STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The NYPD is prepared to handle Saturday's "We Will Not Go Back" march and rally on the North Shore, according to a police source.
The department has been in contact with the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network and other organizers of the event, including the NAACP, United Healthcare Workers East (1199SEIU) and the United Federation of Teachers, and has designed a package of resources based on those conversations, the source said.
The event is demanding justice for the deaths of Eric Garner, a 43-year-old father of six from Port Richmond, and 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.
"They can exercise their constitutional right to protest, as long as it's safe," the source added.
The NYPD never discusses the specific security details associated with these types of events, a spokesman for the Office of the Deputy Commissioner said.
The rally could draw crowds of more than 15,000 people, according to some estimates, but local authorities are not expecting the chaotic clashes that have played out in Ferguson, Mo., in the aftermath of Brown's death.
Organizers are busing in participants from the rest of the city and New Jersey, while others will be arriving via Staten Island Ferry.
But the NYPD can always call on its vast manpower, if necessary.
"The good thing about the NYPD is we can put 1,000 cops anywhere within an hour," the source said.
Previous rallies on Staten Island and in Harlem were peaceful, and Garner's family has requested the same decorum for this weekend's event. Brown's family will not be attending the march, according to a spokeswoman from NAN.
Both Garner and Brown were unarmed black men who died as the result of a confrontation with a white police officer.