Armed men seen patrolling Fort Worth, TX neighborhood (Fox 4 News)
Authorities in Texas stopped an armed patrol and a group of young boys Saturday who said they were out to patrol the streets after a woman seen struggling during an arrest said she didn’t feel safe in her neighborhood.
According to Fox 4 News, the support for Jacqueline Craig in Fort Worth lasted about 20 minutes. Neighbors said the group had someone yell through a loudspeaker while others were screaming profanities. They said they were worried the march could’ve become violent.
"I didn't find anything alarming myself. I didn't find anything out of the norm. Police officers have guns, but they don't protect," Roderick Smith, a spokesman for Craig, told Fox 4 News. "She said it meant a lot to have complete strangers come and try to protect her, when the individuals that she pays, which is the Fort Worth Police Department, failed to do so."
Fort Worth Officer William Martin was captured on video wrestling Craig to the ground before arresting her and her two teenage daughters last month. Craig had been arguing with a man who she said had physically confronted her 7-year-old son for littering. In the video, Craig can be heard telling the officer that the man had "grabbed and choked" her son.
Martin is seen engaging Craig in a conversation that quickly escalates. He asks why she hadn't taught her son not to litter. Craig says regardless of whether the boy littered, the man did not have the right to "put his hands on him." The officer says, "Why not?"
Martin was suspended without pay for two weeks, and is now preparing to returning to the neighborhood on the same patrol.
Smith told Fox 4 News he doesn’t think the patrol would’ve happened if Martin hadn’t been reassigned to the same neighborhood.
Police stopped the armed patrol and asked them to put the weapons down. No arrests were made.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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