Did Texas police refuse to help an official Biden campaign team against Trump supporters?
Texas police refused to escort the Biden bus surrounded by Trump supporters!
Transcribed 911 calls show San Marcos police officers have refused multiple requests to assist a Biden campaign bus that was being harassed on the street by a so-called Trump train, even though other jurisdictions pledged their help.
Last October, a Biden campaign event was canceled after a caravan of Trump supporters surrounded a campaign bus and tried to force it to stop in the middle of the highway or drive off the road. Former President Trump retweeted a video of the incident on his now-blocked Twitter account at the time, writing, “I LOVE TEXAS!”
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Earlier this year, the group of passengers – including a volunteer, a Biden campaign staffer and former Texas Sen. Wendy Davis (D) – filed two lawsuits related to the incident, one against the San Marcos Police Department for allegedly neglecting its duties and another against the individuals who were part of the caravan.
In one case, Matthew Daenzer, a San Marcos Police Department sergeant, refused to render aid after another jurisdiction advised him to do so, according to the Tribune.
“No, we’re not going to do it,” Daenzer said, according to the report. “We will do a ‘close patrol,’ but we will not escort a bus.”
The new documents also allege that the officers “laughed privately” and “made jokes about the victims and their plight.”
Aside from the bus passengers’ requests for help, witnesses to the harassment also reportedly called police and warned against reckless driving, but San Marcos police continued to refuse to help.
“Despite these multiple calls for help from plaintiffs and others, no San Marcos officers or other police vehicles were in sight – either at the I-35 exit or entrance, or on either side of the freeway – during the approximately 30 minutes it took to travel through San Marcos on the main highway,” court documents state, as reported by the Tribune.
The plaintiffs also attached a group text message between San Marcos police officers that indicated they “mocked” the attack, with one unidentified person referring to Democrats driving through their town with a derogatory term used to describe people with mental disabilities.
In their original lawsuit, the plaintiffs allege that they suffer from “ongoing psychological and emotional harm.” The driver of the bus, Timothy Holloway, who is black, said the incident was “like the old days when people of color were run out of town.”
David Gins, a Biden campaign staffer who covered the state of Texas for the Biden-Harris campaign, said he stopped attending campaign events shortly after the harassment.
The plaintiffs are seeking “damages,” though John Paredes, the attorney for the nonprofit Protect Democracy, which filed the lawsuit, said the suit is “not about the money” but rather about demanding accountability.