A group of protesters moved from downtown Dallas to Lake Cliff Park in the Oak Cliff neighborhood Tuesday night.
The park is outside of the city's curfew zone, which allowed the group to continue to gather past 7 p.m.
Tuesday afternoon at least a couple hundred people gathered in front of Dallas City Hall to protest the death of George Floyd and police brutality.
During the protest, Gov. Greg Abbott joined Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price, Dallas Police Chief Renee Hall and Forth Worth Police Chief Ed Kraus inside city hall for a news conference.
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“I put together this gathering together because I believe one obvious void over the past few days has been engagement and representation of our elected officials," said Adam Bazaldua, the Dallas City Council Member for District 7.
Bazaldua said that was his main reason for organizing the protest, but also said so they could get the governor's attention. He hoped Abbott would have made an appearance.
“The amount of change that is going to be needed in our criminal justice system and in the way that we treat law enforcement and the relationship with minority communities is going to require action on every level of government, including the state level," Bazaldua said.
Charity Adetiba was one of the many people who wore black shirts and hoped the governor saw them.
"He needed to see that we’re coming together as a community. We’re all in the same space of being outraged and sick and tired of them [police] abusing their power, and just being in the same mindset that we’ve been in for hundreds of years with allowing the police department to be a military force in our community," Adetiba said.
At times the protesters were quiet, while sometimes they chanted and at other times just had conversations amongst one another.
Those who attend, hope their message falls on the ears of those in power.
"They’re supposed to serve us and protect us and they’re not doing that. We needed him to see that we’re here supporting each other and holding him accountable to do what he’s supposed to do as an elected official, and he’s not," Adetiba expressed.
"I want all who believe in this movement and want to see change to take a look at your elected officials, see if they’re showing up, see if they’re willing to listen, see if they’re willing to get uncomfortable and learn about maybe some perspective that doesn’t directly impact them, because apathy is what has brought this country to where we are," Bazaldua said.
At the beginning of his speech, Gov. Abbott was impassioned and denounced the killing of George Floyd.
“Let’s be clear, what happened to George Floyd is a horrific act of police brutality. This should never have happened and we must ensure that it never happens here in Texas,” said Gov. Greg Abbott.
“George Floyd’s death has touched every corner of our country. People are rightfully angry, but the beautiful thing about America is that every person has a right to make their voices heard to protest against this injustice. However, violence and vandalism is never the answer, and they have no place in Dallas, Fort Worth, or anywhere in the state of Texas,“ said Abbott.
He said he'll deploy more than 1,000 Department of Public Safety troopers and hundreds of National Guard members to North Texas.
Adetiba doesn't believe it's needed.
“It’s unnecessary, the root of the problem is they’re not policing the police department they’re killing us unnecessarily, they’re using excessive force unnecessarily and they’re not arresting and prosecuting and charging the officers responsible and so to use all of those tactics and all of those unnecessary measures on the end, when they can just fix it on the beginning, on the front end, it’s unnecessary and it just really shows that they’re not for us, they’re against us", Adetiba expressed.
