Race, Policing, and Black Lives Matter Protests The death of George Floyd , in context. Dramatic footage uploaded to a Facebook Live feed showed the moment when shots split the night air in the Texas capital as some 100 protesters marched and … The White Lives Matter protest comes at a tense time for Houston and the country. They had spray-painted a clenched black fist on it, with the words “Black Lives Matter.” A crowd of young protesters surrounding it whooped and cheered. The civil-rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson examines the frustration and despair behind the protests. Republican President Donald Trump criticized the protests and promised to restore law and order, although opinion polls showed Americans largely supportive of Black Lives Matter. The event, however it went, would have international visibility. The city’s mayor, Sylvester Turner, was said to be making an appearance. His grieving family members would be participating in the march. Even if it wasn’t stated explicitly in the march’s notice, it was understood that local officials had a lot riding on the appearance of peaceful proceedings. 166 talking about this. Horseback protesters earlier this week led the line as 60,000 citizens demonstrated peacefully against the death of George Floyd in his hometown of Houston. But, whereas the officers we’d seen before had been languishing, these were adjusting their mikes and fastening their helmets. “This is going to be more like a marathon,” a cousin noted. One sign simply read “Black Mama.” Many signs listed only names: Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, Tony McDade, Atatiana Jefferson. What they did to him was wrong. We all kept walking regardless. We passed a group of nine or ten cops on horses, each of them heavily armed. All rights reserved. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. A number of current and former public health officials also expressed concerns that mass protests would lead to a spike in COVID-19 clusters, including Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert R. Redfield, U.S. Several of Floyd’s family members spoke. Really. But she only nodded. Some walked in groups of twos and fours. On our way back toward East End, around five o’clock, we passed a handful of bars, where occupants were drinking and leaning on the patio gates, wearing jerseys and shades, and eyeing marchers (most of these folks were white), and also a group playing soccer on an indoor court, entirely removed from the proceedings—reminders of just what a massive city we live in. After taking our order, the woman behind the register noted, offhand, that the damage done to those cities was a shame. Yes. “The one downtown?” the woman asked. Simon Kent 26 Jul 2020. At the march on Tuesday, organized by George Floyd’s nephew, it was easy to see why Houston is routinely referred to as the most diverse city in the country. A few hours later, we’d learn that—literally moments after we’d left the march’s epicenter—the police had notified everyone remaining, on loudspeakers, that the event was over. Race, Policing, and Black Lives Matter Protests The death of George Floyd, in context. Will be used in accordance with our Privacy Policy. Eventually, clusters of walkers began to merge—two became four, who became nine, who became fifteen, who became thirty. One mounted officer in Houston trampled a … We hadn’t walked five minutes from the edge of Houston’s East End neighborhood, heading downtown toward the march with George Floyd’s family on Tuesday afternoon, when my boyfriend, L., and I saw the first set of cops, staggered beside trucks, adjusting their gear. We watched several cruisers and trucks inch along. Inside, footage of protests in D.C. and L.A. played on a television mounted in the dining room. High school students in Katy hosting protest to stand with Black Lives Matter An event to stand with the Black Lives Matter movement was held at Katy Park at 24927 Morton Road on Thursday. Saturday, July 11, 2020, in Houston. ... Texas, grew frustrated by a void of activism in their affluent Houston suburb. News | Black Lives Matter A timeline of the George Floyd and anti-police brutality protests Protests over the US police killings of Black people have spread across the US, and worldwide. In Southwest Houston, a Vietnamese American businessman received death threats and a boycott when he put up a bilingual Black Lives Matter billboard. Activist gets on the ground in the very position Floyd lost his life as officer kneeled on his neck. Protests continue after the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man killed in police custody. (“If they bust their asses out here, who the fuck is gonna come save them?” a woman beside us said.) It wasn’t long before most of the crowd began to disperse accordingly, but some folks, entirely peacefully, did not—and this was when the trouble began. The afternoon’s march had been coördinated by Floyd’s nephew Brandon Williams, alongside the local rappers Bun B and Trae tha Truth. https://t.co/VxVBjbhxZv pic.twitter.com/WkDzsenJ7t, HPD Chief speaks after marching in Third Ward. “Good,” she said. He repeated calls for a peaceful walk: “We ain’t gonna shed a drop of blood in Houston, Texas.” The march was already well on its way by the time L. and I slipped into the stream, pushing onto Walker Street, hooking just past Discovery Green and farther into the city. One Dead After Shooting at Black Lives Matter Protest in Texas 17,047 Screenshot. On social media, people inquired after marchers they hadn’t heard from in hours. H-town rappers Bun B and Trae tha Truth joined throngs of people flooding Downtown Houston Tuesday for a march that ended at City Hall. The woman asked why we’d gone, and we told her. Bun B spoke again, saying, “We appreciate the Houston Police Department for standing with us today, but make no mistakes about it: we will hold our police department accountable, if they commit acts against the people of this city.” The crowd grew loudest at this and other calls for accountability: since 2015, there have been fifty-six fatal police shootings in Houston. One man’s sign said that he was there because he had five black children and a black grandchild. L. and I made it out of downtown, sticking to side streets. Once our segment of the crowd made it to City Hall, the pace stalled, and then stopped, and the marchers immediately took up chanting. The activist Tamika Mallory spoke. HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Black Lives Matter Houston held a second protest and march for George Floyd in Emancipation Park on Saturday. The weather was hot and humid in the way that Houston gets this time of year, and the heat emanating from the crowd increased in tandem. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci, and form… HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Black Lives Matter Houston held a second protest and march for George Floyd in Emancipation Park on Saturday. Ad Choices, Sign up for our daily newsletter and get the best of, George Floyd, Houston’s Protests, and Living Without the Benefit of the Doubt, The Tiny Media Collective That Is Delivering Some of the Most Vital Reporting from Minneapolis, George Floyd’s Death Sets Off a Wave of Protests. A street later, we crossed paths with a group of at least fifty college-aged folks, and, not even a block behind them, an even larger set of police. Floyd grew up in this city. Others began congregating at intersections leading out of the city, nearly a mile away from the Discovery Green park, where the march would officially begin, winding its way from there through the city until it reached City Hall. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. June 10 Black Lives Matter protests By Melissa Macaya, Mike Hayes, Meg Wagner , Joshua Berlinger , Steve George and Peter Wilkinson , CNN Updated 12:44 a.m. We passed several groups of black women handing out face masks to passersby. More than a handful of Houston’s usual photo-op set turned out—including Joel Olsteen, whose nationally lauded megachurch remained closed to evacuees at the outset of Hurricane Harvey—but even their presence was eclipsed by the swells of everyday Houstonians who had shown up to walk and express solidarity. The diversity of the marchers can’t be overstated: from the midst of the crowd, it was easy to see why Houston is routinely referred to as the most diverse city in the country. The young activists who formed Katy4Justice at a Black Lives Matter protest. A handful walked alone, carrying signs and adjusting face masks and hopscotching across the toasting pavement. Some clustered under the overpass by the convention center. Photograph by David J Phillip / AP / Shutterstock, Who, David Remnick asks, is the true agitator behind the, The Black Lives Matter co-founder Opal Tometi on what it would mean to. 2 of 9 Mary Courtney takes a video during a protest about a Black Lives Matter billboard in parking lot at 11107 Bellaire Blvd. At least one flash-bang grenade was reportedly fired. Some marchers, many of them black, rode in on horseback, gently ambling along. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated as of 1/1/21) and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement (updated as of 1/1/21) and Your California Privacy Rights. There were many “Asian Lives for Black Lives” signs. Protesters take a knee outside of a police building during a Black Lives Matter protest in Odessa on May 31, 2020. She pursed her lips, frowning, and I braced myself for what she was going to say. During Black Lives Matter demonstrations against police brutality in Washington, D.C., last year, law enforcement agencies were documented forcibly pushing back peaceful groups of protesters. But, at the end of the day, a man is dead. As the march swelled far beyond the projected several thousand attendees—accumulating, as one friend put it to me in text, “A super big fucking amount of fucking people” (ultimately in the vicinity of sixty-thousand, according to the Houston Chronicle)—all eyes would be on the city of Houston. We passed one set of cops after another and then a set of city buses lounging under a bridge, with more police in riot gear bunched up beside them. Yes. "The time has arrived," the rapper wrote. In June, U.S. Park Police and National Guard troops, clad in riot gear, used pepper spray to clear the area outside the White House of protesters so Trump could walk to St. John's Church and pose for a photo holding up a … All Rights Reserved. In the midst of mass unrest all over the States, Houston’s protests thus far had seemed considerably calmer: no curfew had been enforced; no mass destruction or disruption had taken place downtown; arrests had been made, three hundred and fifty in total, but they had looked nothing like the violent scenes of police playing out in other cities. L. and I said that we’d actually just come from the march. L. and I slipped from near the center of the road to the edges, and after walking past the city-hall building we saw that speeches were being made in the adjacent park. There were many “Brown Lives for Black Lives” signs. The civil-rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson examines the frustration and despair behind the protests. Naturally, the public conversation has turned to the question of what this moment means, and where we will go from here. A woman’s sign said that she’d attended because black women need to be protected. Copyright © 2021 KTRK-TV. L. noted that the police only seemed to be moving toward the march’s end point. Like no other news outlet, Unicorn Riot brings an intimacy and intensity to its coverage of the protests against police brutality following the killing of George Floyd. Lil Nas X, of "Old Town Road" fame, retweeted a video of a group of people riding on horses to a Houston Black Lives Matter protest on Tuesday. Credit... Katy4Justice. Our ultimate goal is to pave a path for Black power and liberation where it is understood that ALL BLACK LIVES MATTER. Police say waitress saved abused boy, Katy ISD football player hurt in crash will go home soon, Check out these FREE Houston-area events this weekend, ABC13's Art Rascon shares his COVID-19 experience, FBI Houston tracking down threats ahead of Inauguration Day, Novavax COVID-19 vaccine trial underway in Houston, Houston leaders call for peace as George Floyd protesters gather for 2nd day, Derek Chauvin, police officer accused in George Floyd's death, charged with murder, Mayor Turner asks residents to report anyone intending to do violence while protesting, Family members of George Floyd speaks out after protests in Houston. On July 9, Houston police fatally shot a black man who they said pointed a gun at officers. ET, June 11, 2020 Everyone remaining in the area would be in violation of the law. Before the march started, Bun B had called for participants to kneel for thirty seconds of silence, in memory of Floyd. NOW: Protestors have began a march along Emancipation Ave in 3rd Ward in honor of #GeorgeFloyd . Despite the police presence, people continued filing their way downtown. Despite the city’s lack of a curfew, it was, apparently, time to go home. “People have had enough,” Salazar said. In April and May of this year, there were six in a span of less than six weeks. Texas Legislature 2021 session: 5 things to watch, New season of 'The Rookie' returns after May cliffhanger, George Floyd's daughter receives bedroom makeover, Potential jurors in George Floyd case asked if they support BLM, Woman charged after leading deputies to car with body inside, Here's how strong the cold wind will gust Friday, Biden unveils $1.9T COVID relief plan with new stimulus checks, Houston father hopeful for Biden's $1.9T COVID-19 plan, Dog involved in attack on 3-year-old girl now in custody, New York City bus left dangling from overpass after crash, 8 injured, 'Do you need help?' Live report at 6 #Abc13 pic.twitter.com/JgF8WwQIEN, Powerful moment during protest for #GeorgeFloyd in his 3rd Ward neighborhood. I saw several “Black Trans Lives Matter” signs. © COPYRIGHT BLACK LIVES MATTER HOUSTON 2018 - 2020. That evening, we pulled into a Thai restaurant for takeout. Protesters in at least four cities have ridden horses during protests to cheers from the crowd. The difference in the way the pro-Trump rioters were treated in comparison to Black Lives Matter protests from over the summer. “It’s good to be out there. © 2021 Condé Nast. A group of motorcyclists made its way through the crowd blasting chopped-and-screwed rap, at one point pausing to stand on the bikes. We passed a number of folks brandishing signs, on cardboard cutouts and poster paper and computer sheets and Tupperware. Tomorrow we will be joining March for Our Lives Houston in rallying and protesting the injustices done to Breonna Taylor and the injustices being perpetrated in our courts. The Black Lives Matter movement became an international phenomenon in 2020. In the course of the evening, information making it out of the city’s downtown grid was scarce at best, but some details filtered through, in videos of marchers in the area: the police presence had fully solidified, and routes outside of the downtown had been blocked off. To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Something has to change.”. Marchers were reportedly being led onto buses. Trae tha Truth spoke. Black Lives Matter Houston is an organization that addresses the issues that affects Black folks and collaborates with partners to build a healthy, educated and financially stable Black community. But Marlon A. Smith, CEO and founder of Black Greeks Speak Social Justice and Human Rights Council, felt it was important to watch again. We passed several groups of Latinx teens passing out water bottles, shuffling through coolers. An official page dedicated to linking activists and supporters of the #BlackLivesMatter movement in Houston. Ignited by the killing of Floyd by a law-enforcement officer, demonstrations targeting racial injustice and police brutality took place nationwide. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. One white family’s signs read “We Repent.” (Noticing it, one of the teens walking beside me said, “That’s cute.”) A handful of signs said “Breonna Taylor.” At some point, it became clear that my phone wasn’t getting a signal. Bad faith comparisons between the attack on the Capitol and the Black Lives Matter protests over the summer ignore that only one of those has a legitimate complaint. The mass protests occurred during the global COVID-19 pandemic and officials and experts warned they could facilitate an accelerated or rebounding spread of COVID-19. The march swelled to nearly sixty thousand attendees, according to the Houston Chronicle—far more than the projected several thousand. To revisit this article, select My⁠ ⁠Account, then View saved stories. Our makeshift group increased our pace a half step quicker. Every handful of steps or so, a marcher nearby seemed to note that their social-media postings weren’t going through. Protesters rallied in Houston for a prayer vigil and in Chicago Tuesday night. We passed a man in a Joker mask waving from a stop sign, imploring passersby to watch where the money was flowing. Police officers have also been riding horses as a form of crowd control. Archbishop Welby's comments follow an eruption of Black Lives Matter protests across the world following the death of George Floyd, a black man from Minneapolis man who was killed by police. One person was killed after shots were fired Saturday night at a Black Lives Matter protest in Austin, Texas, local police said. On Wednesday morning, the Houston police department announced that it had arrested more than two hundred people the previous night. It had arrested more than two hundred people the previous night public conversation has to. 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