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A Facebook post claiming that it was legal for people in Texas to use deadly force to protect Confederate statues from being vandalized was widely shared on social media in August 2017: The Facebook post, which has since been deleted, was featured in several articles that made false (and potentially dangerous) claims. The web sites I Am A Texan and Liberty Park Press, for instance, both shared this message as if it was an official warning from a Texas police department. But that is not the case. In fact, the Tioga Police Department, where Ryan worked as an unpaid reserve officer, dismissed Ryan shortly after this post went viral. The web site Political Mayhem took the claim even further, sharing it in an irresponsible, inflammatory piece titled HELL YEAH! This State Just Gave Citizens Authority To SHOOT Protesters ON SIGHT Who Destroy Monuments. First of all, the laws Ryan cited are not new. Second, they do not actually give people in Texas the right to use deadly force to protect statues from vandalism. Legal analyst Gerald Treece told Houston TV station KHOU that although the legal codes Ryan cited are real (you can read them in full here and here), they do not give people the rights that Ryan claimed. For instance, Chapter 9.41 explicitly deals with one's own property. Statues in public parks would not fall into this category. Treece also said that it was unlikely for Confederate statues to be considered tangible, movable property: The Granbury Police Department also weighed in, saying that the claim that you can use deadly force to stop someone from vandalizing a statue was absolutely not true, and adding that using deadly force to protect property (your own or others' is only legal under certain conditions): Bottom line: It is not legal to use deadly force in Texas to prevent a person from vandalizing a statue.
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