Texas Cops Thought They Were Real Cute Ignoring Calls For Help From Biden Bus

Now they're being sued.

The annoying thing about having a job is that one very often has to do things they don't particularly feel like doing. That is why it is a job and not a hobby. Similarly, "helping people one does not like" is a requirement of pretty much any job that involves interacting with the public, outside of one of those theme restaurants where the servers are supposed to be rude to people because that is their gimmick. This is particularly true of professions like firefighters, doctors, nurses, EMTs and others tasked with jobs in the general lifesaving field. It should apply to cops, but unfortunately, there are too many cops out there who like to skip over that one.

Like, for instance, the San Marcos, Texas cops who thought it was very funny that a "Trump Train" of nearly 50 cars swarmed a Biden campaign bus around last year, attempting to drive it off the road.

'Trump Train' Ambushes Biden-Harris Campaign Bus in Texas | NowThis    www.youtube.com 

Transcripts of 911 calls released in discovery for a lawsuit against the city, Director of Public Safety Chase Stapp and several cops reveal that not only did they and their 911 dispatchers think it was very funny that the Biden bus was being harassed, but also that they refused to provide a police escort for the bus when asked to take over doing so by another jurisdiction.

Via Texas Tribune:  

The 911 dispatcher in San Marcos put the New Braunfels dispatcher and the Biden campaign staffer who was pleading for assistance on hold and called Daenzer, the police supervisor on duty.

"I am so annoyed at New Braunfels for doing this to us," the dispatcher tells Daenzer, who answered the call and began laughing, according to the transcribed recording in the filing. "They have their officers escorting this Biden bus, essentially, and the Trump Train is cutting in between vehicles and driving — being aggressive and slowing them down to like 20 or 30 miles per hour. And they want you guys to respond to help."

"No, we're not going to do it. We will 'close patrol' that, but we're not going to escort a bus," Daenzer responds.

The transcript shows that the 911 dispatcher passes along information about the sense of danger expressed by the Biden campaign staffer who called for assistance as he was trying to caravan behind the bus in a white SUV.
"[T]hey're like really worked up over it and he's like breathing hard and stuff, like, 'they're being really aggressive.' Okay. Calm down," she said to Daenzer.

The transcription shows that Daenzer said the Biden bus should "drive defensively and it'll be great."

"Or leave the train," the 911 dispatcher responds. "There's an idea."

In group text messages that were also entered into discovery, the cops discussed the incident in the days following, still mocking the passengers on the Biden bus and laughing about how they were unable to leave the highway because of the "Trump escort."

According to the filing, plaintiffs argue a text message between some of the San Marcos police officers who refused to provide assistance "poked fun at the attack."

To support that claim, the lawsuit refers to a group text message among San Marcos officers, including Winkenwerder, in which an unidentified person appears to refer to Democrats who drove through town as a derogatory slang term for someone who is mentally disabled.

The following day, Chase Stapp, the public safety director, texted multiple officers about the situation, according to Friday's filing. "From what I can gather, the Biden bus never even exited I-35 thanks to the Trump escort."

Yet in the days afterward, after news of the melee spread, officers started calling the event a "debacle" in internal emails and braced for a "political fire storm" after officers realized that what happened in San Marcos "might lead to political and legal consequences," the complaint alleges.

When Daenzer wrote the report of the incident four days later, he said "due to the staffing issues, lack of time to plan, and lack of knowledge of the route, we were unable to provide an escort."

It wasn't just threatening and scary — the Trump supporters even caused a collision with one of the vehicles being driven by a Biden staffer. People could have been hurt or killed. The San Marcos cops received multiple phone calls from people who had nothing to do with either campaign asking them to do please something, and they refused.

It looks like they all still have their jobs for now, but given the damning nature of these transcripts, one hopes they don't have them for much longer.

In a particularly disturbing twist, former Texas Republican lawmaker Jonathan Stickland seemed to suggest that the passengers could have just shot the Trump supporters, creepily demanding that Shannon Watts of the gun control advocacy group Moms Demand Action "repent for turning millions into potential victims w/ leftist advocacy."

I'm pleased you finally see the truth lass: Texans deserve the right to defend themselves. Waiting for others to… https://t.co/pMwo5CFMcI

— Jonathan Stickland (@Jonathan Stickland) 1635615042.0 

Call me crazy, but it seems like shooting at people in cars from a moving bus would have made things a lot more dangerous for everyone involved. It's hard to see how that ends well.

If police officers like these are too devoted to Donald Trump to do their jobs, then perhaps they ought to consider another profession. One which does not involve getting a paycheck paid for by everyone's taxes.

OPEN THREAD!

[ Texas Tribune ]

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