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The protest was organised after viral footage appeared to show a police officer trying to restrain Rashan Charles in a shop in Dalston before he tragically died later in hospital

BINS have been set on fire near a police station in London during a protest over the death of a black man who tragically died after an altercation with cops on Saturday.

Up to 150 people, many holding Black Lives Matter banners, brought traffic to a standstill outside the cop station in Stoke Newington, North London, in a vigil for tragic Rashan Charles.

PA:Press Association

London 999 / Twitter

Unverified footage on social media appeared to show at least one officer attempting to restrain Charles on the floor of a shopin Kingsland Road, Dalston, on Saturday at 1.45am.

The 20-year-old died later in hospital.

The vigil was organised by Stand Up To Racism and campaigners say they are enormously concerned and angered over his death.

The crowd, which was made up of people from different races and ages, listened to speeches about alleged police brutality as uniformed officers looked on.

Metropolitan Police said Mr Charles was seen trying to swallow an object and that an officer sought to prevent the man from harming himself.

The police watchdog, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), is investigating.

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In a statement, Chief Superintendent Simon Laurence, the Borough commander for Hackney, said: "All police officers understand that they will be asked to account for their actions and they would not want it any other way.

"I understand his death has had an impact on some members of the local community."

He also said he had earlier met with community representatives and wanted to continue to hear about community concerns.

The IPCC tweeted: "For those following #justiceforrash #justiceforrashman - We are making good progress, building a full picture of what happened and why.

"We know people have concerns, but our independent investigation will be thorough, rigorous & when appropriate its findings will be published."

The crowd marched peacefully from the police station, behind a line of uniformed officers, to the shop where the incident happened.

Dalston resident Joyce Folks, 67, joined the walk to the shop as it passed by. She said: "I am here as a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother and it is as all those things that when I saw that video, I cried for that boy.

"My condolences are with the family. We are out here in numbers because it is the only way we can show that we care. It is a sign of community spirit. This needs to be peaceful."

The crowd walked back to the station, but a few people that stayed behind threw bottles and sticks at police at around 8.15pm.

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Hundreds join Black Lives Matter protest over death of man, 20, who died after being chased by cops in east London - The Sun

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Posted: Jul 24, 2017 12:01 AM

Last week, a blonde, white woman from Australia was shot and killed by a Minneapolis police officer. Justine Ruszczyk, 40, was engaged to be married in a month. So far, it looks like the officer erred in shooting Ruszczyk, who had merely called 911 to report hearing a sexual assault. Officer Mohamed Noor, who is a Somali-American, responded to the scene with another officer, and apparently panicked when he heard noises, thinking he was being ambushed. It does not appear that Ruszczyk behaved in a threatening manner toward him, although unfortunately the officers did not have their body cameras or squad camera on to verify this.

Since Ruszczyk was a white woman, it is highly unlikely Noor shot her because he is racist. He most likely shot her because he became afraid for his life and overreacted. An erroneous reaction, which sadly can happen because people are flawed. Maybe Noor has aggressive tendencies. Maybe he didnt pay attention during law enforcement training. Maybe he was high on drugs. The internal investigation should reveal some answers. But the key lesson here? Police officers can make mistakes that are not due to racism.

Black Lives Matter claims that law enforcement killed several blacks in recent years because the officers were racist. However, some of the officers implicated were black or Hispanic. Furthermore, there has been virtually no evidence provided showing the officers have a history of racism. Many of the officers have been prosecuted and found not guilty by a jury. In most of these cases, the jury thought the officers were legitimately afraid for their lives.

Last years fatal police shooting of Philando Castile, who was black, shares some similarities to the shooting of Ruszczyk. Minnesota police officer Jeronimo Yanez pulled Castile over while driving because he looked like a robbery suspect. Castile informed Yanez that he had a gun. Castile apparently reached for his license and registration, but Yanez thought he was reaching for his gun and shot him.

Yanez may have made a mistake by failing to perform a felony traffic stop, where the suspect is brought out of the car at gunpoint. Yanez was prosecuted and ultimately acquitted by a jury.

Based on the shooting of Ruszczyk, it is clear that officers can make fatal mistakes that have nothing to do with racism. Its been years since the Jim Crow era ended. This is no longer even the era of police officers like Mark Fuhrman, who investigated the O.J. Simpson murder case. Fuhrman admitted using a racial epithet toward blacks in the 1980s. Instead today, Americans are inundated with the promotion of diversity and multiculturalism. Theyre taught that its acceptable to look down on whites, but not other races or ethnicities. Young police officers have grown up with this mentality taught in school, not a racist mentality. During police training, theyre given racial sensitivity classes and taught to go out of their way to avoid the appearance of racism.

So it makes no sense that Yanez shot Castile because he was racist. Black Lives Matter ignores similar wrongful deaths like that of Ruszczyk because they go against their mantra. They dont want to allow for the possibility that something other than racism was responsible for the deaths of certain blacks by law enforcement. The radical group perpetuates these false accusations of racism in order to keep blacks and other minorities voting for Democrats. Barack Obama could have stopped this as the first black president, pointing to himself as proof that the U.S. has progressed far in the elimination of racism, but instead he stoked the fires.

Does anyone really believe that young black and Hispanic officers, as well as the white officers who serve alongside them every day, target black suspects because theyre racist? Watch an episode of COPS; it usually features a white officer and a minority officer jovially working together as partners.

The answer isnt rioting and labeling police officers as white supremacists. The answer is ensuring the police are properly trained, that they turn on their body cams when required and follow correct procedures. All the racism training in the world isnt going to fix fatal mistakes that were due to one of those factors.

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Hey Black Lives Matter, a Blonde Woman was Mistakenly Killed by Police - Townhall

Photo: Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle

Activist Shere Dore speaks at a press conference, Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016, in Houston. Black Lives Matter activists are calling for a formal apology from Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman and District Attorney Devon Anderson for the comments they made regarding the Black Lives Matter movement after the death of Deputy Darron Goforth.

Activist Shere Dore speaks at a press conference, Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016, in Houston. Black Lives Matter activists are calling for a formal apology from Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman and District Attorney

Shere Dore was taken in on a warrant while on her way to the courthouse.

Shere Dore was taken in on a warrant while on her way to the courthouse.

Black Lives Matter activist accused of punching police horse returns to court

A Black Lives Matter activist accused of punching a police horse is free on $20,000 bail after spending two weeks in jail because she was arrested on her way to court.

Shere Dore, 41, appeared Thursday in state District Judge Jim Wallace's court after making bail late Tuesday.

Dore was a passenger in a car pulled over for an expired inspection sticker in her Fort Bend County neighborhood on July 6. She was on her way to a routine court hearing in downtown Houston.

She was arrested for a warrant because of an old speeding ticket and was able to pay the fine and fees within days.

However, because she missed court, she was held in the Harris County jail without bail until a judge could rule on whether she could have another bail.

(Story continues below ...)

Defendants in Harris County who are arrested while free on bail are generally denied a second chance at bail.

Her attorney, Brian Harrison, said a judge set her bail and she was released Tuesday evening. Dore did not speak in court or after her appearance Thursday.

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Black Lives Matter activist accused of punching police horse ...

Grant Stinchfield, who is a host at the NRAs online television network has made some questionable comments about Black Lives Matter activists and how they stoke racial hatred against white people.

He began a segment of his show by talking about how race relations are strained here in America after eight years of Barack Obama, though he is quick to point out they are nowhere near as bad as it is in South Africa where white families are being tortured and killed almost every day in racist violence.

His guest, however, pulled no punches. Chuck Holton warned those watching to be vigilant because BLM activists will work people up to the point that they lash out at white families in the US.

Right,you know the parallels between whats happening in South Africa and the blatant racism and violence were seeing from people like the Black Lives Matter crowd, he stated. If we continue to let this get out of control, to go down this path ofthis racial tension, this racial hatred that is being forced on the American culture by the Black Lives Matter crowd.

Gloria Steinem says Black women taught her feminism, praises Black LivesMatter

This has to stop, and if you want to see why it has to stop, you look at South Africa, he went on. Over between three and four thousand white South Africanshave been killed in the most horrific ways, brutalized, raped, tortured, drug behind cars, had drills takento them.Some really horrific things.

They arent the only two NRA hosts to go all in on Black Lives Matter. Coloin Noir blasted the group as well as liberal Democrats who were upset with a recent NRA video in which TheBlazes Dana Loesch starred.

Noir claims that with the latest BLM ad attacking the NRA and Loesch, Black Lives Matter has become a weaponized race-baiting machine, pushing the extreme liberal Democratic agenda, calling any and everything that doesnt fit that agenda white supremacy.

He also took issue with many peoples assertion that Loeschs ad was the equivalent of the NRA declaring war against black people. He said he had a hard time seeing where this NRA ad called for violence against anyone, much less against black people. If anything, the video was calling for fighting violence with truth. Hell, I saw more white people looting and being destructive in the NRA ad than I ever saw watching a Black Lives Matter protest on liberal cable news shows like CNN.

More:
NRA says white families will be 'tortured and killed' if Black Lives Matter succeeds - The Grio

The shooting death of Justine Damond, an Australian bride-to-be, by Mohamed Noor, a Somali-American police officer, has turned the entire police brutality debate topsy-turvy and with good reason.

Since Black Lives Matter brought the issue of police violence to the national stage, cases that typically headline the news have involved black victims and white police officersand the publics response to such cases has become expected: Officer kills unarmed black citizen; short-lived to no media attention is paid; protests erupt in support of or against police; punishment is light, if at all. Wash, rinse, repeat.

This most recent case in Minneapolis involving a white civilian and a black cop has, however, garnered quite a different reaction. Damonds death has dominated network morning shows and evening newscasts all week, the same photo of the beautiful, smiling blonde spread across the screen. Headlines focused on her status as a bride-to-be and a yoga teacher. We heard about her fiancs outrage and her familys distress. Newspapers continue to break stories of every new detail, like a mystery that will only end when Noor is punished.

But that isnt the same as social media outcry and activism, which, to be honest, are usually sparked when mainstream media ignores an injustice. For CNN, Doug Criss writes, A vigil was held for Ruszczyk [Damond], but there werent widespread protest marches, like the ones Black Lives Matter held last year after Philando Castiles shooting death at the hands of an officer in nearby Falcon Heights. (After a vigil outside her home on Thursday, hundreds marched to a nearby park in her remembrance.)

While people have every right to be outraged at what seems like a very questionable reason (Noor says he was startled by a loud noise) to shoot an unarmed human, does Damonds shooting death garner a widespread movement? Is there a larger pattern of injustice for the masses to galvanize over?

Untrained, trigger-happy police officers, perhaps. But this is not on par with why movements like Black Lives Matter were created. BLM gets mentioned at times like this because it is the most prominent group in America to address police brutality, so some might think it makes sense to call on the movement to be at the frontlines of the battle for Justice for Justine.

But that expectation shows how little people understand about the movement for black lives. It also shows the hypocrisy, and long-standing history, of expecting black people to do the uncomfortable work that white people dont want to do.

Black Lives Matter was never established to advocate on behalf of white people, nor has it ever had support from the general white public. Though the movement was initiated to address police brutality, from its advent BLM made it clear that its goal was to raise awareness about police brutality and its impact on the black community. Not advocate for all individuals impacted by police violence.

Per the movements website:

#BlackLivesMatter was created in 2012 after Trayvon Martins murderer, George Zimmerman, was acquitted for his crime, and dead 17-year old Trayvon was posthumously placed on trial for his own murder. Rooted in the experiences of Black people in this country who actively resist our dehumanization, #BlackLivesMatter is a call to action and a response to the virulent anti-Black racism that permeates our society. Black Lives Matter is a unique contribution that goes beyond extrajudicial killings of Black people by police and vigilantes.

The racial specificity with which Black Lives Matter approached the issue of police violence is completely sensible, especially when we consider the fact that black people are 2.5 times more likely to die at the hands of police than white people. Not to mention, since 2005, only 35 percent of officers were convicted for fatal on-duty shootings, according to a study by longtime researcher Philip Stinson. A movement that specifically addresses the disproportionate rate at which black people are killed by police is not only justified, but necessary.

The black community has used the Black Lives Matter platform to bring awareness to its causes, organize marches, advocate for police reform, and collect donations for victims. Among many other initiatives, the movement launched Campaign Zero, a project that lists proposals for police reform, detailing ways to reduce racial bias and mandating that officers undergo better training and always wear body cams so that they are held accountable for their interactions with black Americans. The Say Her Name Campaign specifically shed light on the violence endured by black women at the hands of police, which often goes unreported in the media. Under the banner of #BLM, students at the University of California pressured the school to pull out from its $30 million prison investment. The movement has even had a huge impact on politics, prompting 2016 Democratic nominees like Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton to actually address gun control and the need for prison reform as a part of their national campaigns.

Insisting Black Lives Matter owes Damondits advocacy is re-centering the narrative to say that police brutality is a problem for black people to fix, and that violence is only worth getting worked up about if a pretty white woman is victimized. If your rebuttal to this is Well, dont #AllLivesMatter? then I hope to see you in the streets the next time a pregnant black woman like Charleena Lyles gets shot in front of her children.

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Black Lives Matter shouldn't be expected to protest bride-to-be's shooting death - The Daily Dot