They were loaded for bear, but not so much as a squirrel showed up.
And officials were happy about that.
Troopers from the DPS, the sheriff and deputies from Lee County, Lexington police officers and the mayor were on hand at the downtown square in readiness for a White Lives Matter rally that was suppose to start there at noon.
It didn’t happen at that time.
“We are very well prepared and pleased that no one showed up,” said Lexington Mayor Allen Retzlaff. “We erred on the side of caution.”
White Lives Matter is, according to various anti-discrimination groups, loosely organized pockets of white supremacist groups around the county. That, according to news reports, sprang up in response to the Black Lives Matter group and have been holding rallies around the county for the past three years with limited success.
The WLM website is currently not in service and has this message on it: “The website is currently being worked on. Site will be available soon. Thank you for your patience!”
But the Southern Poverty League has on its site WLM’s purpose as “dedicated to promotion of the white race and taking positive action as a united voice against issues facing our race.”
It has been labeled a hategroup by various anti-discrimination organizations.
In addition to the cost of having a big law enforcement presence at the square and around the perimeter— which was blocked to vehicular traffic—the town’s popular restaurant, Snow’s BBQ, decided to close for the day. It is normally only open Saturdays, but decided to change its once-a-week open to July 11 because of the planned rally.
“Due to unforeseen circumstances regarding the “assumed” rally tomorrow morning in Lexington, we have made the tough decision to close. Once again, the most important thing is the safety of our employees, our customers and anyone else who may be involved. We are very sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause you. With that being said, we will be open this Sunday at 8 a.m. (just this Sunday!) so just hang tight and come see us then,” was the message posted on Snow’s Facebook page Friday.
The owner asked readers to spread the word and it did get out with the comments showing support for Snow’s decision.
“I am sorry to hear that your business is going to miss out on a day of work/profits because of this nonsense! I am glad to hear that you are putting your employees’ safety first,” one wrote. No one seems to know
No one seems to know why Lexington was picked to be a WLM rally site, but some speculated it was because it might draw people with white supremacists feeling from the nearby larger population centers of Austin and the Bryan-College Station metropolitan areas.
Snow’s owner Kerry Bexley had this to say:
“This is not how we roll in Lexington, Texas, and to set the record straight I do not support any this lives matter protest...God created us all equal and all lives matter. As a business we made a decision we feel is best for all. End of story. Thanks and God bless America.”
In June in Centerville in Leon County, WLM did hold a rally, but met with little support from the town’s population of just over 1,000 people.
The Leon County judge said a spokesman for the group had called to let the county know they were coming and told him they picked Centerville because it was halfway between Houston and Dallas, according to published reports.
Mayor Retzlaff said the group did request a permit to hold the rally in Lexington, but never turned it in.
“We gave them a copy of the ordinance, too,” he said. “But they didn’t feel comfortable answering some of the questions and never turned in the permit application.”
After a meeting on the square with DPS, the sheriff and the mayor, interim Police Chief Jarrod Jarmon announced the watch for the rally would end at 1 p.m.
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