“I can't breathe” in downtown Houston
Jasnuary 1, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
There was no central New Year’s Eve gathering in Houston this year. But a small group of us gathered downtown on a cold and drizzly night, and marched through areas where some restaurants and hotels were having celebrations chanting, "No new year under this old system. We can’t breathe, we can’t breathe." This quickly polarized the scene—some people joined in the chanting and raised their arms, while others complained that we were disturbing their new year’s celebration.
A couple of people joined in and marched with us for a while. One Black man said that he joined the march because it is for justice and it is courageous for a handful of people to stand up to the superpower and he had to check it out. He added that we all have to come together for righteousness. The other guy said that he loved what we were doing and wants to be a part of waking people up.
Photo: Special to revcom.us
We stopped at lines of people waiting to get into the clubs and restaurants, and got out Revolution and masks that said I can’t breathe. About 20 people took masks to wear in the clubs, and several people came up to talk about how their friends and family have been brutalized by the police. At a restaurant, a number of people put up their arms in hands up don’t shoot.
Later in Midtown, in the midst of a pub crawl, a young white woman came out and said she was ecstatic to see us. A group of young men put on the masks and said that that they are down for this, and want to join in with what’s happening all across the country. One of them said that he had just gotten a message from one of his friends marching in NYC. They said that all this police brutality and murder by the police has got to end. They said that they would check out Revolution and revcom.us.
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