This article is over 10 years old

News

Protesters Arrested At DA’s Office For Criminal Trespass

Several protesters were arrested for criminal trespass at the Harris County District Attorney's office. They were angry at the acquittal of a former Houston police officer in the beating of a teenage burglary suspect.

Share

Listen

To embed this piece of audio in your site, please use this code:

<iframe src="https://embed.hpm.io/81080/35399" style="height: 115px; width: 100%;"></iframe>
X

The arrests came after Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos met with community activist Quannel X and several ministers. The meeting came after protests following the not guilty verdict given to Andrew Blomberg.

After she met with the ministers, Lykos released a statement that said that she had an open dialogue with them and discussed the law and the criminal justice process.

Three of the protesters then blocked a doorway to Lykos’ office, and vowed they would not leave unless they were arrested:

View photos on Flickr

“We get locked all the time anyway.”

“That’s right.”

“You beat us up anyway. And, I ain’t gotta talk nice and follow y’all rules, cause we don’t have to honor your laws, cause your law does not recognize us.”

Lykos later came out to address the blocking protesters.

“We will not be intimidated. We will not be harassed, and we will not permit you to obstruct our office. Thank you.”

“You are a no good racist.”

Then several uniformed officers came in to arrest the protesters if they didn’t get up from the doorway.

“We are asking you to leave.”

“Oh, I’m not resisting arrest. We’re not resisting arrest. OW! These hurt.”

“We’re gonna ask you to leave, Kay? Y’all back up, please.”

Minister Robert Muhammad met with Lykos. He says he hopes to continue meeting with the district attorney.

“I can’t tell people what to do, I can only give them advice. I would advise Ms. Lykos’ opposition not to play politics with this, cause it don’t matter who the DA is, we want a change in the system. So if he should prevail and use this to exploit it, trust me, we’re gonna be back to see him too. It doesn matter. We want change.”

 

Later Lykos released this statement:

Today in Houston Newsletter Signup
We're in the process of transitioning services for our Today in Houston newsletter. If you'd like to sign up now, fill out the form below and we will add you as soon as we finish the transition. **Please note** If you are already signed up for the newsletter, you do not need to sign up again. Your subscription will be migrated over.