NEW YORK — Demonstrations, marches and die-ins protesting police brutality took place across the country Jan. 19 to mark the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. In one of the largest protest actions, some 2,000 people here (above) marched through East Harlem to the United Nations. Many wore shirts saying “I can’t breathe,” words spoken 11 times by Eric Garner as he was killed July 17 in Staten Island when cops threw a chokehold on him, pulled him to the ground and piled on his back.

At the head of the march were Iris Baez, whose son Anthony was killed by a cop who put him in a chokehold Dec. 22, 1994, and Joseph Guzman, who was with Sean Bell when cops shot up their car on Nov. 25, 2006. Guzman survived 11 bullets, but Bell died. The march was sponsored by the Justice League and endorsed by more than 50 community organizations, churches and youth groups.

“Police brutality is not just a Black issue, even though African-Americans are disproportionately affected,” said university student Norrell Edwards, 24. “It’s about power. Silence means complicity so you have to speak out for change.”

Handmade signs, many with quotes from King, and photos of those killed at the hands of the cops in New York and around the country, dotted the march.