HOUSTON, TX – Charges against a man who was arrested by deputies in a now-viral confrontation have been dropped.
Marlin Gipson, 20, of Houston was originally charged with evading arrest on July 19th after a deputy approached him while he was handing out business cards for a lawn mowing service. Deputies say Gipson fled and they had to use a taser and a police dog to take him into custody, but not everyone sees it that way.
On Friday, Gipson and Black Lives Matter Houston held a rally outside of the Harris County Precinct 1 Constable’s Office in downtown Houston. “It’s a damn shame that they’re supposed to be trained to protect and serve and they can’t even do that without racial profiling people who are just trying to do their job,” said Gipson. Precinct 1 Constable Alan Rosen disagrees, saying that race played no role in the confrontation. Constable Rosen’s words ring hollow with many members of Black Lives Matter. “We don’t trust the police,” said activist Ashton P. Woods. “We don’t like the police and we don’t want to interact with them.”
While the dropping of charges against Gipson is a step in the right direction, it’s clear that there’s a lot of work left to do to repair the relationship between the Constable’s Office and the community.
