NYC Black Lives Matters protests march across bridge and through city on Friday

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Black Lives Matter protests marched again through New York City on Friday night.

When the protest march stepped off from Union Square just before dusk, it was not unlike countless others we've seen in the past two years. Even the security was not all that unusual.

But Friday night something was different.

During the inevitable standoff at a bridge, in this case, the Williamsburg Bridge, cops blocked the protesters from taking it over, but there was for a moment silence.

And not just for victims of police brutality, but for the police officers, ambushed in Dallas Thursday night. Officers murdered as they protected the very protestors, in whose name they were killed.

"They are out there visibly in that blue uniform, and last night they were targeted for wearing that blue uniform. But they still go out there and do their job," Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said.

Sadly, it's something the NYPD has already confronted.

Two years ago, then Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were executed in their patrol car by a man who claimed to be avenging the deaths of black men in custody.

Friday, Commissioner Bratton ordered any solo officers to be doubled up. He also pulled unarmed auxiliary cops off the street and promised to protect Friday night's protest in Union Square.

"We here just to make it legal to be black once again. That's all we here to do," a protester said.

It is where, under a driving rain, they searched for the answer that seems more elusive by the day.

"We are not here to hate any other, we just want to stop being killed," a protester said.

"People want justice. People want systematic change. Because you know killing back and forth at the end of the day is not going to solve the issue," said Gilbert Rosa, a protester.

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On Monday, Delrawn Small was shot by an off-duty police officer in a road rage incident in Brooklyn. Alton Sterling, 37, was shot early Tuesday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as he wrestled with two white police officers outside a convenience store. P

One day later, Philando Castile of St. Paul, Minnesota, a well-liked 32-year-old cafeteria supervisor at a Montessori school, was shot and killed by police during a traffic stop. His girlfriend broadcasted the aftermath via Facebook Live.