Fort Worth police release video of viral polling place incident with pro-Trump truck
The Fort Worth Police Department released video of an altercation between a man driving a truck with a pro-Trump flag and a group of people on foot at an intersection Friday.
Police said the video released on Election Day shows that they did not participate in voter intimidation, as some accused the department of doing. A viral video posted on social media over the weekend claimed the officers escorted the truck through the predominantly Black neighborhood.
On Oct. 28, two groups supporting both presidential candidates were outside a polling place at the Sub-Courthouse on Miller Avenue when people flying pro-Donald Trump flags in trucks and cars started driving along the street and honking their horns. Officers responded to the polling place to prevent escalation, Fort Worth police said in a press release Tuesday.
Two days later, officers were stationed near the same polling place when a truck with pro-Trump flags tried to turn at the intersection of East Berry Street and Miller Avenue. Several people on foot, including some who were armed, walked onto the street and blocked the truck from proceeding, according to police. Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office deputies and Fort Worth police responded.
A group of people continued to surround the vehicle on Miller Avenue, police said.
“In an effort to de-escalate the situation, officers entered the crowd to allow the surrounded vehicle to exit the area without any further altercations,” police said in Tuesday’s press release. “At no time were Fort Worth police officers escorting vehicles into any areas to allow any type of voter intimidation.”
In traffic surveillance video posted by police, the truck flying the Trump flag turns left onto Miller Avenue, and a person steps in front of the truck. At least three police vehicles pull up behind the truck, the people step out of the truck’s path and the truck drives forward, out of the video frame.
The altercation continued out of frame, but was shown in a separate video posted on Facebook by Fort Worth attorney Michael Campbell. Campbell’s video shows the incident with the truck flying a pro-Trump flag from the perspective of those on the ground.
Campbell said Trump supporters previously drove through the neighborhood on Wednesday, honking horns and intimidating voters. Campbell and others caught wind of a flier that was circulating on social media that called for Trump supporters to return to the area on the day Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris campaigned in Fort Worth to “show Kamala was Texas really stands for.”
“We want to stand in peace and not in anger,” the flier, which was posted on Facebook, said.
Campbell said neighborhood residents and activists showed up on Miller Avenue on Friday to prevent the caravan from coming into the neighborhood again.
“We rallied together and decided if they were going to drive up and down the street, we were going to block the street,” he said.
Friday morning, the “Trump Caravan” drove primarily near East Berry Street. But at about 11 a.m., several vehicles broke away from the group and drove down Miller Avenue, Campbell said.
Campbell and a group of people on Miller Avenue surrounded police vehicles and the truck, yelling at police and the man in the truck. Campbell said the group blocked the truck from driving farther down the street.
“Get out of our hood, bro,” Campbell told the driver, who was wearing a Trump shirt, in the video.
“This is our neighborhood. You’re going to let him come in here?” Campbell says to a police officer. “That’s disrespectful, what he doing.”
Campbell said FWPD “wasn’t there to keep the peace.”
“They were there, to me, for escorting the Trump protesters and that’s what it seemed like to me,” he said. “They could have avoided the entire situation by not allowing Trump supporters to go down that street and avoid the confrontation.”
Campbell’s video, which was posted on Twitter, had 4.2 million views as of Tuesday.
The Fort Worth Police Department said it is “prepared to respond quickly to issues at any polling sites and will continue to ensure all of our residents’ free speech and voting rights are upheld, without fear or intimidation.”
