Protesters Clash over Texas Dragging Death

(AP)  State police in full riot gear rushed a downtown street in this eastern Texas town Tuesday to break up a tense standoff between hundreds of black and white protesters who exchanged screams of "Black power!" and "White power!"

A skinhead carrying a Confederate flag and a shirtless white man were arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct before the protesters separated peacefully, Paris police spokesman Lt. Danny Huff said.

The conflict began with a march through downtown by about 100 black activists who were protesting the state's handling of the case of a black man who was run over and dragged by a vehicle. The demonstrators avoided a designated "protest zone" near the courthouse and marched to the town square to chants of "Black Power!" and "No Justice, no peace!"

Once there, the crowd ballooned to about 200 black people on one side of a street. Across the street were about a dozen white supremacists, including four skinheads holding Nazi swastika flags. About 30 other white people were behind them, but it was unclear if they were protesting or watching.

The two sides shouted at each other while a dozen or so law enforcement officers were in the street keeping them apart. After several tense minutes of screaming and the groups inching closer together, about 35 Texas state troopers wearing helmets and carrying shields marched swiftly into the crowd. No blows were exchanged.

The rally in Paris, about 90 miles northeast of Dallas, is the third courthouse protest over the death of 24-year-old Brandon McClelland, whose mangled body was found Sept. 16 on a country road outside of town after he was run over by a vehicle and dragged beneath it. A prosecutor cited a lack of evidence in dropping murder charges last month against two white men arrested in his death.

Some of the signs at the protest read, "Friends don't drag friends under pickup trucks" and "Who killed Brendon McClelland?"

Things grew tense early on when a member of the New Black Panther Party walked into the protest zone set up for white supremacists and stood inches away from a skinhead. The skinhead screamed at the black man to go home as they two stood inches away filming each other with their cameras.

"We're not here for confrontation. We are peaceful people, but if necessary we are prepared," said black protest leader Jimmy Blackwell.

Rock Banks, who says he's the grand titan of the East Texas Ku Klux Klan, said his group met last week to discuss the event but decided not to hold a major rally because it would lead to more protests.

"If we showed up in force, with all of our robes on, they'd be back here in a month," he said.

Few of Paris' 26,000 residents watched the rally.

Prosecutors in the McClelland case initially charged two of McClelland's friends, Shannon Finley and Charles Crostley, with murdering him by running him over in Finley's pickup. They estimated that McClelland's body was dragged more than 70 feet beneath their vehicle. But a special prosecutor dismissed the charges last month, citing a lack of evidence, after a gravel truck driver came forward and said he might have accidentally run over McClelland.

This was the week Finley's trial was scheduled to start in a nearby town.

Previous protests over the case by the Panthers and the Nation of Islam were mostly peaceful and resulted in no arrests. A handful of white supremacists have showed up each time.

Protesters have said the McClelland case echoes the murder of James Byrd, a black man who was chained by the ankles to a pickup by three white men and dragged to death in 1998 in the town of Jasper.

Authorities, however, have denied there was a racial angle in the McClelland death, pointing out that he was friends with Finley and Crostley. Authorities had said the trio were returning from a late-night beer run across the Oklahoma state line when McClelland died. They alleged the three were arguing about whether Finley was too drunk to drive, and that McClelland decided to walk home. Authorities said Finley then ran over McClelland.

Finley and Crostley, who were released after eight months in jail, have maintained their innocence.

[jonathansj]

i think its bad enough that someone died like that. if my friend died like that , i would never be so un morningfully graphic as some of the horrifying images of swasticas and neonazies. if those people hate someone. i wander why it isn't themselvs. strong leaders don't hate. and never hate their enemies. enemies are enemies of every one. prejudice is ugly. i think they owe an appology to everyone. and if it was an accident. please don't rty to make it a hayeful gerand conspriacy

[DV_Man]

I have a 10 month old son and stories like this are why he is not allowed to bring white kids over to my house. I live in GA and I am from Louisiana. When black children hang out with white kids something bad always happens to the black kid and nothing to the white kids. Even in the case where the black child is hung with 30 white kids at a party...then no one is at fault, he committed suicide. The judicial is full of either racist or idiots. Like I said I will not allow my children to bring white kids to my house or hang out with them because of things like this. My job is to nourish and protect them and things tend to get crazy with white kids in the picture.

[Lovethecountry]

It is so sad that you feel like that. Some of my best friends and my brothers and sisters friends in school were black. I guess I'm really lucky to have been raised in a way and live in a community that blacks and whites were not out to get each other. I know it was not always that way here, it would be naive to say that it was. I wish we knew the answer to helping our country get past this and have peace among our children.

[luvny-2009]

How about we give Texas back? Nothing good comes out of there I mean look at Bush!

[truth-b-toll]

I can honestly say that living in texas for 52 years, i know one thing, these people here are just eat-up with hate & stupidity.

[Lovethecountry]

It has always amazed me that people that claim to be non-racist are always the first ones to play the race card. Any time that some one is abused or taken advantage of it is a crime. Whether it's white on black or black on mexican, etc. It never ceases to amaze me that some one is always quick to assume a racist crime has been committed because there is a mix of color or race in the people involved. Whether it was two black men driving or one black man driving or two white men driving, that fact remains a man is dead. Not a black man, but a person, someone's son. The race of the accused is not what caused this to happen. Alcohol and irresponsibility is an issue and it certainly needs to be addressed and some one held responsible for killing this woman's son. That's what we are really talking about here and as a mother of three son's I can understand her passion. I can't begin to comprehend what she must be going through to loose her son in such a way. My heart truly breaks for this woman.

[arkieguy]

In the 1950's I lived in Dallas and had to drive through Paris from Arkansas to get there. Even at that time, Paris had a large sign alongside the highway stating that Paris had the, quote " Blackest land and the whitest people on earth."
I would have thought that by this time things would have changed there, but I guess not. I wouldn't live there.

[Lovethecountry]

I live and have always lived in Texas in a small country community. We have just elected the second black mayor of our town and the prior black mayor was in office for 3 terms. Some of the nicest people I know and have the most respect for are black elders of our community. Respectful, hard working people that have raised and educated their children taught them to be an important and significant part of our community. Not to let something as trivial as skin color determine the destiny of their future. Just the same, the population of our schools are probably 30 % hispanic. My best friend in the whole world is a mexican teacher that has taught in our school system for 35 years, since I was 10 years old. She doesn't take any **** off of anyone and our entire community loves and respects her. I resent NON texans making beligerant, racist remarks about "Texans" and how we feel about minorities, just as I resent ignorant people demeaning others because of the color of their skin. The color of skin is a lot less important to us than is the ignorance of un-educated ignoramus' that belittle other people that they do not know. Our community and the communities that surround us are very supportive of any young person trying to better themselves and prosper. The white trash thrives here just as the black trash does and so it does across America. Why don't we all quit hating each other because of color, region or religion.

[Seahorse9]

From the very beginning of all this no one ever mentions the fact 2 or three black men lured a white man & deliberately dragged him to his death in retaliation for the black guys dragging.

Why is he never remembered? Why don't the blacks acknowledge their own have done the same thing!!!!!!

Blacks have made this a racial situation. Seems to me blacks can get away with murder just because of their skin color.

[TheMasses2009]

The race card and wanting something for nothing is still alive and well.

[noloyalisti]

You mean like the rich American corporate CEOs who want their profits and then have us bail them out for more bonuses (i.e. socialists)?

Or the right wing dummies who don't want to pay taxes for roads, police and fire protection and the military?

[noloyalisti]

Texas: what an absolute embarrassment. First the Bushoccio Crime Family and now a blatant display by white supremacists.

[straightmate]

All the way to OK for 3.2 beer? This story is loaded with ignorance.