The arrest of a mother and her two daughters that was broadcast and shared nationwide and beyond this week on television and social media was an act of racism, African-American pastors said during a Christmas Eve news conference.
Calling the incident rude, as Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald said during a news conference on Friday, or saying that racism was not a significant factor, as Mayor Betsy Price suggested, does not accurately depict the situation, according to Michael Bell, pastor of Greater St. Stephen First Church. The officer unnecessarily escalated the incident and then city officials circled the wagons around him, Bell said.
The ministers call for transparency in the handling of this matter will be a challenge given the grand jury process the North Dallas Gazette has reported on earlier this year. Across the country officers involved in shooting incidents are frequently no-billed by secret grand juries. This has led to reform in California and Georgia, it remains to be seen if the Texas legislators will enact any true grand jury reform that addresses these concerns while in session in 2017.
A Fort Worth civil-rights activist, the Rev. Kyev Tatum, said the leadership of the city and the African-American community had reached an agreement on a plan of action in 2014. Had it been enacted, the plan would have strengthened the relationship between the Police Department and African-American residents, Tatum said, but it has not been put into practice, Tatum said.
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