On February 9 two cops unloaded three or four rounds each into a homeless man in Hialeah Gardens. They claim the man charged five officers with a stick that had spikes in the end. The dead man has not been identified.

The latest demonstration, attended by 20 people February 7, was the fourth protest in response to the brutal cop killing of Eddie Lee Macklin, Jr. Rallying at the site of the shooting, the protesters chanted, "No Justice, No Peace!" and carried signs that read "Jail Killer Cops!"

Macklin, unarmed, was killed during the Martin Luther King Day activity here when police officer James Johns jumped on the car he was driving and shot him through the windshield. Officers claimed the car was reported stolen and alleged that Macklin tried to run the officer over when he approached the car. Eyewitnesses report that traffic was bumper to bumper at the time, and that there was no way Macklin could have moved his car to hit the officer.

"The young man was assassinated in the streets of Liberty City," said Paulette Darow, a member of the NAACP. "We demand the cops responsible to be arrested and get time in jail."

One protester said he had joined a picket line in front of a public meeting where Miami-Dade County mayor Alex Pinellas was speaking a few days earlier. Many young people from the neighborhood joined the dozen or so protesters, he said.

A week earlier, 200 people attended a memorial held in Liberty City across the street from the site of the shooting. Supporters of the fight also organized for church vans to drive people to Macklin's wake in Pompano Beach February 1 and then to the funeral in West Palm Beach the next day.

Twenty people wearing a "Justice for Victims of Police Brutality" T-shirt, which lists all those killed by the cops in Miami, attended the funeral. Representatives of the group addressed those present.

Brian Dennis, of Brothers of the Same Mind, said, "This flag is flying upside down. If we can go on the front lines in Afghanistan, but come back and be treated like we were after WWII, then the war on terrorism is a war against us." Ernestine Worthy, from Liberty City, asked everyone with a flag to fly it upside down for the month of February, Black History Month. "When they treat us right, we'll fly it right."

Larry Taylor is a meat packer. Mary Ann Schmidt, a garment worker, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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