Plano City Councilman Changes Story About Controversial Facebook Post
PLANO, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - On the day residents turn in a petition to recall a Plano City Councilman over an anti-Islamic Facebook post shared form his Facebook page, he changed his story.
"He didn't do this with any purpose to offend anyone, and people were offended certainly and he apologized," said Harrison friend and spokesman, Allan Samara.
Samara says Harrison is deeply hurt by the allegations he's a bigot.
Harrison admitted to and has apologized to posting the video, but Samara says other offensive Facebook posts that have been attributed to Harrison where not posted by him.
"There were three other memes that came down into his timeline all within two minutes, and we know that he made no proactive commentary with this timeline."
Samara suggested someone other than Harrison shared the posts. When CBS 11 asked Our Plano, One Plano voters about it, they reacted by laughing.
"I would say given the nature of his apology, I find that highly unlikely," said Michael Thomas of Our Plano, One Plano.
A group of residents called Our Plano, One Plano collected 4,400 signatures in an effort to oust City Councilman Tom Harrison.
"I think Mr. Harrison had 4,000...4,545 votes when he was elected, and we actually gathered as much as that in less than four weeks," said Ana Bacchus of Our Plano, One Plano. "People were willing to sign it and say enough is enough. No bigotry in Plano."
Over the next five days, the City of Plano will make sure they are from verified Plano voters.
Next Monday, the city will announce if there are at least 2,800 required signatures to recall Councilman Tom Harrison.
In February, a video appeared on Harrison's private Facebook profile. The since-deleted-video shows Muslim children in class and the message, "Share if you think Trump should ban Islam in American schools."
Residents and even the Mayor of Plano called for Harrison's resignation, but he has refused.
