US protesters march in Dallas against police brutality toward blacks

US demonstrators have marched through Dallas, Texas, to express their anger against police brutality toward African-Americans.

The protesters also paid homage to the five police officers slain by a sniper during a demonstration earlier this month.

The protesters marched several blocks on Friday from a downtown park to El Centro College, where a gunman identified by police as US Army veteran Micah Johnson fatally shot five police officers on July 7.

The march was organized by a civil rights group called the Next Generation Action Network, the same civil rights group that held the July 7 protest which ended with gunfire.

The protesters chanted slogans and condemned police violence against the black community. They also paid homage to the slain officers who were recently shot dead in the city.

Dallas police helicopters circled overhead during Friday’s march, and officers armed with rifles in riot gear ordered protesters off the streets to the sidewalks.

The move has drawn widespread condemnations prompting US authorities to step up security measures to protect law enforcement officers nationwide.

Over the past month, thousands of demonstrators have flooded the streets of major cities across the country to decry the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, two black men who were killed by police just one day apart.

Their deaths triggered revenge attacks against police by two black military veterans. Five officers were killed in Dallas on July 7 and three were killed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on July 17.

Over 55,000 people in the United States were either killed or wounded by police in 2012 alone, according to a new study by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Maryland.

The study found that blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans are more likely to get arrested by police compared to white and Asian people.