About 20 people gathered outside the Harris County Courthouse on Tuesday to protest local police brutality and the shooting deaths of various people, including one reserve officer, in recent years by law enforcement officers
Organizers said the protest comes on the second anniversary of 25-year-old Hiji Eugene Harrison's shooting death by a sheriff's deputy during a traffic stop. Grand jurors declined to indict Deputy William Dale Wilkinson, who said Harrison tried to take his gun. Imam Akbar, national minister of justice for the New Black Panther Party for Self Defense, said several have been victims of police brutality in Houston, but "we believe the citizens can overcome the system." Some members of the group also attended the Houston City Council meeting to present a resolution that asked that excessive force by police officers be criminally indictable and punitive. [MORE]