Courageous vs cowardly vs stanning in Gainesville, Texas on the PRO Gainesville protests against CSA statues

I'd written months ago about Black Lives Matter in Gainesville, Texas.

I then wrote about the Cooke County Commissioners Court's decision to keep its United Daughters of the Confederacy propaganda statue in place, including noting that wingnut letters-to-the-editor writers to the Gainesville paper were full of crap when they talked about the "courageous" Cooke County Commissioners Court.

Courageous, in this follow-up, is the members of PRO Gainesville who have said they will continue to protest the statue. But? See below.

Cowardly is wingnuts starting rumors, as elsewhere, that "antifa" is coming to town. And, I'm sure those rumors will continue to propagate.

That said, there's more than two sides here.

Legitimate protestors, the rules are the rules. PRO Gainesville leader Torrey Henderson and two others of its members were charged with misdemeanors for walking in a roadway and later bonded out. Unless you want to be arrested just to be arrested, for possible Kabuki theater, the rules are the rules. Yes, the Gainesville PD may have bias, but this is a statute statewide and nationally. When I was in antiwar protests in the Metroplex, once each at two different protests, I was warned about not getting in the street. I complied.

And, the Dallas Observer? Well, not the first time I've called it out for idiocy, although in this case, it's in part the idiocy of people quoted. The "kids" referenced by PRO Gainesville attorney Alison Grinter? They're legally adults. You may (or may not) have meant "kids" metaphorically, but you are an attorney. And, in the video linked in the piece? I saw, less than a minute in, a person crossing the street on California against the light. Further on, I saw people far enough out in the street on California that I would consider that ticketable. And, it's not just walking in a shoulder area that's not market for parking. When the protestors turn around, at the 9 minute mark, there are people walking in a driving lane. Even when walking on the shoulder area, on the return walk, they're outside the area marked for parking and close to the driving lane, walking on the line repeatedly.

Grinter claims:

It’s “unfathomable” that the police are arresting kids who strayed in the street to avoid puddles, she added, while at the same time ignoring armed counterprotesters making terroristic threats.

The first puddle in the video is at the 14 minute mark, well after the protestors are warned multiple times by cops. And, that's just a block-long area. So, get on the sidewalk!

And, they ARE warned. More than once. You can hear it.

Henderson said she heard no such command; police allowed them to complete the march, which had remained peaceful throughout.

So, Torrey, you may say you didn't hear it. It's loud and clear on your tape. If you're going to take this case to trial, you'd better hope a doctor will confirm you're clinically deaf.

Indeed, at 14:38, the person who apparently filmed this says:

They're telling us to stay in (sic, from what I hear) the road and we're not listening. I like it.

Then at about 15:38, he wonders:

Are we going to stay on the street?

At that point, people are clearly walking in a driving lane area.

At 15:45, he says:

Last I heard, streets were a valid avenue for protest.

Not if you're obstructing traffic and don't have a protest permit that allows you in the streets. Even the ACLU says so.

So, you folks just self-owned. Congrats. Indeed, Gainesville PD could have arrested 30, not three.

(Also per the ACLU, and per comments to the Gainesville paper by Henderson, if you don't have a permit, you can be cited for "sound amplifying devices." That would include a bullhorn.)

Oh, and the fact that Valley View PD were also there partially supports Chief Phillips on why he didn't make arrests at the time.

This definitely proves Idries Shah right on being a more than two sides issue. On this sub-issue, on how you conduct protests, you've made it that. So, "congrats" also for losing a partial degree of sympathy in this corner. You can gain it back if you plea out rather than being dumb enough to go to trial, and in that plea, being honest about breaking the law, as relatively minor as it is.

That said, it's not totally minor. Those of you from Gainesville (and per the filmer or one other person he caught on mike, not everybody was from Cooke County) know California/FM 51 is the main drag in downtown. The only worse places for this would have been on US 82 or I-35.