No good deed goes unpunished. That must be what Patriot Mobile cellphone company, a company owned by conservative Christians, is thinking today. The company donated a pizza party to the Grapevine (TX) Police Department and its staff as a way to show its support and appreciation. Nice gesture, right? Not according to some members of the community.

The drama played out on Facebook. The police department thanked Patriot Mobile for its gift. The pizza was not delivered to the police station, a gift certificate for a pizza party was delivered by people employed by the cellphone company.

The original post was brief and to the point.

Sincere thanks to our friends at Patriot Mobile. We are blessed to have their support and encouragement. Today they presented us with a certificate to host a pizza party for our staff. We are grateful for the opportunity to have a fun and relaxing meal together as a team.

What’s not to like? Some people responded to the Facebook post in an ugly way. It turns out that Patriot Mobile, besides being a Christian-owned company, has gotten politically active. Its PAC is credited with helping in successful Tarrant County suburban school board races.

Patriot Mobile — which describes itself as “America’s only Christian conservative wireless provider” — has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote like-minded candidates in recent Tarrant County suburban school board races.

Last spring, the company’s political action committee sent thousands of political mailers accusing sitting school board members of endangering students with critical race theory and other “woke” ideas regarding gender and race.

All 11 candidates backed by Patriot Mobile won their races across four school districts: Grapevine-Colleyville, Southlake, Keller and Mansfield.

“If we lose Tarrant County, we lose Texas,” Jenny Story, Patriot Mobile’s chief operating officer, told The New York Times. “If we lose Texas, we lose the country.”

School board races are hot button issues these days.Tarrant County (Fort Worth and surrounding areas) is a conservative spot in Texas. It’s easy to believe that a conservative company would support school board candidates who were of an anti-woke agenda for school curriculums. The wokesters went so far as to accuse the police department of accepting a bribe from the company.

“This is what accepting a bribe looks like.”
“I’m sure Patriot Mobile will be expecting “something” in return.”
“I don’t think this is a good idea to take gifts from a fascist political organization like this.”

You get the picture. Conservatives are fascists. Same old, same old.

So, the police department decided to give the gift certificate to a group in need instead of enjoying the pizza themselves. The department posted another Facebook post to explain its decision.

A message to our community:
One of the aspects we value most from our Community is their willingness to speak up and voice their concerns, even when doing so may be difficult. Our Community deserves to be heard, and we want you to know we are listening.
This week, we accepted a food donation from a local business, as we often do, and posted a thank you on social media. This is not uncommon, as our Community is very giving and we want to recognize them and thank them. We do not question a donor’s beliefs, we simply express our gratitude. In this case, however, the donation brought out deep emotion.
One of our values, Dignity, ensures that we recognize the inherent worth of all persons and compels us to act toward them within a manner that conveys our understanding of that truth. It is about being respectful to ALL. The Relationships we have, and desire, with our Community Members are foundational to growing trust and legitimacy. Please know that our actions were not intended to create distrust, and we vow to do better moving forward. We are going to re-evaluate how we receive donations in the future, and we will remain open, and transparent, in how we do so.
As for the donation and in the spirit of sharing what we have with others, we are opting to donate the food to a true need. We want something positive to come from this experience and that means giving to a worthy cause.
We thank everyone who took the time to voice their thoughts, and we also thank you for allowing us a day to reflect on the situation. We are not merely giving you words today – we are working to make a lasting change in how we operate so we can move forward together. We recognize that we are one member of a great Community.
We will always strive to protect everyone in our community and remain committed to providing the highest quality police service.

What a sad state of affairs. It’s pizza. It’s a lunch or dinner with work colleagues. Locals in communities deliver food gifts to first responders all the time. I once lived in a neighborhood that ‘adopted’ a fire station just outside the subdivision. Groups of residents took turns volunteering to cook and deliver meals and treats once a month to the firefighters. They appreciated it and it builds community relationships.

Some who thought the food gift was harmless became angry when the police department decided to give it away.

Still, some said Grapevine police should have accepted the pizza and that an organization’s politics should not matter.

“Pretty gutless,” one person wrote. “How sad that a simple act of kindness becomes so misconstrued.”

Damned if they do, damned if they don’t.