One week after attendees were removed at the Tarrant County Commissioners Court — with some arrested and carried out — another resident was arrested for allegedly disrupting the public meeting.
Fort Worth resident EJ Carrion was booked into the county jail early Wednesday morning. He is charged with disrupting a meeting, a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $2,000, up to 180 days in jail, or both the fine and jail time. Under Texas penal code, it is a crime to disrupt a lawful meeting, procession or gathering through physical actions, verbal utterances or electronic disturbances.
Alexander Montalvo, Carrion’s friend and fellow local activist, said he believes the arrest was to retaliate against Carrion and intimidate others who speak at commissioners court meetings.
“There’s this view that being an elected official in Tarrant County, and really in Texas, means that you are entitled to enforce your will,” Montalvo told the Fort Worth Report. “And any time people voice a challenge, they perceive themselves as being able to suppress and eliminate those challenges in whatever form and fashion they can.”…