Philadelphia man walking to Washington D.C. to raise awareness of police brutality

PHILADELPHIA - Jamal Johnson is finishing up his annual walk to Washington D.C. to raise awareness and invoke change when it comes to police brutality. This is the fourth year he has walked for the cause.

"This year with the climate and police brutality it got a lot more attention," he told FOX 29. "Cars go by honking and waving," he said.

Wearing a “Justice for George Floyd" mask he left from Philadelphia Police Headquarters on June 7. He'll reach D.C. this Friday to go to the office of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Department of Justice. The walk is part of an organization he founded called “Stop Killing Us” which has a lot of supporters.

"Some people march for a day. Some people march for an hour. Some people march for a couple minutes. I could easily catch a bus and go to D.C. and give them the papers but I feel that by me doing it on foot every year, going 140 plus miles that they'll give that some consideration," he said. Once there Johnson will present a list of reforms to officials in Washington.

"Some of the things they actually adopted for consideration was the no choke holds we put out there in 2017 and the no knock warrants we put that out there in 2017. They're not really seeming to harp on having law enforcement live in our communities which we think they should and extreme extensive psychological evaluations." While he's fighting against police brutality he says there's another important message for the black community.

"We can’t say on one hand we want police brutality to stop while we're still killing each other in the streets."

Johnson who is also a Marine veteran started the annual walk to Washington after the shooting death of 30-year-old David Jones by a Philadelphia Police officer in June of 2017.

If you wish to track his walk or support him, please click here.

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