Remember this video of MAGA goons harassing the Biden-Harris campaign bus in Texas last year?
“Hey Laredo. Don Jr here. I heard you had an awesome turn out for the Trump Train,” the president’s son tweeted on October 28, 2020. “It would be great if you guys would all get together and head down to McAllen and give Kamala Harris a nice Trump Train welcome. Get out there. Have some fun. Enjoy it. Don’t forget to vote and bring all of your friends. Let’s show them how strong Texas still is as Trump country. Get out there guys.”
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And they did, with dozens of vehicles swarming the bus on a stretch of I-35 on October 30, harassing campaign workers and forcing the cancellation of multiple campaign stops.
According to an amended complaint docketed Monday in US District Court for the Western District of Texas, campaign workers made multiple 911 calls requesting assistance from the San Marcos Police Department (“SMPD”) to no avail. In fact, campaign volunteers had warned SMPD on October 29th they had faced persistent harassment in the state and would likely need police escort when they attempted to exercise their First Amendment right to engage in political speech in the SMPD’s jurisdiction. And on the day in question, a 911 dispatcher from next door New Braunfels Police Department (“NBPD”) called SMPD to warn them about the Trump Train and to prepare for a handoff to a new police escort.
The 911 transcript of the call between SMPD Dispatcher Brittany Herbelin and SMPD Corporal Matthew Daenzer is … not great.
“I am so annoyed at New Braunfels for doing this to us,” Herbelin complained. “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.”
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“No, we’re not going to do it. We will close patrol that, but we’re not going to escort a bus,” Daenzer responded, adding “if we observe any traffic violations, we’ll deal with that.”
“One of the guys following the Biden train’s like, ‘they’re being aggressive, na-na-meh-meh,'” Herbelin mocked. “But they’re like really worked up over it and he’s like breathing hard and stuff, like, ‘they’re being really aggressive.’ Okay. Calm down.”
“Yeah, well, drive defensively, and it’ll be great,” Daenzer agreed.
“Or leave the train. There’s an idea,” Herbelin scoffed, as the campaign bus was surrounded on all four sides by vehicles passing within inches of it and pulling in front of it only to rapidly decelerate.
As for that guy “like really worked up over it and he’s like breathing hard and stuff,” this is what his car looked like after he got sideswiped by some maniac who later admitted to “slamming that fucker” as he tried desperately to cover the campaign bus’s blind spot.
Here’s the excerpt of the 911 call from the complaint:
UNKNOWN SMPD DISPATCHER: Okay. Are you able to pull over? Sir, are you able to pull over?
CAMPAIGN STAFFER A: No. I need to stay with this bus. I have to stay with the bus. I’m good. Like I’m good to drive. I just got hit.
UNKNOWN SMPD DISPATCHER: Sir, if you’re wanting to report an accident, you need to pull over.
CAMPAIGN STAFFER A: All right. Well, then, (indiscernible) I can’t (indiscernible) with the bus. Get me (indiscernible).
UNKNOWN SMPD DISPATCHER: Just to confirm, you want to cancel? Just to confirm, do you want to cancel officers coming to you?
CAMPAIGN STAFFER A: No, I don’t want to cancel officers coming to me.
UNKNOWN SMPD DISPATCHER: Okay.
CAMPAIGN STAFFER A: I need officers to meet me to protect our bus.
The complaint alleges that SMPD realized after video of the event went viral that they’d put themselves in the middle of a “political fire storm.”
By the time Defendant Daenzer wrote his report of the incident on November 4, the story had evolved again. Daenzer wrote, “Due to the staffing issues, lack of time to plan, and lack of knowledge of the route, we were unable to provide an escort.”
The plaintiffs, who include the bus driver and former Texas state senator Wendy Davis, allege that the SMPD violated the Ku Klux Klan Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1986, which imposes an affirmative obligation to act on any person “having power to prevent or aid in preventing” electoral intimidation. It’s a similar claim to the one made recently by Rep. Eric Swalwell, who sued Donald Trump Jr. and Sr., as well as Rudy Giuliani and Rep. Mo Brooks for inciting the mob to interfere with congress’s official duties.
In Texas, the plaintiffs have drawn Judge Robert L. Pitman, the Obama appointee who recently blocked the state’s draconian anti-abortion law, only to see his ruling stayed by the Fifth Circuit.
It’s not clear whether courts will be receptive to this novel use of a law from 1871 meant to shield elected officials from angry mobs. But perhaps it’s fitting that we are relying a Reconstruction Era remedy as we descend into another era of political chaos and domestic terrorism.
Cervini v. Stapp [Docket via Court Listener]
Elizabeth Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.