A Texas police chief said officers mishandled an encounter with street preachers outside a city pride event last month, as the U.S. Department of Justice raised concerns that the incident could involve civil rights violations.
Speaking Tuesday with ABC affiliate WFAA, Fort Worth Police Chief Eddie Garcia said the department was “wrong” after officers threatened to cite preachers for disorderly conduct because attendees at the city’s annual Trinity Pride Fest event said their speech was offensive.
“The biggest issue that I have is, just the conversations and the way that we were describing what is lawful, what is not lawful,” Garcia said in the segment. “When we’re right, we’re right, and when we’re wrong, we’re wrong.”
“There certainly was a better way to have that communication, and we were wrong in the manner in which we communicated that. Certainly, we’re going to take accountability for it.”
Garcia said that accountability will include in-person First Amendment training for the entire Fort Worth Police Department.
Although he did not provide specific details, Garcia said the department has already held “refresher courses” for command staff and will provide additional training for officers and sergeants.
David Grisham, a longtime evangelist, received a citation from Fort Worth police after an encounter captured on video at Trinity Pride Fest in downtown Fort Worth on June 27.
The video, which later went viral, showed an unidentified female police officer threatening to arrest Grisham and Rich Penkoski, another member of the street preaching team, during the public event.
Police ultimately cited Grisham for “unreasonable noise,” though no additional explanation was given.
A Fort Worth Police spokesman later said the online video “captures only a portion of the interactions between the officer and the individuals involved,” while also saying FWPD “acknowledges that an officer involved in the incident made certain statements that were not accurate.”
Garcia said an internal investigation remains ongoing. He also said the officer seen in the viral video, has not been placed on administrative leave and that he would not allow “outside noise” to influence the investigation.
The incident has drawn national attention since the video spread online, leading the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division to send a formal letter raising concerns about a possible pattern of viewpoint discrimination.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon sent the letter Monday to Fort Worth City Attorney Leann D. Guzman, outlining potential pattern-or-practice concerns. The letter cited video footage that apparently showed “FWPD officers instructing individuals to cease their speech or move the location of their speech based on the content of the speakers’ expression.”
The letter said such conduct would “raise significant concerns under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and federal civil rights law.”
