A black pastor has threatened an ISIS-style attack against law enforcement in response to a video showing a Texas officer forcefully pinning a bikini-clad teenage girl and pulling a gun on a group of juveniles at a pool party.
A cell-phone video of the incident has gone viral. But now another video, equally disturbing to some, is starting to make the rounds.
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Rev. Ronald Wright, executive director of Justice Seekers Texas, warned Americans in a press conference carried live by MSNBC that a domestic terror attack is coming. He spoke at a rally Monday outside the McKinney Police Department.
"We’re setting the stage for a terrorist attack in this country. And the group is not going to be ISIS; it’s going to be USIS, us against these injustice law officers and people continuing to allow racism to grow into this city," he said on Thursday.
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Watch the comments in video clip below:
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According to its website, the Dallas-based Justice Seekers Texas was founded by Wright in February 2010 as a "Civil Rights and Social Justice Organization which focuses on Civil Rights and Social Justice (for all citizens), Education, Health, Employee Rights, Veterans Affairs, Domestic Violence, Juvenile Delinquency/Recidivism, Assisting ex-felons with employment opportunities, rights of the incarcerated, probationers, and parolees."
Wright describes himself on the website as a civil-rights leader and community organizer for social-justice causes. He also serves as senior pastor of God's Community Church of Joy.
WND reached out to Wright Tuesday to ask if he wanted to clarify his comments.
"I was talking about police involved in racial discrimination. I have always stood up for police; it's not like I'm against all police, because we need the police. So it wasn't a terroristic threat on police," Wright told WND.
"But those that have refuse to stop this kind of injustice, it has to stop," he said. "It wasn't an attack on the police department, because all of the recent incidents against the police we've seen in the media; it wasn’t the fault of the police. When you actually looked at what happened, they were justified in acting the way they acted in some of those cases."
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Wright called on the mayor to fire the officer, Cpl. Eric Casebolt, who threw the 15-year-old girl to the ground and drew his weapon. Wright said his group has contacted the U.S. Justice Department and is having it monitor the situation.
But on Tuesday, Casebolt resigned his position.
To Wright, that's just more proof that he was guilty of unprofessional conduct, at least, and a criminal act at worse.
"If this officer was right by what he did, why would you resign?" he asked.
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Wright said he's the type of activist who stands up against injustice, regardless of the victim's color.
"I stood up for a white police officer and their chief and fought for their chief because a black city councilwoman was picking on him, and she wouldn't let up on him. What they did was, they took his salary off the city budget, and ended up paying it for the rest of the year ... but we stood for him. I'm going to fight discrimination no matter what color you are."
Wright also protested when a 52-year-old white man, Bobby Bennett, was gunned down by Dallas police in 2013, according to a Dallas Morning News report. Police said Bennett came at them with a knife, but a neighbor's surveillance video did not support that narrative.
In the pool party case, Wright said there could also be more to the story, but from what he knows now, the officer was out of line.
"None of these children are perfect, but we're reaping what we sow.
"They should have been more respectful. But when you can't raise your children at home, and the government can't raise them, what do you expect? You're reaping what you sow," he said. "Government is responsible for that. I'm not a hater of police, and everyone in Dallas knows that. They know I've stood up for their police department, but this could have been handled a lot better according to protocol.
"And also I'm waiting for the 9-1-1 call to hear what was said. At the end of the day, that is going to determine if he was justified in acting the way he did. I'm hoping that is the fact rather than it being a racist move."
Wright said the nation is coming apart at the seams, racially, with race relations at a dismal level.
"Why is it when this country is attacked, like on 9/11, we can all become brothers, we're family," he said, "then the minute it's over we go back to the old mentality we have?
"Those who continue to do racial injustice are the ones I was talking about, not all police. I don't hate police," he said. "I support them."
The original cell-phone video of the pool party Friday night went viral. The incident started when two individuals were involved in an altercation and the cops were called. A dozen officers responded. One, Casebolt, appeared to act more aggressively than the others, but some eyewitnesses said he acted reasonably given the chaos of the situation.
WFAA-TV in Dallas reported that some of the parents whose children appeared in the viral video are angry that Casebolt not only used force, but cursed at the teens before pulling out his weapon.
Jahi Adisa Bakari's daughter was at the pool party when chaos erupted.
"The fact of the matter is, the officer recklessly attacks this young lady, who was following his instructions," she told WFAA.