LONGVIEW, Texas — It’s been a long week for Longview city officials and the larger community.
“This is unacceptable. We're better than this,” said Mayor Andy Mack to a packed courtroom. He expressed his frustration that an alleged white supremacist meeting set to happen in his city has picked up as much traction as it has. Though he and fellow council-people denounced the potential meeting, Mack didn't feel that it was worth the coverage that it got.
“We took the opportunity to politicize this topic via public statements, news outlets, media outlets, Facebook, social media, which only serve to raise more polarity, concern and fear in our community," he said.
The gathering, also known as the “White Unity Conference,” was supposedly set to happen on September 25th at undisclosed location in Longview. The organizers, the Aryan Freedom Network, said that the event would be closed off to "white racialist" only.
Mack was ready for the city to move on from talk about this event since it isn’t confirmed but some residents say, that doesn’t matter.
“The fact that people could so easily believe that white supremacists would come here is because some of them are here,” said one resident.
Other residents also said that the council’s denouncement will mean nothing without lasting change.
“We can’t recognize the effort and the sharp reaction that you guys took without also acknowledging the need to take that action."
According to CBS19's news partners at the Longview News Journal, organizers originally planned for the gathering to happen in Paris, Texas last fall before city officials denounced the rally.
Now that Longview officials have done the same, residents said, “Hopefully they’ll take that madness somewhere else.”
Advocate group One Love in Longview said they are planning a counter rally to combat white supremacy later in the summer.