Two Fayettevilles Mixed Up in Protest Confusion This Week

A rumor went around the County on Wednesday that there was going to be a protest against police violence in Fayetteville that night. The rumor is false.

A reporter from the Colorado County Citizen called the Record on Wednesday to ask if we knew anything about the protest, and a local city official even asked us if we knew about it.

Upon first inspection, this claim seemed dubious since Fayetteville, Texas does not actually have a police department (although the City did purchase a police car a few years ago). We called Mayor Carl Marino and City Secretary Janice Wasut and contacted five other prominent citizens by text message. No one heard anything about it.

“I don’t know what they’re going to protest,” Marino said. “Our sidewalks roll up at nine o’clock.”

Later that afternoon, Wasutsent us a screenshot of a post she saw on Facebook. It was shared by a woman from Sheridan. The post stated:

“Protest in the Fayetteville square at 7 p.m. #NoJusticeNoPeace #F***ThePolice

“Wear multiple layers of clothes (to take off in case identified), black for solidarity. Gas masks and face masks highly encouraged (COVID or tear gas)

“Cover ALL identifiers! Piercings! Colored Hair! Signs encouraged.”

As it turned out, the post was referring to a protest that took place in Fayetteville, Arkansas the night before. But it was shared and commented on by some locals. The Sheriff’s Office even sent some deputies to patrol Fayetteville, just in case.

The episode illustrates the problem with finding local news on an international platform like Facebook. As Wasut noted, there are at least 12 other cities named Fayetteville in the United States.