Calls for an end to police brutality echoed down Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Jersey City Saturday afternoon.

"Stop police brutality!" and "No justice! No peace!" were some of the chants repeated by about two dozen protesters, both young and old, as they marched more than a mile from McAdoo Avenue to Martin Luther King Plaza around 1 p.m. today.

The protest march was organized by the north Jersey chapter of the National Action Network, a civil rights organization founded by Rev. Al Sharpton with chapters throughout the country.

Protesters held signs, waved flags and at times held their hands in the air, yelling, "Hands up! Don't shoot!" which was a reference to the death of Michael Brown, the unarmed 18-year-old African American who was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., in August.

Carolyn Oliver-Fair, founder and executive director of the north Jersey chapter of the National Action Network, said the protest was part of a "united stand across the country" against prosecutorial and police misconduct.

"We're not talking about justified shootings," Oliver-Fair said. "We're talking about unnecessary brute force. ... Black and brown people are targets."

Oliver-Fair said the death of Lavon King, 20, who was shot and killed by Jersey City police on June 24, was an example of "warrantless" police force.

King, who had warrants out for his arrest, was shot in the chest by a police officer after he reportedly struggled with the officer for his gun in the backyard of an Ege Avenue home. King was unarmed.

Protesters also held signs mourning the death of King.

Dannielle Davis, 19, was one of the protesters who walked down MLK Drive that sunny fall afternoon. Davis said she knew and was a friend of King's, and the protest was "a start" to bringing "justice" to King.

"[King] was shot for no reason," Davis said.

As protesters marched down MLK Drive, residents on the sidewalks encouraged them and at times walked alongside them. Three Jersey City Police officers on motorcycles and at least one police cruiser also escorted the protesters down the roadway.

Yusef Chavers, 53, watched the protesters march by as he stood on the corner of MLK Drive and Bostwick Avenue. Chavers, a longtime community activist in Jersey City, said the area's problems run deeper than police misconduct, but include gang violence and a lack of job training and education.

"This is not a new thing," Chavers said. "I think it's going to take more than the norm of people and politicians; it's going to take young people with a sense of awareness ... to fight for ... an agenda."

Larry Johnson, 50, another resident who watched the protests march by on MLK Drive, said he believed police brutality was a problem issue in Jersey City.

Johnson added that after the shooting death of King, the community and police "need to sit down ... and talk stuff out."

Delacy Davis, founder and president of Black Cops Against Police Brutality and a retired New Jersey police sergeant, was one of the many speakers to talk to onlookers after the protest concluded at MLK Plaza around 2 p.m.

Standing near the fountain in the shopping center's plaza, Delacy Davis called on residents to "awaken" the "sleeping giant" that is the African American community in Jersey City and beyond to push for social change.

"People have to fight back ... to liberate their communities," Delacy Davis said, by using the voting booth, spending their money at local businesses that support their causes and calling for an end to police brutality.