NAACP launches national drive Against Police Brutality

Organization seeks to gather statistics, form coalition to stop police brutality
The NAACP is launching a nationwide initiative designed to stop the killing of young black men and women by law enforcement officers. National NAACP President and CEO Dennis C. Hayes announced the initiative during a speech outside the Government Center Saturday following a march by some 8,000 people to protest the shooting death of Kenneth Walker by a Muscogee County sheriff's deputy on Dec. 10, 2003. "We will end police brutality... with rapid response," he said, pledging to bring together such groups as corporate and ministerial interests and retired lawyers to help, and to provide financial support through the NAACP. The goal is to put together a coalition supported by the NAACP. [more]