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'National Moment of Silence' Planned to Honor Those Killed by Police

Vigils are being planned in at least 30 states for Thursday night in response to recent incidents of alleged police brutality.
Image:
Pallbearers carry the casket of Eric Garner, the 43-year-old New York City man whose death while in police custody has led to accusations of police misconduct, at Bethel Baptist Church following his funeral service, on July 23, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. An amateur video shows a plainclothes police officer placing Garner in what appears be a chokehold last Thursday on Staten Island.John Minchillo / AP

Vigils are being planned across the country for Thursday night in response to recent incidents of alleged police brutality. Organized as part of the National Moment of Silence (#NMOS14), ceremonies will be held in over 50 cities across 30 states, organizers said on Tuesday.

The movement is being coordinated by Feminista Jones, a black writer, activist and social worker, who initially spread the idea on Twitter — to her nearly 30,000 followers — to organize an event to memorialize recent incidents, including the deaths of Eric Garner in New York and Michael Brown in Missouri.

“I wanted to have a moment where we could get together as human beings and citizens of this country and honor the people who died and take a moment to settle down,” Jones told NBC News on Tuesday.

The vigils, Jones said, will be geared toward providing people an opportunity to reflect on recent the deaths and also signing petitions calling for legislation aimed at investigating police brutality.

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