Speaking after the famous Selma marches , led by the Rev . Martin Luther King Jr. , Buckley , addressing the uniformed crowd of 5,600 -LRB- about one-quarter of the entire force -RRB- , accused the news media of emphasizing the brutality shown by the Alabama police and editing out their initial restraint and of playing up the story of Viola Liuzzo , a Detroit housewife who had gone south to help civil rights workers and been murdered there . ''