Tag Archives: Dallas PD

environmental news, local news

Staying put for this one

Command decision time, which means I have decided to stay home for The Eclipse. There. It’s done and I ain’t moving.

I keep reading in the local newspapers about how the cops are going to be out in force the afternoon of next Monday to make sure everyone’s behaving behind the wheels of their vehicles. They express concern about motorists not paying attention to the traffic while the sky darkens above them.

Fine. Let others hassle with all of that. I am staying put. It’s going to be the kitties — Macy and Marlowe — and me in our house in Princeton, Texas. which is in the middle of Ground Zero of the eclipse event.

My son who lives with me will be at work. So will my other son who lives in nearby Allen. My granddaughter will be in school close to their home and my daughter-in-law will be home, too, presumably staying safe.

The National Weather Service is predicting overcast skies that day. It’ll still get plenty dark for about four minutes sometime after 1 p.m. Eclipse watch parties? Getting together with friends to marvel at the universe? Forget about it!

I am staying where I know I’ll be safe from the nut jobs out there.

local news

Honor officers’ memory

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Dallas is paying tribute today to five brave men who, when they went to work five years ago today, expected fully to finish their shifts and go home to their families.

They didn’t get that opportunity. A madman gunned them down.

It was July 7, 2016 when these men paid the ultimate price while fulfilling their oath to “protect and serve” the people of their community. The city has honored them every July 7 since that tragic incident. May the city of Dallas and its residents always remember these men.

Their names are: Senior Cpl. Lorne Ahrens, Officer Michael Krol, Sgt. Michael Smith, Dallas Area Rapid Transit Officer Brent Thompson and Dallas PD Officer Patricio Zamarripa.

I won’t offer the name of the loon who shot them in keeping with my policy of declining to identify the shooters by name on this blog. I will say only that the shooter died when an explosive device detonated during the standoff with Dallas Police Department officers.

Cops have been getting a lot of heat these days. Much of it, sadly, is deserved. However, I continue to believe the best in the men and women who suit up every day to make our communities safer.

Not a single task they perform can be called “routine.” They all know it, yet they continue to thrust themselves potentially into harm’s way when they respond to every traffic stop, every domestic disturbance, every call for help.

I wish today to honor the memory of those five men who died five years ago today … and to pray for the safety and well-being of all the fine police officers who continue to protect us from those who would bring us harm.

local news

Unity found in small towns; bigger cities suffer strife

I went to a “unification rally” this week in Princeton, Texas, the city where my wife and I reside.

It’s a small town, but is growing rapidly. I believe the population here is about 15,000 residents. The unification rally was called in the wake of the George Floyd tragedy, where an African-American man died at the hands of cops who treated him with extreme malice and brutality. It proceeded with calm and good manners.

The response to the Floyd tragedy is far different just down the road from Princeton. Dallas is caught up in turmoil and tempest. The police there fired rubber bullets on protesters marching across a bridge that connects downtown Dallas with the western reaches of the city.

Some folks want Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall to resign. If she won’t quit, they want her fired. Hall is standing her ground. I don’t know who’s right in this matter; I wasn’t there. I was busy soaking up the unity being expressed in my Collin County community.

My point, though, is that while there appear to be calls for unification coming from rural communities just like the one where we live, there also appears to be plenty of strife developing in larger cities. Austin had a similar beef that has erupted in Dallas. Other major cities across the nation are enduring emotional conflict and tension as people march for justice and seek reform in the way police departments do their job.

The tension causes me plenty of concern about where we are headed. I do not subscribe to the “defund the police” argument that is getting a voice in some communities. That view suggests rampant corruption and cruelty in all big-city PDs; I do not believe that is the case. Policing is a tough job under the best of circumstances. It becomes exponentially more dangerous when police do not have the support of the community they swear to “protect and serve.”

The nation’s law enforcement community is facing a serious crisis as it seeks to answer the questions that critics are raising about it in the wake of George Floyd’s killing.

The law enforcement crisis isn’t presenting itself in places like Princeton, Texas. It is, though, showing itself in Dallas … and other big cities across the land.

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.

crime news

Grace on full display in Dallas courtroom

This event renders me speechless. I cannot muster up a single bit of wisdom to add to what the world witnessed Wednesday in a Dallas courtroom.

A former Dallas police officer was convicted of murdering a young man, Botham Jean, who she thought was burglarizing her apartment a year ago. Except that she went to the wrong apartment and shot Jean to death in his own dwelling.

A district court jury took less than a day to convict Amber Guyger. Then the jury returned a prison sentence: 10 years in the slammer for the young former cop.

Without any warning, though, Botham Jean’s younger brother, Brandt, sat in the witness chair and said he harbored no ill will toward Guyger. He wished her “only the best” and said he didn’t want her “to go to jail.”

Then he asked District Judge Tammy Kemp, if he could hug Guyger. Judge Kemp, wiping away tears, agreed. Brandt Jean and Amber Guyger embraced for several seconds. It was a tight embrace. Guyger was weeping, knowing that her own tragic mistake had destroyed her life as she had built it.

What in the name of forgiveness does one make of such an act? That a young man could extend his own grace to someone who took the life of a dear loved one?

I guess we all should reassess our feelings toward those who have done us wrong over our own lifetimes.

That’s all I have.

What an amazing moment.

crime news

The jury speaks again: 10 years for ex-cop/murderer

I have been reluctant to comment on a pending case involving a former Dallas police officer who shot a neighbor to death believing he was burglarizing her apartment.

Tragically, Amber Guyger was wrong. She shot Botham Jean to death while he was sitting in his own apartment. A Dallas County jury this week convicted her of murder.

Then today, the jury came back with a prison sentence: 10 years hard time for the ex-officer.

I don’t like second-guessing jurors. They hear all the evidence. The rest of us sit out here in the peanut gallery, drawing our own conclusions based mostly on what we read in the papers or see on TV.

With that, I won’t weigh in on whether the 10-year prison term is enough, or is too much.

Guyger’s life as she knew it has been ruined. She made a tragic mistake a year ago when she thought she was returning to her apartment, only to shoot Botham Jean — a St. Lucia native — to death. She tried to enter his apartment on a separate floor from where she resided. How does that happen? I had asked that question from the beginning.

Well, it did. Jurors had the option of convicting Guyger of manslaughter, but decided to follow the district attorney’s lead and convicted her of murder.

Botham Jean’s family and friends have been delivered the justice they sought. The community can begin the process of healing from this terrible, tragic event.

As for Amber Guyger, well … she will get to reflect on the life-changing error she made that night. Ten years might not seem like enough time to spend behind bars.

Then again, Amber Guyger has shattered her own life, which might prove to be punishment enough.

crime news

DPS getting thrust into even more dangerous work

I have made an important acquaintance. He is a young man who serves as a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper.

He also has been tapped to serve — along with other DPS troopers — alongside Dallas Police Department officers in some of the high-crime neighborhoods of the state’s third-largest city.

One of those troopers got involved in a shooting today in South Dallas. Residents are calling for a thorough investigation; they deserve to know what happened and I hope DPS and Dallas PD are forthcoming. A Dallas City Council member wants DPS to pull the troopers out.

Well, count me as a Metroplex resident who endorses DPS’s presence to assist Dallas PD combat the rash of violent crimes that have struck the city.

My DPS friend told me he and his trooper colleagues work on traffic enforcement, enabling Dallas PD officers to concentrate more fully on the crime wave.

Gov. Greg Abbott ordered DPS officers to assist Dallas police, expressing concern about the crime spree that has been taking far too many innocent victims’ lives. The governor should be concerned. So should the residents of those neighborhoods affected most directly by the criminals who are doing them harm.

To that end, I stand with DPS — especially my young friend — as they lend a needed hand to quell the spasm of crime that has frightened many Dallas residents.

crime news

Change of venue? Sure, but move it far, far away

Amber Guyger is going to stand trial — possibly soon — for murder. The former Dallas police officer this past September allegedly walked into a Botham Jean’s apartment and shot him to death reportedly thinking she had entered her own apartment.

The case has riveted many residents of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, which makes a request for a change of venue so very interesting.

Guyger’s lawyers insist she cannot get a fair trial in Dallas County, where the case is set to be tried. They want a change of trial venue to a county other than Dallas County, citing “media hysteria” surrounding the case.

I am not going to argue for or against a change of venue. Indeed I can see why defendant’s legal counsel would want to change the trial location. However, the counsel should insist on moving it far away not just from Dallas County, but also from Collin County, Tarrant County, Rockwall County, Ellis County — or any part of the region served by the Dallas/Fort Worth media outlets that have been covering this case.

Send it to El Paso County, or to Orange County, or to Hidalgo County, or to Dallam County.

Yes, there is intense interest in this case.  A lot of the circumstances sound, shall we say, weird. Guyger was suspended at first from the Dallas Police Department and then was fired after she was indicted for murder in the death of Botham Jean, a native of St. Lucia who lived in an apartment on a separate floor from where Guyger resided.

Whatever the judge decides, my belief is that this case needs to go a lot farther away than just outside of Dallas County.

local news

Dallas crime spike prompts needed state response

This is a story that piques my interest a bit more these days, given that I now live at the doorstep of a major American city.

Dallas has seen a huge spike in violent crime. Transgender women in particular have been killed at an alarming rate. The city registered 40 homicides in the past month, the greatest amount since the 1990s.

Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered the Department of Public Safety into the fray, sending Texas Rangers — the elite DPS investigative arm — to assist in trying to solve these crimes.

It’s the kind of story we don’t hear too much about, but it’s quite obviously a serious problem that one might say is approaching crisis mode.

I am unaware of any extra precautions my community, Princeton, is taking in the wake of this major uptick in criminal activity. Then, of course, we have our granddaughter living even closer to Big D, with her parents and older brother. Yes, we worry about them, too — which quite obviously goes without saying.

Now, though, stories such as major-city crime spikes such as what is occurring in Dallas make us pay just a little more attention.

By all means, Gov. Abbott, send in the DPS to help the local cops.

media news

CNN anchor ‘misspoke’ about Dallas PD shooter?

This likely will be the last thing I’ll say about this, but I must ask: How does one “misspeak” the words that CNN anchor Fredricka Whitfield uttered in describing James Boulware, the man who laid siege to the Dallas Police Department before a police sniper shot him to death?

http://news.yahoo.com/cnn-fredricka-whitfield-dallas-police-shooter-courageous-brave-210006543.html

Whitfield went on the air the other day and said Boulware was “brave and courageous.” He assaulted the PD in an armored van, opening fire on police officers.

The criticism erupted. Whitfield went back on the air a couple of days later and said she “misspoke” when she used those words to describe Boulware. The media called her statement an “apology.” It really wasn’t.

My understanding, though, is that when you misspeak, you insert incorrect verbiage into sentences intended to convey another message. What did she intend to say about Boulware? Was the word “brave” uttered instead of — as a friend of mine noted — the term “brazen”?

Now I’m trying to figure out a word that sounds sort of like “courageous.” I can’t come up with one.

She misspoke? No, that’s not what I’d call it.