Back the Blue Cruise wasn’t supposed to be political. That’s not how it turned out.
Hundreds of Jeeps, pickup trucks, motorcycles and everything from muscle cars to mini vans drove through Dallas-Fort Worth on Sunday for the Back the Blue Cruise, an event that organizer Nathan Abrams said was supposed to be apolitical.
Despite Abrams’ hopes that the event would be about unity and support for law enforcement instead of politics, things became political when the group stopped at Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas for a pit stop.
The church, which participates in social activism and has a large “Black Lives Matter” banner on one of its walls, posted a video on its social media pages calling the gathering an undercover KKK rally.
Abrams and co-organizer Henri Broady, both members of the Texas Ram Truck Club, told the Star-Telegram they called ahead and got permission to stop in the parking lot and even got the go-ahead to extend their time from departing at noon to 12:45 p.m. They said an employee of the church opened the gate to the parking lot for them.
One of the pastors of the church, though not the senior pastor, gave them permission to stop there, Broady said.
Pastor Frederick Haynes said in a video on Facebook that the group was given permission to be there but lied about what they would do and that it was a rally.
Broady said the group was clear about what they were doing there and that it was not a political rally, just a place to stop and rest on their drive. There were no speeches given and no organized activities during the stop.
The church did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but Haynes said in the Facebook video post that any gathering that supports police and does not explicitly say that Black Lives Matter might as well be a KKK rally.
Both organizers also said they hadn’t seen the Black Lives Matter banner before.
“I live in that area,” Broady said. “I drive past that church all the time and I’ve never seen that banner before.”
Members of the church took to social media and some came to the church when they found out the group had parked there.
Some church members who showed up watched while others videoed and some raised fists or middle fingers into the air as the group drove out.
On social media, church members compared the gathering to a Klan rally. Broady, a Black man, said there was no intent to antagonize the church or appear as a Klan rally and he believed there was a miscommunication.
While organizers said they banned any political flags, such as Trump or any Confederate flags, Broady said there was one case of a Confederate flag being flown at the church. Broady said he personally made sure the flag was taken down.
Aside from the stop at Friendship-West Baptist Church, the Back the Blue group didn’t report any negative response. The group had other cars drive by and honk horns and give thumbs up as they drove down interstate highways through the Metroplex.
Event attendees said they came out not to make a political stand or try to argue against the statement that Black Lives Matter, just to show support for police.
Wayne Preddy, 44, of Wylie, was one of the Jeep club drivers who participated in the cruise. He said he went to the event to show police that not everybody is against them.
“The world we live in is bad enough and we need to show community support to our law enforcement officers,” Preddy said. “As a community we can all come together as one and show support for the good police. Not the bad apples but the good police who really want to protect everybody in the community.”
Chris Dubet, a 62-year-old motorcycle rider from Addison, said most of the people participating in the Back the Blue Cruise would ride to demand justice for George Floyd as well, if somebody organized such an event.
“You get one rogue cop who’s [an expletive] and he shouldn’t have been hired and that cop needs to be brought to justice but you don’t burn down the whole country over him,” Dubet said. “What we want to do today is peaceful.”
Abrams said he didn’t expect so many people to show up.
“This is what it looked like in my mind, in my daydreams,” Abrams said. “We’ve got a football stadium parking lot full of people. That’s awesome.”
The cruise ended up being around 100 miles encircling DFW and lasting six hours, including the stop at the church.
The group started its drive from Pennington Field in Bedford and drove their longest stretches down Interstate 635, Interstate 20 and Loop 820.
U.S. and Texas flags waved from the backs of the vehicles, including the black and white American flag with a single blue stripe that has become a symbol of support for law enforcement.
This story was originally published August 2, 2020 at 5:49 PM with the headline "Back the Blue Cruise wasn’t supposed to be political. That’s not how it turned out.."