\n Fort Worth Police Chief Eddie Garcia said officers were \u201cwrong\u201d in how they described lawful speech during the June 27 Trinity Pride Fest encounter | Image by Fort Worth Police Department <\/p>\n
Fort Worth Police Chief Eddie Garcia said officers were \u201cwrong\u201d in how they described the limits of lawful speech during a viral confrontation with Christian street preachers outside Trinity Pride Fest. He also said the department has begun First Amendment refresher training across its ranks.<\/p>\n
Garcia addressed the June 27 encounter during an interview<\/a> with WFAA on Monday. The Dallas Express first<\/a> published video showing officers warning street preachers Richard Penkoski and David Grisham about potentially \u201coffensive\u201d speech. Police later cited Grisham for disorderly conduct related to noise after he used a bullhorn.<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest issue that I have is just the conversations and the way that we were describing what is lawful, what is not lawful,\u201d Garcia told<\/a> WFAA.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we\u2019re right, we\u2019re right, and when we\u2019re wrong, we\u2019re wrong,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cThere certainly was a better way to have that communication, and we were wrong in the manner in which we communicated that. Certainly, we\u2019re going to take accountability for it.\u201d<\/p>\n Garcia\u2019s acknowledgment focused on how officers explained the limits of lawful speech. The department has continued to defend the separate noise-related citation.<\/p>\n Department-wide training underway<\/p>\n Garcia said the department\u2019s command staff has completed First Amendment refresher courses. Sergeants and officers will receive the training next.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just trained up our command staff again with refresher courses. We\u2019re going to be training our sergeants. We\u2019re going to be training our officers,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n