Overview
- Video recorded by CAIR-Austin shows two men in crusader-style costumes using a megaphone to berate a monthly Muslim breakfast at Walnut Creek Park on Dec. 27.
- Responding officers said the demonstration was protected speech at the time and advised both groups to leave the park.
- Austin City Manager T. C. Broadnax announced immediate policy changes, including mandatory supervisor call-outs to such scenes and the option to issue citations for causing a disturbance.
- CAIR-Austin asked police and city officials to investigate whether laws or park policies were violated and urged Gov. Greg Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton and Sen. John Cornyn to condemn the harassment.
- The confrontation comes after Abbott’s proclamation labeling CAIR a terrorist organization, CAIR chapters’ federal lawsuit challenging it, and Cornyn’s bill to revoke CAIR’s tax-exempt status; the officials did not comment on the Austin incident.