Dozens march in Dallas against police violence toward blacks

DALLAS – Several dozen protesters have marched through downtown Dallas to protest police violence toward blacks while also paying homage to five police officers slain by a sniper during a July 7 demonstration.

The demonstrators marched several blocks from a downtown park to El Centro College, where Micah Johnson gunned down the officers before being killed after an hourslong standoff.

The march Friday was organized by the Next Generation Action Network, the Dallas-based civil rights group that held the July 7 protest. The group’s been criticized for mounting the protest so soon. But organizer Dominique Alexander says it’s important “to show respect for what officers sacrificed” for the sake of free speech.

Alexander, the group’s president and founder, is an ordained Baptist preacher and convicted felon whose uncle died in a police-involved shooting.