‘Black Lives Matter’ signs stolen before Fort Worth ‘Women for Amy’ rally for Barrett
(Editor’s note: An earlier version of this column misspelled the name of Judge Amy Coney Barrett. It also referred to a political action committee; the group is not a PAC. The headline and column were changed to reflect that, while Republican candidates were present and introduced, it was not affiliated with the party.)
“Black Lives Matter” signs at a South Main Village florist were ripped down, stolen and destroyed Thursday before a faith-and-values Christian group’s campaign-season rally next door.
More than 30 small, simple signs printed on pale pink paper had been taped to The Greenhouse 817’s windows since April. Some also read, “No Justice — No Peace.”
They were subtle. Heck, they were barely readable from South Main Street.
So I am not clear why someone hanging around a campaign-season Christian rally would find the very idea of justice and fairness upsetting enough to make an exception to “Thou shalt not steal.”
“To have my property vandalized — it’s a little unfathomable. It makes you feel unsafe,” shop owner Deryk Poynor said.
The signs were stolen from her unoccupied shop in broad daylight, moments before a “Women for Amy” national bus tour arrived for a rally that introduced Republican political candidates and drummed up support for Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination.
Some of the signs were tossed in nearby trash, Poynor said.
“I think it’s extra suspicious that they were not just taken but thrown away,” she said.
The rally on the patio of The 4 Eleven event center, 411 S. Main St., was hosted by a Washington-based legislative action committee connected to Concerned Women for America. The group’s stated goal is “promoting Biblical values and Constitutional principles .... impacting the culture for Christ.”
Penny Nance, the group’s president, sent a strong statement.
“We have a diverse organization and of course oppose racism,” she said in an emailed statement.
“We are all uniquely created from conception to death in God’s image and for his glory.”
In a second statement, Nance said the organization “had nothing to do with the signs being taken down and/or ripped.”
A CWA spokeswoman said the bus driver and another passenger saw someone else removing the signs.
Poynor said she does not have security video. She is in the process of moving her shop, she said.
“This just solidifies it,” she said.
Managers of The 4 Eleven did not return several messages and emails. Neither did a project manager from 6th Ave Homes, Poynor’s contact for the space in a restored warehouse.
When the pink tour bus with a huge picture of Barrett on the side arrived, a cheering crowd of about 60 attendees lined the 400 block of South Main Street.
(By the way, almost nobody was wearing a mask or face covering inside The 4 Eleven patio as required by both state and county health orders and state liquor laws. Those unmasked included Probate Judge Brooke Allen and District Judge Patricia Baca Bennett.)
The crowd included several Black women.
Chastaney Jones of Fort Worth views herself as an independent conservative, she said, and “very much pro-life.”
She said she came to join “a group of like-minded women, loving our country, wanting the best for our Supreme Court.”
She said justice protesters harassed her in July at a Republican rally downtown.
“I don’t think Black Lives Matter has made a lot of friends,” she said. “ ... But I’m also very pro-First Amendment. I believe in freedom of speech. I don’t think anybody should take signs.”
The Greenhouse 817 posted more messages after a Minneapolis police officer killed Texan George Floyd on May 25, Poynor said.
“There’s a problem that has to be addressed — specifically, police brutality,” she said.
She replaced them Thursday with two new signs:
“End Racism Now” and “Hate Has No Home in the Fort.”
This story was originally published October 24, 2020 at 11:43 AM.
