Rep. Roger Williams from TX House District 25 was back in the Austin area today, looking dignified as he stood in the passenger seat of the Batmobile at the head of the parade honoring the Lake Travis football team for winning the 6A Division Championship. When I heard about the event a few hours prior, I wondered, is this really the time and place for political action? I mean, this is TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL, and on a SUNDAY. Can it get more sacrosanct than that? I decided that by being there, Rep. Williams had made this a political event whether he wanted it to be or not (and by the look on his face when he saw us with our signs, he definitely did not).

Another party who didn’t want us there were the owners of the property. The parade was held at the Hill Country Galleria, which I guess is all private property, even though it’s also the location of Bee Cave City Hall.

We were approached by a security guard who told us that by holding up our signs, we were soliciting and that unless we had express permission from the property owners, it was illegal and that he would call the police and have us arrested. As I took video of the exchange, he said that unless I stopped taking video, he would call the police and have me arrested. I guess we were really pushing his “calling the police and having you arrested” button. Watch his auto-response below.

PS – I want to make clear that this was a silent protest. We didn’t yell anything or try to draw any attention away from the high school students and their accomplishments. The only action we took was holding up signs for the benefit of Rep. Williams.