Young protesters, unhappy with the outcome of the 2016 Presidential Election, stormed downtown Dallas Wednesday night.
Roughly 200 people, mainly disgruntled millennials, marched, KDFW reported. Dallas area activist group Next Generation Action Network organized the effort. They billed it as a “Rally Against Hate In Dallas” stating it was “NOT a protest it is a Rallying cry to resist ANY force that threatens our unity and our progression into a more unified, dignified, and economically stable society,” as they claimed to “galvanize the people and seek collective solutions to our common problem.”
The crowd almost turned on Next Generation Action Network founder Dominique Alexander when he criticized Hillary Clinton. According to KDFW, protesters started yelling at him and reminded him this was an anti-Trump rally. Alexander backed down and regained control. He and others addressed protesters through a bullhorn, calling the President-Elect a “racist bigot.”
In video from the demonstration posted on Next Generation Action Network’s Facebook page, one young male identified himself as a “proud Marxist” and “proud communist” who came to meet up with “comrades” to affect “social revolution” and said: “We have to shut down the country.” He called the President-elect a “Nazi” and a “Neo-Nazi.” He led the group in chanting “F*ck Donald Trump.” A young lesbian insisted a Trump presidency will infringe upon her rights to wed her girlfriend.
“I stand with my brothers in the Mexican community. I stand with my brothers in the Muslim community, and the queer community,” said one protester, KTVT reported. “I won’t let him create a mockery of minorities.”
Protester Taylor Eubanks told KTVT that shouting obscenities will not change anything.
“I was hoping for more of a peace rally instead of what’s going on right now,” he said. “I get that people are angry. I’m angry too. I broke out in hives today because I’m so anxious. But, when it comes down to it, we need to band together, stand side-by-side against Donald Trump’s administration.”
WFAA tweeted protesters chanted “Not my president.”
One participant tweeted: “I could not sit around and let fascism plague.”
Despite heavily profane-laced rhetoric and signage, the event lasted about three hours. Dallas police maintained a strong presence and made no arrests.
Next Generation Action Network promoted the gathering over social media. A statement on their website says in part: “As we wrap our minds around this failed attempt at democracy that we as a country have witnessed in this election, and brace ourselves as Americans for a new Republican commander-in-chief with a majority Republican House and Senate; we are even more strengthened in our resolve to fight.”
The statement continued:
Most everything out of the Trump campaign has been divisive and contrary to those values written in the U.S. Constitution,” the statement continued. “When human rights, social justice, and common decency is put on the back burner for bigotry and hate as we have witnessed as citizens of the United States of America we have no other choice but to rebel. African Americans, Hispanics, Muslims, women, disabled Americans, LGBTQ, Veterans, the poor, and the displaced that make up most this country must no longer be silent.
The group cautioned:
The dangers of remaining silent are written in history as we have all at least heard of the ‘Great’ America that he wishes to bring back if not experienced it first-hand. It is our duty to practice civil disobedience and resist the direction this country is headed in with this unqualified backwards thinking President Elect that is exposing the need for swift action and opposition.
Group founder Alexander, 27, a self-described “minister of the gospel, civil and human rights activist,” who also organized the Dallas Black Lives Matter July 7 Dallas protest where lone gunman Micah X. Johnson killed five Dallas police offices and nine others were wounded.
In recent months, Alexander was arrested for 10 outstanding warrants in two north Texas counties and served jail time in connection with a seven-year deferred adjudication probation sentence for a 2009 injury to a child conviction. He also bucked heads with Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and former Dallas Police Chief David Brown, who asked Alexander to reschedule a July 29 Black Lives Matter Rally out of respect to law enforcement, given the close proximity to the July 7 police massacre. Alexander refused, arguing enough time had passed for the social justice group to get back on message. In 2015, the Dallas Morning News reported on Alexander’s troubled history.
Follow Merrill Hope, a member of the original Breitbart Texas team, on Twitter.
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