Armed Black Panthers March in Texas, Chant “Off the Pigs”-Truth!

Armed Black Panthers March in Texas, Chant “Off the Pigs”-Truth!

Summary of eRumor:
Armed Black Panthers marched to a jail in Texas where Sandra Bland died while in police custody and chanted, “Off the pigs.”
The Truth:
This one is true.
Members of the Black Panthers led about 25 demonstrators who marched in Texas to protest the death of a black woman named Sandra Bland while in police custody on July 13.
A video of the protest taken by Breitbart Texas shows demonstrators, some of them armed, marching outside the Texas jail and chanting “Oink, oink! Bang, Bang!” and “The revolution has come! Off the pigs!”
The Houston Chronicle reports that the protests were non-violent, but a handful of protesters were forcefully removed from a lobby:

A huge contingent of law enforcement officers was on hand for the protest, which lasted for about two hours and led to no violence or arrests. On Sunday, protesters were forcibly evicted after storming the jail’s lobby. Two elderly people were injured.

It’s legal for firearms to be openly carried in Texas, even during protests.
Another high-profile case of armed protestors arose in 2013 after 40 armed men showed up outside a meeting on gun control organized by a group of moms, USA Today reports:

The sudden appearance of about 40 armed men outside a Dallas-area restaurant this weekend was the latest confrontation between an open-carry gun-rights group and a mothers group advocating gun control that was meeting inside.

Police monitored the incident at the Blue Mesa Grill in Arlington, Texas, but took no action because it is legal to carry long guns openly in Texas.

“We are aware that a group did gather in a shopping area in Arlington Saturday,” Tiara Ellis Richard of the Arlington Police office of communication said in an e-mail to USA TODAY. “Officers were notified and arrived at the location. There were no issues that we are aware of, and no arrests occurred.”

So, this one is true, but armed protests in Texas may not be that out of the ordinary.