Texas police officers indicted for violent crackdown on 2020 Black Lives Matter protests

Edited by Ed Newman
2022-05-13 07:11:51

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Dallas, May 13 (RHC)-- A Texas grand jury has indicted three Dallas-area police officers on felony charges they physically assaulted Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020. 

The indictments were announced nearly two years after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer sparked protests across Texas and around the world. 

Dallas SWAT officers Ryan Mabry and Melvin Williams face multiple charges of aggravated assault by a public servant and deadly conduct.  Williams was fired from the Dallas Police Department earlier this year over an unrelated excessive force charge.  A third officer with the Garland Police Department faces a single assault charge. 

Among those injured at the protests was Brandon Saenz, who was shot in the face in May of 2020 with a so-called less lethal round fired by a Dallas police officer. 

Saenz spoke to Democracy Now! less than a month after the assault.  “When I woke up out of surgery, that’s when they told me I lost my eye.  My jaw was twisted.  My nose was broken.  And I got metal plates right here, metal screws in my nose and a plate right here on my cheek.”

Amnesty International documented at least 125 instances of police violence against protesters in 40 states and in the District of Columbia in the weeks following George Floyd’s killing, where officers responded to peaceful protests with unlawful beatings, tear gas and rubber bullets.

 



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