Fort Worth protesters join national rallies

The protesters said they were re-enacting a recurring dynamic throughout U.S. history: Black men die at the hands of whatever authority exists at the time, and no one ever gets punished.

Some protesters at Friday night’s “die-in” lay inside chalk outlines drawn on the bricks in front of the Fort Worth Police Department’s downtown headquarters on West Belknap Street. That symbolized the unarmed people who have been killed by those sworn to uphold the law, said Viner Manfoot-Greene, president of the Northeast Central Texas chapter of the National Action Network.

Others among about two dozen protesters carried signs that said, “Don’t shoot,” “I can’t breathe” and “10 rules of survival if stopped by the police.”

“Lives will continue to be lost unless something changes,” Manfoot-Greene said. “I think the citizens in Tarrant County need to come together to show that we don’t exist in a vacuum.”

The Fort Worth protesters joined others across the nation who have taken to the streets in the last two weeks in reaction to grand jury decisions not to indict white police officers in the deaths of black men.

Last week, a St. Louis County grand jury declined to indict a white officer in the shooting death of Michael Brown, a black 18-year-old in Ferguson, Mo. On Wednesday, more protests erupted after a grand jury in New York City decided not to indict a white officer in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, a black man who gasped “I can’t breathe” while being arrested for selling loose, untaxed cigarettes.

“There’s a more humane way to police,” said Devon Gibson, 19, a student at the University of Texas at Arlington. “They have to begin to treat us like we are people that someone cares about.”

Mark Stanley, 17, a senior at Nolan Catholic High School, said he is headed to the University of Missouri next year to study journalism. Stanley said he was protesting to honor others who were also headed to college but whose plans were cut short because they made a mistake while dealing with police.

“I could be another Trayvon Martin or Michael Brown,” Stanley said. “I don’t want to be another black man who is gunned down and forgotten two weeks later.”

Martin was an unarmed black teen who was fatally shot in South Florida by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer who was acquitted in the slaying.

Stanley’s mother, Deborah Peoples, chairwoman of the Tarrant County Democratic Party, said she fears for her son’s safety but wanted to protest to let him know that she and others have his back.

“What if he’s carrying a toy gun or tells the wrong joke to police?” Peoples asked. “If this can happen to other children, it can happen to mine.”

Retired Judge Maryellen Hicks said Texas law on the use of deadly force by police will not change because the people who hold state office see no reason to change it.

“Statutory change will come from the federal government and from the community demanding change,” Hicks said. “But nothing will change while the courthouse is nothing but white faces in black robes.”

This story was originally published December 5, 2014 at 9:58 PM with the headline "Fort Worth protesters join national rallies."