FORT WORTH, Texas — When Torchy's Tacos customer Jessica Gregorio recorded a video of a White Supremacist group entering a Fort Worth location of the restaurant chain over the weekend and heard one of the men saying "white power" as he passed by her table, she had no clue others across North Texas were also targeted by similar extremists over the weekend.
But, across the region, that was very much the case, as at least two similar incidents were also reported for Sunday. Additionally, a fourth incident involving a similar group was reported as having taken place on Saturday.
Also in Fort Worth on Sunday, employees at Fort Worth Botanic Garden saw people wearing similar Nazi attire while placing some 250 antisemitic flyers onto the windshields of cars that were parked in their lot. Employees quickly rounded up and destroyed that literature, CEO Patrick Newman said Wednesday while expressing -- as Torchy's did on Tuesday -- that the Botanic Garden has zero tolerance for the spread of hate speech. Furthermore, Newman said, his staff has been advised to call 911 in the future should they witness anyone distributing flyers with messages of hate, racism or antisemitism.
In Dallas, an antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ group also stood outside of Dallas' Cathedral of Hope, which is renowned the world over as a progressive and inclusive organization boasting one of the largest LGBTQ-plus memberships in the country. As with the group at the restaurant in Fort Worth, the group outside the church on Sunday included members wearing swastika armbands on their sleeves. Additionally, this group carried large Nazi flags with them, which they waved in the direction of the church.
"They were basically saying 'Kill all Jews and gays," said Reverend Dr. Neil Thomas of Cathedral of Hope, who told WFAA that parishioners know not to engage with the group. "We have a message of hope and continue to be present and will not be intimidated by right-wing fascists."
A day earlier, the Fort Worth Police Department confirms, a group wearing Nazi emblems had to be escorted off the premises at the Original Fort Worth Gun Show on Saturday after patrons complained about their comments and the literature they were disseminating.
"We have not confirmed that these were the same individuals that appeared at Torchy’s, but it seems like a strong possibility," said Fort Worth Police spokesperson Jason Spencer.
Leah White, a senior regional director for Dallas and parts of Oklahoma for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), said her organization, which helps with legislative advocacy and incident response involving hate groups, recommends not engaging with extremist as the correct course of action.
She said groups like these target areas where they believe they can leave information behind about their organization to a large number of people in the hopes that doing so will help recruit others who think, believe and hate like they do to their cause.
Additionally, White said, these group are looking to elicit a response. She said that the groups who engage in the kind of behavior displayed across the region on Sunday -- all of which she believes are connected -- count on fear as a a response to their actions.
"That's one of their big tactics, to promote fear," White said. "Because when people are afraid, they're are more apt to react."
Instead of reacting, the Anti-Defamation League urges people to report white supremacist activity to police, as the Botanic Garden staff has now been instructed to do.
Being prepared for handling situations like these, White said, is becoming increasingly important. This kind of behavior, she said, is only becoming more and more common in the area, as FBI data shows a sharp uptick in hate crimes throughout Texas in recent years.
The war in the Middle East, White said, appears to be further contributing to a rise in area antisemitism, too.
"Unfortunately," White said, "Texas is one of the leading states for extremist activity."