Category Archives: crime news

crime news

Don’t do this, Minneapolis City Council

Talk about the Mother of Overreactions.

The Minneapolis City Council, which governs a city reeling from the death of George Floyd, the black man killed by an white police officer in an incident that has spawned an international protest movement, is considering disbanding the city police department.

Yep. Nine of 12 council members have signed on to a plan that would eliminate the police department and apparently start over. They want to build a new department from scratch, from the ground up.

Hold on here! I believe that would a monumental mistake.

Yes, George Floyd died because he was brutalized by four officers of the Minneapolis Police Department. One of them is charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter; three others face charges of complicity in the actions of the one rogue cop. I hope they are convicted and are sent to prison.

I also believe the Minneapolis Police Department needs a top-to-bottom review of its policing strategies and tactics. But … disband the department? Remove it? Wipe it out? Is this what’s on the horizon?

PDs across the nation are undergoing intense public scrutiny. There is this “defund the police” movement developing in some communities, again as an extreme overreaction to what is without a doubt a hideous example of police brutality against an African-American citizen.

I want there to be reviews done within police departments. We need to end this terrible trend of cops treating racial and ethnic minority suspects differently — and more harshly — than they treat white folks. That has to stop! Now!

Disband departments while potentially leaving communities without police protection? This crisis can be resolved without such drastic overreaction.

crime news

This tragedy seems … different

Americans have witnessed so many tragedies that we have become numb — or so it seems — to their effects.

Politicians get assassinated. Buildings are blown up. Madmen open fire in schools, churches and movie theaters. And, yes, police officers kill citizens in acts of brutality.

However, this latest tragic event — the death of George Floyd more than a week ago on a Minneapolis street — seems sadly different. This one well might stick in our national consciousness for far longer than anything else we had have witnessed.

Why is that?

I want to posit a couple of theories.

One is the physical evidence we all have seen of a cop holding Floyd to the ground, with his knee pressing against the man’s neck. We watch the cop do nothing to respond to Floyd’s pleas for help, his cries for his mother, his crying out that “I can’t breathe.” The cop, Derek Chauvin, hold him down — while the suspect is handcuffed. Floyd loses consciousness. Chauvin still doesn’t lift his knee off of Floyd’s neck.

How in the name of human decency does one explain this away? How will this former police officer tell the world why he held down a man who offered no resistance until he no longer has a pulse? You’ve seen the video, yes? He looks at the young bystander who took the video as if to say, “So what are you looking at?”

This event calls out loudly and clearly to the issue of how police treat African-American men and whether they treat them differently than they do, say, white men or white women.

The second notion that might produce the seminal moment in police-black community relations has been the reaction of police agencies around the country. We are hearing other law enforcement officials condemning the actions of Derek Chauvin. They are standing — and kneeling — with peaceful protesters in cities from coast to coast to coast in solidarity with the concerns they are raising.

So, the dialogue has commenced. Americans are demanding justice be delivered to Chauvin and the three police colleagues who watched him kill George Floyd. They also are demanding that police cease demonizing American citizens simply because of their skin color.

This outrage should last for as long as it takes for there to be tangible evidence that we are slaying this deadly beast.

crime news, national news

Still no outrage over police conduct

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George Floyd’s death has sparked a national protest movement.

People are marching in streets calling for the police across the land to examine closely the practices they use to arrest and detain African-Americans. The concern is legitimate. Yes, many of these demonstrations have gotten out of hand.

Still, it is the “out of hand” element that has drawn the exclusive attention of Donald John Trump, who today made a public statement about the reaction to Floyd’s death while he was being arrested by Minneapolis police officers — for allegedly seeking to pass a counterfeit $20 bill.

The cops killed Floyd. They snuffed the life out of him by using tactics that other officers acknowledge are not part of the training manual section that describes arrest techniques.

Donald Trump instead took dead aim at the more violent reaction to this hideous event. The Numbskull in Chief didn’t say a single word today about the conduct of the officers. He offered nothing in the way of acknowledgement that the officer who crushed Floyd’s windpipe with knee has been charged correctly with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Trump has appealed yet again to the darker instincts of a riled-up nation. He said governors need to get tough … or else. Trump said he will mobilize the military. He bellowed about being the “law and order” president.

My goodness. We need someone in the Oval Office who can appeal to our better angels, not to our darker impulses.

This guy makes me sick.

crime news

Misery is spreading

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Dallas erupted overnight in a spasm of violence related to the death nearly a week ago of George Floyd, the Minneapolis man suffocated by a rogue cop who snuffed the life out of him by placing his knee on the back of his neck for 8 or 9 minutes.

Businesses were damaged. People were injured. More victims emerged from the aftermath of the hideous incident in which the cop was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

It is everyone’s sincere hope that the violence will end. That we’ll start now to assess seriously the ongoing problem of police relations with communities of color. That police departments might take a long and sober look at whether their officers enforce the law differently when principals involved are ethnic or racial minorities.

The cops used tear gas on the Dallas protesters. Police Chief U. Renee Hall has justified the use of the gas. That’s her call and I won’t get into whether the PD was right or wrong.

Dallas was just one of many cities that erupted. Will there be more of it today, tonight and into the future?

Please! No!

I am officially mourning my country at this moment. We are battling that pandemic with shabby and shameful lack of leadership from the top of government chain of command. Now this! The top of that command chain, namely Donald Trump, has again acted with little demonstrable anger over what he surely has witnessed along with the rest of us … which is the sight of that cop killing George Floyd. Instead he has directed his anger at the angry mobs. I get that he’s angry about the damage being done; it angers me, too.

However, I want the president to look at the cause of that anger and to redirect his anger at the brutality that created this firestorm.

So it goes. My goodness. This madness must end.

crime news

Is this the tipping point? Finally?

I am numbed by what the nation keeps witnessing.

Another African-American man has died at the hands — or more to the point, at the knee — of a police officer. For what reason? Well, he was being arrested for a non-violent crime. George Floyd did what the cops asked him to do. Yet he was put on the ground and a Minneapolis, Minn., police officer kept the pressure on Floyd’s neck until he passed out.

Then this man died.

The outrage has been horrific. Then again, the incident is horrific.

The police department fired the four officers who were involved in Floyd’s arrest and death. And today one of them, Derek Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

This clearly isn’t the end of the story. We still have the three other officers apart from the one who pressed his knee in the back of George Floyd’s neck. The charges could be enhanced to something more severe. The other three (now former) cops are facing criminal prosecution.

What happens now? My goodness. I am trying to fathom the gravity of what we have witnessed yet again in this nation. George Floyd now joins a long and distressing list of victims of police brutality.

The nation has acted with outrage before. People have rioted. They have destroyed property. Then the outward anger subsides. We return to the lives we knew. The cops also return to doing what they have done all along.

Then the cycle repeats itself with another incident such as the one that has gripped the nation.

I am mourning my country. I grieve for the good police officers who do their jobs diligently and with honor. I am pained by the rioting and the damage that has been done to business owners who have played no role in any of this madness. My heart breaks for African-American men and women who have been victimized and those fellow citizens of ours who live in fear that they might be next.

I also am angry at Donald Trump who decided to call Jacob Frey a “very weak radical left mayor.” Disgusting.

I am tired of feeling numb at the spasm of violence that has brought us once again to this flash point. When will this ever end?

crime news

Mob mentality exhibiting its ugliness

George Floyd is the latest in a long and distressing line of African-Americans who have fallen victim to police cruelty. I’ve seen the video of the Minneapolis cop pressing his knee on the back of Floyd’s neck, watching him pass out after pleading with the officer to release him because he couldn’t breathe.

Floyd’s death has sparked justifiable outrage and anger among many Americans, black and white.

However … I want to speak about the mob mentality that has overwhelmed Minneapolis. We are witnessing the worst possible way to call for “justice” for George Floyd, who died day after being manhandled by the cops.

The Minneapolis Police Department fired the four officers immediately after the incident. That isn’t enough. There needs to be a thorough investigation into whether they committed a prosecutable crime. I am inclined to believe they did.

The rioting, looting and, yes, the reported death of a resident in all the mayhem is what I want to address here.

Civilized human beings never should destroy property to supposedly protest an injustice that has been done. The scenes of the fires, the smashing of motor vehicle windows, the theft of items by looters does not advance a single noble notion if society is going to put an end to the type of conduct we have witnessed — yet again — by law enforcement officers against an American citizen.

I am sickened by what we have all seen prior to George Floyd’s death. He wasn’t resisting arrest for a non-violent crime. He was, as I saw it, killed by an officer who went far beyond what is normal and humane.

I also am sickened by the sight of the looting, vandalism, mayhem and outrageous behavior of citizens who are doing far more harm than good in their quest for justice.

I fear they might have dishonored the memory of George Floyd.

Justice can be found, but not this way.

crime news

Weinstein gets a ‘life sentence’ for his hideous crimes

Harvey Weinstein is 67 years old.

The one-time film mogul/talent finder today received a 23-year prison sentence after being convicted on two counts of sexual abuse.

That means, if Weinstein were to serve his entire sentence, he would 90 years of age when he’s released. Thus, what we have here is a virtual life sentence for the headliner criminal whose ghastly behavior helped give credence to the #MeToo movement.

That’s fine with me. Weinstein need not take another breath for as long as he lives as a free man.

The movement that his actions spawned is declaring victory today in the wake of the sentence handed down. The judge who presided over his trial noted correctly that although he was convicted for his “first crime,” this was not his “first offense.”

That made the sentence all the more justifiable, given that the prosecution asked for a 29-year sentence. It got virtually all it sought.

The #MeToo movement can now feel energized to keep up the pressure on powerful men everywhere who still think it’s OK to abuse those who answer to them.

B’bye, Harvey.

crime news

Prosecutors exhibit courage in quitting this probe

Four prosecutors who recommended a seven- to nine-year prison term for a convicted felon who’s also a friend of Donald John Trump have quit.

Why? Because the attorney general of the United States, William Barr, has said he wants to reduce their recommendation to send Trump pal Roger Stone to the slammer for as long as nine years.

Does this seem like political meddling in the criminal justice process? It does to me.

And who, pre-tell, ordered this recommendation? It might have come from, oh let’s see, the White House.

Stone is awaiting sentencing for lying under oath and for hindering the investigation into the Russian collusion matter that ended up on special counsel Robert Mueller III’s desk.

Trump called the career prosecutors’ sentence recommendation a “miscarriage of justice.” My question now is whether Barr acted on the president’s Twitter rant. If so, then it looks for all the world to me as though we have yet another case of presidential meddling where it does not belong.

The prosecutors who quit have shown considerable backbone and grit in walking away from their responsibilities in this matter. They remind me of when AG Elliot Richardson and his deputy William Ruckelshaus resigned rather than follow President Nixon’s order in 1973 to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox as the Watergate scandal began to spin out of control.

These four prosecutors today can stand tall for the principle they have endorsed.

crime news, local news, Uncategorized

Memo to manager: Next chief should endorse community policing

Amarillo City Manager Jared Miller has a huge hiring decision to make soon. He needs to find someone to succeed Ed Drain as chief of the city’s police department.

Miller isn’t going to ask me for my advice, but I am going to give him just a bit of it here in brief form.

Mr. Manager, be sure the next top cop endorses community policing as a way to maintain the city’s relationship with the neighborhoods its officers swear to protect and defend.

Drain has been named the police chief of Plano, Texas, a burgeoning Dallas suburb. He went to Amarillo after serving for more than two decades with the Plano Police Department; he rose to the level of assistant chief.

Drain’s hiring in Amarillo was arguably the sole shining moment of former interim City Manager Terry Childers’ stormy tenure at City Hall. Childers took a hike and the city hired Miller from his city manager’s post in San Marcos.

Drain, meanwhile, reinstituted the community policing program that former Police Chief Robert Taylor let grow fallow during his years as the city’s top cop. I believe that was a regrettable policy decision on Taylor’s part, given the many miles the department had come under the leadership of his immediate predecessor, the late Police Chief Jerry Neal.

Community policing puts officers’ boots on the ground in the neighborhoods they patrol. They develop interpersonal relationships with residents. The policy is designed to build trust between law enforcement officers and the community … thus, the term “community policing.”

Drain has vowed to maintain the policy in Plano. As for Amarillo, I believe it is vital that it remain in force in that city.

I don’t know how Miller is going to conduct a search for a new police chief. He has some fine senior officers on staff already in the Amarillo PD. I actually have a favorite, if he’s willing to be considered for the post.

If Miller goes outside the department and looks far and wide, it would be my hope — no matter what he decides to do — that he insist that the next Amarillo police chief be as dedicated to community policing as Ed Drain was during his brief tenure there.

The policy works.

crime news, local news

Dallas police chief might need to accelerate crime-reduction goals

If I were a betting man, and I’m not, I might be willing to wager some dough that Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall could be in some trouble with one of her bosses, Mayor Eric Johnson.

Hall’s department is in some serious trouble. The city she is in charge of protecting and serving has been in the midst of a violent crime wave. The city suffered through more than 200 homicides in 2019. Chief Hall has pledged to reduce violent crime by 5 percent this year.

Mayor Johnson has said that isn’t good enough. The chief’s goals aren’t aggressive enough. He didn’t say so the other day, but he seemed to my ears to imply that his patience is pretty thin as it is and he wants the chief to re-do her strategy for reducing violent crime in the Texas’s third-largest city.

My wife and I — along with our son, daughter-in-law and our grandkids — live in the greater Dallas area. We all venture on occasion into the belly of the beast. While we aren’t in imminent danger all the time, it does give me pause whenever I travel into the city.

I understand fully the difficulty of the job that U. Renee Hall took on when she became Dallas’s top cop. I am not a police expert. I cannot offer any counsel on how the city’s police department can stem the crime wave that is plaguing the community. Gov. Greg Abbott recently stepped in by ordering the Department of Public Safety to dispatch state troopers into Dallas to assist the city police department, freeing up Dallas PD officers to concentrate more on the violent crime incidents.

If my ol’ bones are accurate, though, and Mayor Johnson is as alarmed at the crime crisis as he suggests he is, then the police chief will need to get real busy … real fast.