ISSUES
Police Politics and Runaway Crime in Dallas
Reports out today say the City of Dallas is being sued because it is alleged the police department discriminated against 6 ethnically white and one ethnically hispanic police officer who say they were passed over for promotion by less qualified officers for the sake of Serbian-style racial quotas and because they did not speak Spanish…the language of Spain, the country that launched the terrifying armadas of death and destruction on the native populations of the Americas some of whom now seem to forget…but I digress.
---And one can certainly understand the City’s need to play demographic politics during this time that Dallas, for the sixth consecutive year has the highest crime rate of all major American cities. Something which is loathingly witnessed alongside an ever-rising rate of dissatisfaction among citizens with police response times and other metrics of law enforcement performance.
According to the Associated Press, on 7 July, “Sgt. Malik Aziz, president of the Texas Peace Officers Association, (who also is a Dallas police officer) said the complaints about transfers usually happen because supervisors fail to explain why an applicant was not chosen.”
However, he later contradicted himself in an interview on Fox News’ The Big Story on 7 July when he admitted that in fact race was a deciding factor in choosing the promotions of officers and not performance, which would indicate that the officers did indeed know the reason why they were not chosen…and decided to sue!
Aziz further steps in hot water by intimating that all white police officers are racist. As he says, "It's been common for white males on the department to allege racism or discriminatory practices given that they don't believe that any other black or Hispanic could be just as qualified or more qualified than them for a job…" Isn't such a leader as he supposed to be a unifier to all police officers. His job is to do just that and represent officers of all stripes in the state, yet he fails it seems to even be capable of doing this in one city. Sad.
Naturally, his words are a pretty hefty charge coming from the President of the Texas Peace Officers Association. So let’s take a look at it for a minute. Obviously it is ridiculous to call every white male in the department racist. Most folks of all colors would agree with that. Racism certainly is not the ideological demographic of the general white population. So are we to assume police departments look to hire only racist whites? Of course this base canard gets only more insane the further you follow it. Even on Redneck Street right in the middle of Hick-Town Alabama you might not be able to say it’s so.
But Mr. Aziz is alleging that most, if not all white males on a police force that numbers over 3,000 employees in a Metropolitan city made up of millions of people of different races who all grew up together, are. If he were right, that would be more white racists than the entire membership of any white hate group I know of. And do you think such rhetoric isn’t causing tensions both inside and outside the department? How much do you think it distracts from policing?
Of course to Aziz, anyone who is not like him is automatically labeled a racist for political expediency; and possibly de facto less qualified to boot. Perhaps Mr. Aziz should be looking in the mirror for any racist in that department. Mr. Aziz, I dare say you are the racist and your policies are the ones causing racial tensions in your department as well as across the city. Aziz has no interest in serving and protecting, he only wishes to stir the political pot so he can return to his comfortable life of ineffectual leisure, just as it has been in Dallas for several years now.
It is however telling as one steps back and begins to see a picture of a department full of infighting and prejudice, resentment and mediocrity…and possibly corruption.
And how does Mr. Aziz the Sneeze answer charges that he and the quota-police represent the real racism here (racism that in the end harms all colors and flavors of humanity)?
Later, Mr. Aziz tried to project his sentiments on to the citizens of Dallas whom he is not serving when he insisted that his and the department’s seemingly racist views and actions were simply there to allow communities to be reflected in the officers that represent them. Sort of like one big Bosnia, but with Barney (you can determine whether I mean Barney Fife or Barney the Dinosaur). Aww. As he told Fox’s The Big Story, he feels the people of Dallas only want a cop if he looks like them and talks like them, who needs cops that catch crooks.
Well of course you are wrong, Mr. Aziz, we want competent cops, something you wouldn’t know much about, Malik. A man should serve his community because he was chosen based on the content of his character, not the color of his skin.
So by Malik Aziz saying what he has, contradictions and all, he is assuming every community is as racist as he is, once again admitting the deep seething personal issues he seems to have. It is folks with that mindset that are clearly the cause of the problem with crime in Dallas today. Malik wants to fit in, to be cool. Well that is all nice and cute, but we want cops who don’t have a high school insecurity complex and need the acceptance of criminals who happen to have big stereos and rad cars. Instead it's time they take the miscreants off the streets.
Maybe somebody ought to remind our dear fellow of this. Perhaps Mr. Aziz should get some personal counseling and leave the policing to those who are ready to serve the Dallas community. I’ll even pay for his visits.
But he has at least one lone ally. The associated press also reports, “Leaders of the department's minority associations said the complaints are absurd, and that there were probably other reasons why the officers were not selected.
"’As the face of the department continues to change, minority officers will continue to be attacked in some sort or fashion,’ said Senior Cpl. George Aranda, Latino Peace Officers Association president.”
On the “face” of that statement, it sounds like it could bear truth, after all, people are people and there will likely always be at least that one moron who can’t stand different hues of humanity. However again, we should remember that one of the officers suing is hispanic.
It should be further noted that this ultimately may not be about race at all, but about those who want to work hard versus those who have an established status quo, whatever that may include, and resent having to think about moving somewhere off the bottom of the barrel when it comes to crime protection. I just hope Boy-George Aranda doesn’t read the Miranda…er, the periodicals over a latté, as the case more aptly seems to be, in my district.
Slackers beware and be warned, the people of Dallas have had enough of your excuses and hiding behind politics to preserve your little doughnut fiefdoms. We are after all, one city, the great City of Dallas and it’s time to get off the collective butt and nipple, unite and take some pride in that fact. If you want to sit in Starbuck’s all day, fine: do it on a welfare check.
The report however did say that the new police chief David Kunkle “is reviewing the department's transfer policy” and promises changes if warranted. David Kunke prior to this job was the City of Arlington, Texas’ Deputy City Manager for Citizen Services from October of 2002. If Chief Kunkle (gotta love that name) is the man for the job, what a job he has in store for him. Because this issue is but the tip of an iceberg that’s symptom has become the life and death matter of very poor performance in fighting crime for the department.
In a recent Dallas “police efficiency study” meeting I attended which included representatives of the Dallas Police Department, as well as City Councilwoman Lois G. Finkelman, community frustration was more than evident.
People from several parts of the area all had for the most part the same story: Emergency response times are often over half an hour, while non-emergency call response times were difficult to quantify because officers rarely if ever would show up at all.
At the same time, a short trip to the Starbuck’s in my area (in a fairly high-fashion part of town) regularly reveals a virtual constant infestation of police officers, appearing as extras in some movie shoot waiting their turn.
Some of them sit back and socialize, sometimes for over an hour in groups of two or three or more.
Sure they could be on their lunch breaks, but that must mean this area has a lot of cops congregating in the same area which happens by coincidence to be a swank and relatively safe area (because of the community, not because of their presence), where all the good coffee and the pretty girls are.
And those reports in our “Efficiency Study” meeting of police actually responding to non-emergency calls?
When they get there in time to do any good those reports often bear stories of the officers not even bothering to get out of their cars, telling offenders to move on, and then quickly driving off in their cruisers. Back to Starbuck’s?
Witnesses say that 10 times out of 10, the offenders just wait for the cop to leave and then return to whatever behavior got the call to begin with, without having to even bother so much as feigning an attempt to leave the area.
Of course, this leaves the horrified citizen who placed the call and begins to suspect foul play in a position in which he or she must deal with a wiser (and more cocky) crook and the chore of calling the police again to tell them the offender has not left or ceased whatever he was doing, at which point the operator dutifully promises again that an officer will be out there shortly and, as expected, that officer may or may not come and if he gets there at all, may or may not do anything about the problem.
And the criminal learns it’s a joke. So he becomes more dangerous.
Other problems admitted to by the department and brought up by one officer who works for a department in a Dallas suburb are summed up in one phrase: bureaucratic red tape.
Many text communications must be conducted not by e-mail or fax, but by snail mail. To send snail mail from inside the department the letter must first be sent unsealed to a clearing department which inspects the contents to verify if it qualifies as business mail. If it qualifies, it then is stamped (only this department has the stamps) sealed and sent.
In theory of course this is to save the taxpayer money by curbing abuse. But I wonder how much this archain setup costs the taxpayer every year in dollars and cents as well as Police productivity.
But then there is the matter with regard to the fact that Dallas is the only major city (according to one officer at that meeting) that does not employ PSO’s or Police Service Officers.
These are non-commissioned officers whose main joy in life is writing parking tickets and investigating after-the-fact crime calls, collecting statements and the like. This would free up untold numbers of commissioned officers to—if the weather is right, do their jobs.
That would be just another arrangement that could boost police productivity and may even score on the bottom line if they stepped up parking enforcement. And such combined productivity is key. After all, investigations must be waged, cops have their beats and doughnuts wait to be ravaged.
While we certainly hope our new police chief brings back the word “police” to the Dallas Puleeeze Department, he to be certain will have to earn our trust. “Efficiency Studies” and the like are all well and good as a beginning, but substantively responding to those results and producing results will be what matters at the end of the day. Responding period, as we have learned, will be an improvement at the end of the day. In Dallas we hate losers. We don’t put up with it when the Cowboys, Stars or Rangers fail, and we really don’t tolerate it when our lives and livelihoods (really, the same thing) are at stake.
Why is crime in Dallas worse than anywhere else in the nation…even Detroit, LA, New York and Philadelphia? Only because our police force is endlessly striving for excellence, to beat out all competition and rise to the pinnacle…of mediocrity. This, while the rest of us begin to wonder exactly who’s on the take and who’s really being taken to the cleaners.
-Blogbat
Related AP article: White and Hispanic Police Officers Claim Discrimination
Blogbat has worked extensively with law enforcement during his time with a private mounted patrol security outfit while he was in college. Both Blogbat and his horses were trained by the same people and techniques and conditions as the Dallas Mounted Police. Blogbat has enjoyed being active in his community in many projects and activities since well before his high school years.
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