)

Scores of defense attorneys in New York City and elsewhere are protesting the criminal justice system's handling of police killings of unarmed black men.

Public defenders and other lawyers marched at courthouses and a prosecutor's office on Wednesday in Brooklyn. The demonstration also included a die-in outside a city jail in the same neighborhood.

In Philadelphia, a group of lawyers participated in a die-in at the Criminal Justice Center.

The lawyers say the grand jury decisions not to indict police officers in the killings of Michael Brown in Missouri and Eric Garner in New York reflect racism in the criminal justice system. Both Brown and Garner were black. The officers involved are white.

A massive demonstration in Manhattan last week drew tens of thousands of people.