US May Day rallies address labor, police

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES

Marches and rallies in U.S. cities Friday drew crowds ranging from a few dozen to hundreds of people demanding more rights for workers and immigrants and an end to police brutality.

Demonstrations took place in cities from Minneapolis to Oakland, Calif. In Denver, two dozen protesters railed against economic inequality, while 1,000 marched in New York at an event that also decried police abuse in the wake of the in-custody death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore.

In Chicago, about 400 people marched, some to protest recent police incidents and some to recognize May Day’s message of workers’ rights.

While labor unions long have led demonstrations on International Workers’ Day, the May 1 marches got a boost in 2006 when stringent immigration legislation drove hundreds of thousands of demonstrators to rally in the streets. Since then, attendance at the annual rallies has been much smaller.

Some labor and immigrant advocates broadened their message this year to also address police brutality, joining a series of protests underway in several cities over Gray’s death.

In Minneapolis, the group Black Lives Matter encouraged students to leave school Friday, and some high-school students did. They staged a die-in that briefly stopped traffic.

More than 1,000 people demonstrated in Oakland, Calif., with some holding signs saying “Racism is the Disease” and “Stop Police Brutality.” Others said they wanted better wages and working conditions for the masses.