Protests Against Police Brutality Held On MLK Day In Boston

BOSTON (CBS) - Two protests against police brutality were held in Boston on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Both called for racial justice in the spirit of the civil rights icon.

The first, held by Mass Action against Police Brutality took place outside the Grove Hall branch of the Boston Public Library in Dorchester. Organizers said their top priorities are to call for the prosecution of police officers who committed acts of violence and for the reopening of police brutality cases.

"We demand all those police be prosecuted. And their superiors, anyone who was aware of this. They all have to be held accountable. That includes Marty Walsh," organizer Brock Satter said.

The group also denounced the riot that took place at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

"In sharp difference to the treatment of protestors of police murder over the summer months, this riotous mob met little to no resistance storming the Capitol," the organization wrote on its Facebook page.

Relatives of several people who were injured or killed at the hands of police spoke to the crowd. They included the sister of Juston Root who was shot and killed by officers in Chestnut Hill following a confrontation outside Brigham and Women's hospital in February, friends of Eurie Stamps who was killed during a SWAT team raid in Framingham in 2011, and the mother of Christopher Divens who was hit by a Randolph police cruiser over the summer.

At a separate rally organized by Monica Cannon-Grant, the CEO and Founder of Violence in Boston, participants condemned institutional racism.

"Racism looks like y'all are standing in Roxbury which is 33 percent below poverty level on a Wednesday," Cannon-Grant said. "Racism looks like when you pass Mass Ave. your life expectancy drops 30 percent."