Protesters refuse to listen to NYC mayor | World News |Axisoflogic.com

Protests on Fifth Avenue, New York today | Photo: @StopMotionsolo

Protest leaders say Mayor de Blasio's request is a “suspension of democracy” and is “outrageous.”

Several activist groups have rejected a plea by New York City mayor Bill de Blasio to suspend all demonstrations against police discrimination and brutality until after the funerals of two recently killed NYC police officers.

New York City and much of the United States has been awash in protests since two different grand juries recently decided not to indict the two white police officers allegedly responsible for the deaths of unarmed black men Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

Yesterday, de Blasio called for all protests and “political debates” to be put on hold, after two policemen were shot dead in their patrol car in Brooklyn on Saturday.

"Let's comfort these families, let's see them through these funerals," de Blasio said from City Hall on Monday after visiting the families of the two police officers. "Then debate can begin again," he added.

Protest leaders – including Reverend Al Sharpton, a prominent civil rights activist and White House adviser – said demonstrators would not heed to his call.

Sharpton said he would not change plans for public prayer vigils to be held at the scene of Garner's death over the coming days, marking the family's first Christmas without him.

"Is a vigil a protest? Is it a rally?" said Sharpton, adding that de Blasio's comments were "an ill-defined request."

The Answer Coalition, another protest group who organized a march on 5th Avenue in midtown Manhattan, said a planned protest against police violence would continue as planned.

"The mayor's call for a suspension of democracy and the exercise of free speech rights in the face of ongoing injustice is outrageous," they said.

The demonstrations have been largely peaceful since they began. Since Saturday, some activists have even woven protests against the killings of the two police officers into their vigils for Brown and Garner and rallies against police discrimination.

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