PRO Gainesville, the North Texas Black Lives Matter-focused protest and activist group that, in 2021, clearly violated terms of a parade permit, then clearly lied about that, and had its three leaders convicted, has gotten both the ACLU of Texas and ACLU national to pony up for an appeal.
Oy.
Beyond oy, big fat hypocrisy by the ACLU. In the "convicted" link, of my blogging, I EXPLICITLY cited ACLU words on what's permissible and not on protest permits. (The Gainesville newspaper, in its story about this, had bupkis about ACLU protest standards. Shock me.)
Suckers is in scare quotes because I consider this another case of where the ACLU has morphed at least in part from a civil liberties org to a liberal activist one.
That said, the "sucker" part may be true, in part, not just scare quotes. This:
“Convicting community advocates for, at most, stepping briefly into a public street during a peaceful march is an attack on the free speech rights of all Texans, no matter your political views,” said Savannah Kumar, an attorney with the ACLU of Texas. “Amara, Justin, and Torrey were exercising a long-cherished right to march for change in our country and for that they were sentenced to jail time. The law is on our side and we hope the appeals court will overturn their convictions and affirm that the right to peaceful protest is protected here in Texas.”
Means that either Savannah Kumar has not seen the video of the march, and so is actually being suckered, or ..
She's being hypocritical and perhaps even lying.
Would be fun to have her deposed.
Update, Nov. 6: 2023: That appeal has been held (no ruling yet). The ACLU's lawyer presented nothing new, just old, incorrect info.
“There was insufficient evidence to show they violated the law and obstructed traffic from prosecutors,” Kumar told the Register after last week’s arguments. “Protestors have the right to march, and just stepping off the sidewalk for a moment does not constitute a violation of the law … no Texas court has ever held up a conviction of this type.”
And, I guess she wasn't deposed, or at least, Ed Zielinski isn't saying. (In reality, especially on an appeal, such a thing wouldn't happen, of course.)
The reality, Ms. Kumar, is that the ACLU itself notes that, without a parade permit, you can't march on a highway! And, the video demonstrates it was more than "just a moment."
In any case, and because I love petard-hoisting, I emailed the Texas ACLU's spox listed at the link on their news release. Sent a link to my blog post which has their statements on what you can and can't do on a protest permit linked within.
And?
"Crickets." Shock me.
It's like the ACLU intervening in the Houston ISD takeover by TEA, but saying "boo" when it happened in Marlin 6 years ago.
As for PRO Gainesville? Has it ever publicly and formally called out the wannabe PRO Gainesville Young Republican mole, Tucker Craft?
NOTE: None of this is to reject PRO Gainesville's contention that Gainesville Police may have racist intent in some of its law enforcement. (Whether that's been demonstrated is itself another issue.) Nor is it to excuse the Cooke County Commissioners Court for keeping the Confederate statute on the courthouse lawn in place (and without even adding any modern explanatory notes), a decision with which I wholeheartedly disagree. (The city of Gainesville has gotten rid of its statue.)
Update, Nov. 6: 2023: That appeal has been held (no ruling yet). The ACLU's lawyer presented nothing new, just old, incorrect info.
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