Protesters march in Houston to honor blacks killed in police-involved shootings

Dozens of protesters marched Saturday night in the fourth largest U.S. city of Houston to honor those killed in police-involved shootings as well as other incidents locally and across the nation.

Supporters of Black Lives Matter, an activist movement against violence and racism toward black people, chanted the slogans such as "No justice, no peace! No racist police! Hands up, don't shoot," the local TV station ABC13 reported.

There was a large police presence during the march from MacGregor Park through the University of Houston down to Texas Southern University.

"Too many times people are dying at the hands of cops. We're tired of coming here and saying black lives matters -- police need to stop killing us," said Gregory Chatman, 25, a student of the Houston Community College and co-organizer of the event.

"We just want black people to feel safe in our communities. We want to go outside without worrying about if police are going to kill us or harass us today," he added.

Deondre Moore, another co-organizer of the event, also said, "We're tired of seeing what's going on in America. We're fed up."

"Every morning I see black and brown bodies in the street. I don't feel safe when I see a police officer coming around. I'm afraid to say this, but white people don't have to deal with this," he said.

"When something is wrong, we need to call it for what it is -- systematic racism, police brutality, a system that wasn't built for people who look like me. It needs to be dismantled and rebuilt," he added.

Some protesters said that racism is real in America and they stressed the importance of speaking up and not letting others silence their voices.

The protest came after the recent police-involved shootings of black men in the U.S. states of Oklahoma and North Carolina.

Meanwhile, seven protesters were arrested by police during a march on Saturday afternoon in Jackson Square in Louisiana's largest city of New Orleans to protest against the city's four monuments honoring Civil War era figures.

Take 'Em Down NOLA, a grassroots group opposed to the prevalence of the city's monuments honoring white supremacists, remains frustrated that more than 8 months after the City Council voted to remove the four monuments, those monuments still remain.

The group said that statue of Andrew Jackson, who was a slaveholder and served as the 7th president of the United States, must go.

(APD)