On a warm Saturday afternoon in February, a small group of 10 people walked through a metal gate, propped open with a black trash can, and into a beige, fluorescent-lit room inside a teachers union hall in the Oak Cliff neighborhood in southern Dallas. They were there for a presentation titled “The Prairieland Defendants: A Landmark Battle for Free Expression & Immigrant Rights.”
“We’re going to do a little poll,” said Ramón, who requested that the Texas Observer use only his first name for fear of reprisal and is a member of the DFW Support Committee, a group working to support the Prairieland defendants. “If you’ve ever been to a protest, raise your hand,” he said. “Raise your hand if you have ever worn all black, in general, not even at a protest. Raise your hand if you have a first aid kit. If you own a gun, raise your hand. If you’ve ever used Signal, raise your hand.”
With each question, hands were raised. “If you raised your hand, does that make you a terrorist?” asked Luis, another DFW Support Committee member who made the same request for partial anonymity. “That’s basically what the state is trying to do with our friends.”
