Rallies were held across the United States on Monday in a national day of action against police brutality and the targeting of people of color. In New York City, hundreds joined the October 22nd Coalition for a rally and march leaving from Union Square.

Nichole Cuevas: “My brother was working a late night shift at my brother’s — my uncle’s grocery store, and three robbers went in to rob the store. And my brother was trying to escape the robbery to not get killed, and when he ran out of the store, there was a police officer right in front of the door, and he shot him. And the police officer says it was a mistake, but we obviously — you can’t just kill someone as a mistake.”

Aidge Patterson: “Across the country, the police brutality movement is finally coming back to a place where people are really holding police accountable from a grassroots level up to a legislative level, and we see the Community Safety Act being passed or going through here in New York, as well as the class action lawsuit against stop and frisk, all the way down to grassroots-level organizing like Copwatch.”

A recent study from the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement found that at least 110 African Americans were killed by police, security guards and self-appointed vigilantes during the first six months of the year, a rate of roughly one every 40 hours.