In a week that saw deadly and controversial shootings play out in Dallas, Minnesota and Louisiana, a local community activist calls for change in police policy and peace in protest.
Marq Lewis, community activist and spokesman for We the People Oklahoma, expressed sadness for the events in Dallas Thursday night that led to deaths of five police officers.
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"It was peaceful event," he said. "They don't understand what happened. The event was actually over. So when they heard about it, it was like, this is crazy," Lewis said of people he knew in Dallas Thursday night.
The Dallas Black Lives Matter protest comes in the wake of deadly shootings of black men at the hands of police officers in Minnesota and Louisiana.
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"Any time you add violence to any situation, it dilutes your message. Hopefully, what we need to do is to make sure our message stays focused on what we want and peaceful resolution. And this doesn't help at all," Lewis said.
Lewis, who doesn't have any demonstration or protest planned in Tulsa, says police policy needs to be changed, especially when it comes to officers who fire on their suspects.
"We definitely need the police officers to be blood tested if something were to happen like this. We also need police officers to go into communities and to talk and to let the people know that 'We have everything under control.' Public assurance is really important," he said.
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