Open Carry Texas calls off march in Houston’s 5th Ward
Open Carry Texas got an earful from local black residents in Houston’s 5th Ward this week when its leaders met with them regarding a proposed march by OCT:
Following a contentious meeting with community leaders in a predominantly black neighborhood in Houston, Open Carry Texas postponed Saturday’s march after protestors, some of them armed, accused the group of being racist and attempting to use its residents as a political crutch.
OCT said in a news release via Facebook that “several members” in the Fifth Ward wanted to work with its members, but “certain individuals in the area” intentionally pitted area leadership against OCT.
At the meeting Wednesday those protesting OCT shouted “You are not welcome here today or Saturday.”
“After numerous phone calls and exchanges of emails with community leaders, the OCT board voted unanimously to postpone the event for a future date in order to give OCT and 5th Ward leadership an opportunity to overcome the controversy associated with this event,” OCT said.
“Our goal has always been to hold this demonstration with 5th Ward, not just in 5th Ward,” said OCT President CJ Grisham. “We have an opportunity to correct all the lies, miscommunication, and vitriol associated with this event and express our true intent. I’m more than happy to push this event back to make that happen.”
They may be saying postponement, but I doubt the march ever happens. Black people in Texas are not going to accept a large number of armed white people marching through their neighborhood and they have good reasons for having that attitude. OCT was clueless for having this idea, although unlike the more confrontational Open Carry Tarrant County (OCTC) Open Carry Texas at least had the sense to meet with local civic leaders and then back off when in became clear they were unwelcome.
Overall, the the residents of the 5th Ward handled things right, and bringing their own guns was a good idea. Letting Quanell X, a member of the New Black Panther Party, play a role in speaking to the media wasn’t a great idea, but it wasn’t an EPIC FAIL, since Quanell X made his case without saying anything racist (though several of the comments on the two articles say racist things about him).
Overall, though Open Carry Texas ended up looking silly and clueless, nobody did anything really stupid and nobody got hurt. And that last is a Good Thing.
