Dallas

Protesters Gather Again in Downtown Dallas

More than 100 protesters marched through downtown Dallas Friday to protest police brutality and pay homage to five police officers slain by a gunman during a July 7 demonstration.

"We don't want cops getting killed and we don't want cops killing us," said Frederick Haynes, senior pastor at Friendship West Baptist Church.

The demonstrators marched several blocks from Main Street Gardens Park to El Centro College, where Micah Xavier Johnson fatally shot the police officers before being killed after an hourslong standoff.

Protesters stopped at the site of the shooting to say a prayer for the officers who were killed and injured. Moments later a convoy of Dallas police vehicles pulled up beside them. Armed officers wearing tactical and riot gear kept protesters from spilling out into the street. Those same protesters were perplexed and somewhat angered by the response.

"We prayed right there for them and then this is how they respond?" said Cory Hughes. "Usually when you pray for somebody they respond in like kindness, but they respond in force. Why is that?"

The rally and march was organized by the Next Generation Action Network, the same Dallas-based civil rights group that held the July 7 protest. The group had been criticized for mounting the protest so soon after the attack. But organizer Dominique Alexander says it's important "to show respect for what officers sacrificed" for the sake of free speech.

"We're supposed to stand down? I think it would be an injustice to those officers that lost their lives if we allow this issue to be pushed down and not addressed," Alexander said.

The group will present a list of policy demands to city leaders on August 10 that it believes will rebuild trust between the police and the communities they serve.

No arrests were reported after Friday's protest.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
Contact Us