Blaze Media’s Sara Gonzales released footage of a staffer for Democratic Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke and a female officer with the Dallas Police Department getting physical with her while she was taking a video of the candidate.
The video appears to show an O’Rourke staffer, who Gonzales has identified as Cynthia Cano, grabbing at Gonzales’ phone, and a female police officer, who Gonzales has identified as Jackia Miles, subsequently pushing her without warning.
“Here is the moment [Beto O’Rourke]’s staffer assaulted me right in front of him, tried to take my phone, and a [Dallas Police Department] officer joins in and assaults me while saying, ‘I don’t even gotta touch your phone, I can just touch you.'”
“Does DPD serve the taxpayers or the Democrat machine?” Gonzales questioned.
Here is the moment @BetoORourke’s staffer assaulted me right in front of him, tried to take my phone, and a @DallasPD officer joins in and assaults me while saying, “I don’t even gotta touch your phone, I can just touch you.”
Does DPD serve the taxpayers or the Democrat machine? pic.twitter.com/pEoffkJ9Zu
— Sara Gonzales (@SaraGonzalesTX) March 15, 2022
Gonzales on Saturday said the DPD told her they do not have bodycam footage of the incident. When The Daily Wire asked the department about the matter, we were told, “Due to the incident being under investigation we will not be able to disclose any further information.”
O’Rourke posed with Miles for a photo and posted it to his Instagram following the event, saying, “Big thanks to Officer Miles for being with us at our town hall and for serving our community each day.”
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Gonzales said last weekend that a female O’Rourke staffer tried to rip her phone from her hands while Gonzales was at a public event for the candidate in Dallas. Gonzales was then “manhandled” by a female officer with the DPD and almost fell.
Not once was Gonzales directed not to record anything by anyone at the event, the conservative previously told The Daily Wire, adding that others had their phones out to record, too.
“Earlier today, I attended a Beto O’Rourke townhall,” Gonzales shared on social media at the time. “I started to record an interaction between Beto & a constituent while he was taking pictures. His staffer grabbed my phone & tried to pry it out of my hands, then a DPD officer manhandled me unprovoked. Beto is NOT for TX.”
“I will be consulting my attorney and requesting bodycam footage from DPD,” she continued. “There were people recording on their phones all afternoon. The police gave me no directive before manhandling me and almost pushing me down the stairs. Imagine what this man would allow if elected.”
Gonzales told The Daily Wire the staffer “attacked” her for filming O’Rourke.
“I started recording at this public forum, as I had seen many others do, and was immediately attacked by Beto’s staffer, who blocked me and grabbed my phone, trying to pull it out of my hands,” she recalled. “As I was attempting to maintain the grip on my phone while it was being pulled from me, a black female Dallas Police officer blindsided me and forcefully grabbed my arms, pushing me away where I nearly tripped down some steps.”
“She had given no directive, no instruction, no warning before forcefully putting her hands on me,” Gonzales said.
“I am not a criminal and had not broken any laws. I’ve never been in an incident like this with law enforcement, and have always been extremely supportive and respectful of them, but this incident affected me very viscerally. The fact that I had to wrestle my private property away from a stranger attempting to take it from me only to be manhandled by the police as if I were a criminal is deeply upsetting,” she added. “I feel violated.”