Frustration Grows After Oak Cliff Church Says 'Back The Blue' Cruise Showed Up To Parking Lot Uninvited
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Outside Dallas police headquarters Sunday night, dozens of people showed up to express their frustration over an incident that occurred outside Friendship-West Baptist Church in the morning.
As they marched through the streets of Dallas, they called it an act of racism that won't be tolerated.
"We did not approve them and they know that we did not approve them," Senior Pastor Dr. Frederick Haynes said.
Haynes said when several auto and bike clubs participating in what they call a "Back the Blue" cruise packed their parking lot this morning, they were trespassing.
The vehicles were in the parking lot of the church, which displays a "Black Lives Matter" banner on the building. A picture provided to CBS 11 News shows one of the vehicles had a Confederate flag attached to the back.
"For this type of intimidation to take place where they come to our community and choose a church that has a sign on it… Black Lives Matter… it's an act of intimidation," Haynes said. "It's almost like they were trying to declare war on us."
"I feel like one of the people that might have helped organize the event might have set us up to come here to try to cause some adversity or cause some type of issues," North Texas Jeep Club President Justin Gaffey said.
Gaffey, whose club participated in the "Back the Blue" cruise, said when he signed up for the 100+ mile ride through Dallas/Fort Worth he had no idea the rally would be hosted at the church and feels terrible about what happened.
"Horrible, personally," he said. "That's not what our club stands for. That's not the kind of stuff we get involved in. We don't allow any kind of politics, any kind of racism. We definitely wouldn't have come here to start any issues."
Dallas police said they did have officers monitoring the parking lot this morning but were under the impression the auto clubs had been given permission to be there. Again, the church stresses this was not the case.
"They just need to know you will not come to Oak Cliff, you will not come to Friendship-West and act like black lives don't matter because they do," Haynes said.
Friendship-West has now launched an investigation into this incident.
