Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton recently announced an investigation into a video that shows a police officer allowing Black Lives Matter protesters to block traffic on a busy intersection. The officer only reprimanded a driver who’d gotten out of their vehicle to confront the Antifa-dressed agitators on the road.
According to Paxton’s report, a group of militant BLM protesters had shut down traffic underneath a major highway in Plano, TX. When a man got out of his car to demand the mob to clear the road, one of the protesters pulled what appears to be a gun and pointed it at the man. Rather than disperse the crowd or arrest the person holding the gun, a nearby lone officer told the man to go away.
In the video, the motorist appeared to slap a phone out of the hands of one of the protesters, but in a written statement it was reported that “she was assaulted by a male who confronted the protesters.” The officer attempted to de-escalate the situation by talking to the motorist, but he did not confront the protesters.
You can watch the full video here.
Plano Police Chief Ed Drain argued that the weapon drawn wasn’t a pistol, but a “pepper ball gun.” In another conversation, he claimed it was a taser, and in the Facebook Post written by the Department, the police described it as an “electronic control device.” Despite whatever the weapon is, the police did not press any charges against him for the weapon.
When asked why law enforcement officers wouldn’t break up the crowd and get them off the road, Chief Drain made several excuses. For quite some time now, officers have been suppressed by politically motivated leaders and held back by the liberal woke mob. “You have to understand the situation. We have to negotiate with these people. Do you expect us to mass arrest these protesters? You know that’s not going to happen,” Chief Drain explained.
Paxton explains that the worst part of the report is that the only person from the whole incident being charged with a crime is the man who told the protesters to go away. They described the crime as “assault with contact” because the man slapped another person’s hand out of his face. The station reports that detectives filed an Assault-by-Contact charge with the Municipal Court against the motorist, but that the protesters were simply asked to disperse. Obstructing traffic is illegal and it was reported to the station that traffic was held up for seven minutes.
“No one else is being charged with anything. None of the law-breaking traffic-blockers, not the guy who pulled a weapon— no one! I will always support Texans’ First Amendment right to “peaceably assemble” and to “petition the Government for a redress of grievances. But I will never allow our beautiful Texas cities and neighborhoods to become Portland or Seattle or San Francisco because of the unchecked left,” Paxton writes.
Some people have emergencies, jobs, and errands they have to get to. The police need to do their jobs and get these people off the job. This is not about race – it’s about blocking the streets. The law doesn’t let people obstruct traffic.
