By Bill Zeeble, KERA NEWS
Three weeks before Micah Xavier Johnson opened fire on Dallas police Thursday night, he offered to work security for protesters outside a Donald Trump appearance in Dallas. KERA’s Bill Zeeble reports that organizers said “no way” – because Johnson wanted to bring a gun.
Reverend Peter Johnson is a long-time Dallas civil rights activist – and no relation to Thursday’s shooter. Johnson has led marches for decades, going back to his years with Martin Luther King Jr. He’s lived by King’s ethos of non-violence.
Johnson was helping plan the June rally against the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee when a man named Micah Xavier Johnson appeared.
“Young man comes and says I’m going to participate, I want to help. But I want to bring my gun. I say hell no, you can’t bring your gun. That’s all I remember about him. I told him you can’t bring your gun to a protest that I’m involved in.”
Through the years, Reverend Johnson has seen death and violence visited on friends and colleagues by people using guns.
“This pathologic love affair that America has with guns. We’re the laughing stock of the world because of this.”
At the march against Trump, one man was arrested, another hit by a thrown rock. The protest was otherwise peaceful. So was Thursday’s march through downtown Dallas, until Micah Johnson appeared.
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