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NASCAR Kicks Out Disabled Officers — For Taking a Photo with Vehicle Honoring Fallen Officers Killed in the Line of Duty
TEXAS MOTOR CITY SPEEDWAY, FORT WORTH — For the first time, disabled and wounded officers are speaking out about an incident that occurred over the weekend at a NASCAR race at Texas Motor City Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas.
On Saturday, a group of disabled officers injured in the line of duty were seated as guests of top female NASCAR driver Angela Ruch. After the race, they asked NASCAR track security if they could take a photo with her vehicle benefiting The Wounded Blue organization, which was painted in tribute to more than 120 fallen officers killed in the line of duty.
And that’s when the trouble started.
A NASCAR staffer asked the disabled officers to leave and to stop taking pictures, and when they explained that they had asked permission to take a photo with the vehicle, NASCAR staff called the Police.
When Fort Worth police officers arrived, the NASCAR staffer asked that they be arrested for trespassing — even though they were invited guests of a NASCAR driver, were ticketed to the event, and had even passed a drug test (a requirement to be authorized as a guest inside the VIP section with the driver and her team).
The Fort Worth police officers on the scene declined to arrest the disabled and wounded officers — one of whom is visibly and noticeably disabled and had his service dog with him. NASCAR cited their “COVID-19 protocols” as the reason the group couldn’t snap a photo of the vehicle, even though the vehicle was outdoors in open space, where social distancing was allowed, in 80-plus degree weather in high Texas humidity.
Lt. Randy Sutton, founder of The Wounded Blue, says something larger is at play here.
“For weeks, NASCAR bent over backwards to support the Black Lives Matter organization,” said Lt. Randy Sutton, a 33-year law enforcement veteran. “However, when a car paying tribute to The Wounded Blue and raising charitable funds to help officers wounded in the line of duty hits the track, it’s been nothing but roadblocks. Now, for NASCAR to call for the arrest of disabled officers who simply sought to take a photo with a vehicle etched with the names of over 120 fallen officers who were killed in the line of duty? It’s clear that NASCAR is the one who is off-track.”
Sutton, who retired as a disabled officer himself in 2009 after suffering a stroke in his squad car and then a series of strokes thereafter, was at the track on Saturday with another officer, Corporal Eddie Richardson (Ret.). The pair asked a NASCAR security guard if they could snap a photo of the vehicle.
Corporal Richardson was the victim of attempted murder when he was ambushed during an emergency call then subsequently nearly killed when the fleeing suspect ran him over with his car. He managed to survive the incident — only to be then stopped by NASCAR staff who didn’t want a photo taken of him next to a vehicle honoring fallen officers.
Republished from www.thinbluelinetvuncensored.com and written by Ray Dietrich
