Texas Chief Responds to Group Calling for Removal of 'In God We Trust' Decals on Squads
CHILDRESS, Texas — “Go fly a kite,” wrote Adrian Garcia, police chief of Childress, Texas, to Freedom From Religion, a nontheistic group upset that police pasted “In God We Trust” in capital letters on their patrol vehicles.
“After carefully reading your letter I must deny your request in the removal of our Nations motto from our patrol units, and ask that you and the Freedom From Religion Foundation go fly a kite,” Garcia wrote on a Facebook post.
Invoking God in public and government-funded areas, including police cars, has long sparked the ire of groups such as the foundation, which seeks a separation of church and state.
But the issue has become more urgent in the wake of national criticism over police violence and attacks on officers themselves.
Last month, after Harris County Deputy Sheriff Darren Goforth was shot 15 times and died in an ambush at a gasoline station in suburban Houston, the Childress Police Department added the “In God We Trust” decal to its cars.
Childress followed dozens of other departments in at least five states — Texas, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky and Virginia — that have recently moved to prominently display the slogan.
The department’s rejection was not a surprise to the leader of Freedom From Religion, Annie Laurie Gaylor. The foundation, which has 23,000 members, has sent more than 50 letters complaining about the motto to officials.