December 19, 2009
Each morning, hours before dawn, I am on the internet scanning news stories from dozens of media sources, looking for stories to post on The Police News. As I do, I often read several accounts of the same incident in different newspapers and on different TV stations.
I am always amazed at how different the same story appears in the various media sources.
This morning I read a report in a daily newspaper about a robbery suspect that was chased by police, abandoned his vehicle and ran into a wooded area where he was finally flushed out by police dogs. The newspaper headlined it's story, "Suspect hides in mud to try to elude police." Didn't happen. He covered himself with some leaves.
The newspaper story went on to say, "search dogs found him covered with mud." It's true he was dirty, but he was not covered with mud. We have pictures of the arrest. There was no mud.
Of course the story clarifies that at the end of the sentence by tagging it with, "authorities said." Oh really! What authorities? Must have been an authority that wasn't there as our photographer was.
The story is perpetuated when a TV station picks up the story from the newspaper and repeats it word for word. Spreading the news is the name of the game, but shouldn't they spread it right?
Now, whether or not this crook had mud all over him or not is no big deal. Who really cares? My point is this. What else do they report wrong? What else do they exaggerate? It was actually a good story without the mud.
Can we really trust the mainstream media to report only the facts to us nowadays, without all the color and hoopla? Probably not. Today's news reporting is all about drama and hype in a competive business where they all compete for the same advertising dollar and reporters are competing for jobs.
Could this be part of the reason we are seeing large, old line, print newspapers dwindling and fading away in preference to online news?
My grandfather always said he took things with "a grain of salt." He beleived only a morsel of what he read and heard.
My grandfather was a smart man.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Crooks beware, Sugar Land cops are watching
December 17, 2009
Sugar Land police have a great idea. Experiencing a rash of vehicle burglaries brought on by the holiday shopping season, the SLPD has formed a special impact team made up of officers who will focus exclusively on vehicle burglaries and shopper safety.
As the holiday season progresses, traditionally crime increases. The recent arrests of two men from El Campo caught breaking into cars has put a damper on criminal activity in Sugar Land. Both men were charged with several auto break-ins inside and outside the city limits.
Officers on the impact team have department-wide resources available, including plain clothes investigators, crime prevention officers and citizen volunteers.
The task force is saturating areas identified as "hot spots" with newly created impact teams. Special stings and surveillance operations are also being conducted.
In addition to enforcement, the impact teams work closely with citizens and owners of retail areas, especially shopping centers and fitness clubs.
The Police News thinks the Sugar Land Police have the right idea. They have recognized a traditional problem that arises every year during the holiday shopping season. Rather than just waiting for calls to come in from victims, they are out there, poised to grab those crooks who are sure to appear. And when they do, they're busted.
That's what we call 'police work'.
The following tips can help prevent vehicle burglaries:
• Police suggest shoppers remember the basic, common sense, precautions during their shopping trips.
• Remember to always keep vehicles locked. When parked overnight, remove all valuables from vehicles. When shopping, make one trip to the car with purchased merchandise, and then leave the lot. Thieves have been known to watch shoppers as they place merchandise in their cars before returning to a store.
• Never leave identification, wallets, credit cards or jewelry in vehicles while visiting fitness centers. Doing so is much riskier than using a locker inside the gym or leaving the items at home.
• If personal property must be left in a car, lock it in the trunk. Unfortunately, this option does not exist for pick-up trucks or SUVs. Thieves are aware that there is no secure place to store items in these types of vehicles.
• Finally, before you leave a vehicle, take a second to look inside and make sure nothing is visible from the outside that could attract a thief.
Breck Porter
The Police News
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Galveston Politics STINK!
Most of us who live on Galveston Island, know by now that city politics has hit a new low and there seems to be no end in sight.
The city council is now occupied by at least three new members who pretend to be acting in the best interest of their constiuents, but who we are convinced, just love to watch themselves on Channel 16 re-runs of the meeting.
Council meetings drag on for hours and hours as these three entertain each other, one even laughing out loud at her own remarks, that is, when she is awake.
Next to her sits a black activists who had a short career as a city fireman, then sued the city when they fired him. A lot valuable TV time is focused on him trying desperately to form sentences that are intelligent enough for others to understand. He's the only one on council, who when he finally decides to shut-up, says, "I pass mayor."
At the other end of the council table sits two lady lawyers. One speaks from time to time when she can get a word in edgewide. The other hardly ever shuts up. During her campaign for election she gained the endorsement of the city's only daily newspaper. In that endorsement the paper commented this lady lawyer was sure to raise some points that otherwise would not be raised. That was an under statement. The lady lawyer loves to hear herself talk when others are bored to death and are praying she shut-up.
A sure sign that politics really does stink in Galveston, is when one of the leading political journalists in the city decides to pack up and move to Houston.
Disgusted with the whole damn mess, Jim Guidry, publisher of Guidry News, announced this week that he and wife Lynda, who have been covering city government in Galveston for 25 years, will return to a city of some semblance of sanity. They will leave a reporter behind to endure the misery of city politics in Galveston.
Actually, this is probably not a surprise to many who know Galveston. This so-called tropical resort, with a historical past of gangsters, cronyism, gambling and corrupt government, has long found it difficult to break free of these old habits.
Galveston has forever operated with an undermanned and poorly equipped police department. The department is more of a training ground for new cops who move on to careers elsewhere within a couple years, leaving the city spending more and more money rehiring and retraining new cops rather than provide them pay and benefits which would keep them on the island.
Even at that, the local newspaper brands them rich cops and blames many of the city's financial woes on the expense of providing police service to the citizens of Galveston. The publisher who makes these complaints, feels so safe in his own home, he has erected an 8' high, solid wall around his own home.
The story about the current state of Galveston politics cannot be told better than by Jim Guidry in his Comments on Galveston Municipal Government, published on March 16, 2009.
It's a damn shame when politics is so rotten, that a good and decent, professional journalists, decides to move 60 miles away to get away from the stink.
The city council is now occupied by at least three new members who pretend to be acting in the best interest of their constiuents, but who we are convinced, just love to watch themselves on Channel 16 re-runs of the meeting.
Council meetings drag on for hours and hours as these three entertain each other, one even laughing out loud at her own remarks, that is, when she is awake.
Next to her sits a black activists who had a short career as a city fireman, then sued the city when they fired him. A lot valuable TV time is focused on him trying desperately to form sentences that are intelligent enough for others to understand. He's the only one on council, who when he finally decides to shut-up, says, "I pass mayor."
At the other end of the council table sits two lady lawyers. One speaks from time to time when she can get a word in edgewide. The other hardly ever shuts up. During her campaign for election she gained the endorsement of the city's only daily newspaper. In that endorsement the paper commented this lady lawyer was sure to raise some points that otherwise would not be raised. That was an under statement. The lady lawyer loves to hear herself talk when others are bored to death and are praying she shut-up.
A sure sign that politics really does stink in Galveston, is when one of the leading political journalists in the city decides to pack up and move to Houston.
Disgusted with the whole damn mess, Jim Guidry, publisher of Guidry News, announced this week that he and wife Lynda, who have been covering city government in Galveston for 25 years, will return to a city of some semblance of sanity. They will leave a reporter behind to endure the misery of city politics in Galveston.
Actually, this is probably not a surprise to many who know Galveston. This so-called tropical resort, with a historical past of gangsters, cronyism, gambling and corrupt government, has long found it difficult to break free of these old habits.
Galveston has forever operated with an undermanned and poorly equipped police department. The department is more of a training ground for new cops who move on to careers elsewhere within a couple years, leaving the city spending more and more money rehiring and retraining new cops rather than provide them pay and benefits which would keep them on the island.
Even at that, the local newspaper brands them rich cops and blames many of the city's financial woes on the expense of providing police service to the citizens of Galveston. The publisher who makes these complaints, feels so safe in his own home, he has erected an 8' high, solid wall around his own home.
The story about the current state of Galveston politics cannot be told better than by Jim Guidry in his Comments on Galveston Municipal Government, published on March 16, 2009.
It's a damn shame when politics is so rotten, that a good and decent, professional journalists, decides to move 60 miles away to get away from the stink.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Will There Be A Police Review Board For Those Who Shot Cop Killer?
A good man in Corpus Christi was run down and killed Wednesday by an asshole with a long criminal record who had already attacked one cop and was being chased by several others.
Lt. Stuart Alexander was only 47-years old, about the same age as my oldest daughter. He had been a Corpus Christi police officer for 20-years and was highly respected by everyone in the department. He was a "cops cop" said another officer in his department. That's a term of endearment in the police business.
As a Lieutenant and field supervisor, Alexander didn't have a partner riding with him. He was alone when he set up at a spot on a freeway to set out a spike strip in an effort to blow the tires on the car heading in his direction, being driven by 21-year old Daniel Lee Lopez. A pack of police cars hot on his tail.
Lopez, a local turd, known by the cops as a street thug, saw Stuart on the side of the road ahead of him and swerved to hit him, and he did.
Hearing about this good man's death makes my blood boil when I think of all the police antagonists we have been reading about lately. It makes be cringe when I see these people on city councils and in positions of public leadership, who make it their mission to micro-manage the police departments in their communities.
It make be want to puke when I watch some Galveston city council persons spend hours grilling the police chief over bullshit they know absolutely nothing about. I get sick to my stomach to watch an idiot on TV who mumbles and bumbles and repeats himself over and over, in and effort to make a sentence that others can understand. My gosh, who in hell elected this fool? And to think that Stuart Alexander laid down his life in Corpus Christi to protect people like this.
And it's not just in Galveston. These same self-annointed prima donnas (a vain or undisciplined person who finds it difficult to work under direction or as part of a team) are dealing misery to police officers in Bayou Vista. In Santa Fe they have a mayor who wanted to do away with the entire police department and turn their duties over to the Sheriff who told him right off he didn't want the job and didn't have the manpower to do it.
In Houston they have Quanell X who is mostly a TV performer who defends black criminals against the police department, doesn't have a real job, and wears high dollar suits and ties, drives a fancy car, lives in an upscale home and probably drinks something better than Bull Dog Malt Liquor. Where in the hell does he get his money and why don't he raise hell when a black cop kicks someone's ass?
These are the kinds of people that Stuart Alexander died protecting. These are the kind of people that any officer, from Galveston, Bayou Vista, Santa Fe, or anywhere else, would go to any early grave trying to protect.
Do you think that for one minute any of these so-called political or community leaders give a shit? Hell no! They never even think about it.
These kind of people don't care that Galveston cops gave up part of their monthtly pay to help the city recover from a devastaing storm. All they care about is having a civilian review board so they can hamstring the police department.
Have we ever heard of a review board for the public works department. Where do we complain about the city worker who leans on his shovel all day long while talking on his cell phone and drinking a Diet Pepsi? What about the bus driver we see driving a big city bus down the street while eating a hamburger and playing his I-Pod? Is there a review board for these people? Hell no!
I have found over the years that people of this ilk have usually had an experience with the police in which they didn't fare well. Maybe just a traffic ticket, may their delinquest kid was arrested, maybe someone stole something out of their unlocked car and the police didn't get it back and arrest the thief. They were busy trying to solve a double-murder somewhere.
People, wake up! How many cop funerals must you watch on TV before you realize that some people who sit in responsible positions, on city councils and commissioner courts, are idiots and are there to carry out their own personal agendas. They are supposed to be there to see that the people in their districts or precincts get the services they are entitled to. They are not elected to manage anything, especially the police or fire departments. Most of them have never even ridden in a police car, unless it was in the back seat.
The next time you hear about one of our police officers being shot down, run down or beat down, by some worthless piece of human fecal matter, just remember those who want him reviewed by a civilian review board.
If Stuart Alexander's wife and kids sues Daniel Lopez for the loss of their husband and father, what in the hell are they going to get? Not a damn thing. But if Alexander had killed that worthless scum, you can bet his criminal family would have sued the hell out of the city of Corpus Christi, the police department and Alexander himself. And you can also bet that he would have gotten a money settlement from one of them.
That's the way I see it, and if you see it different, I don't give a damn.
Breck Porter
Lt. Stuart Alexander was only 47-years old, about the same age as my oldest daughter. He had been a Corpus Christi police officer for 20-years and was highly respected by everyone in the department. He was a "cops cop" said another officer in his department. That's a term of endearment in the police business.
As a Lieutenant and field supervisor, Alexander didn't have a partner riding with him. He was alone when he set up at a spot on a freeway to set out a spike strip in an effort to blow the tires on the car heading in his direction, being driven by 21-year old Daniel Lee Lopez. A pack of police cars hot on his tail.
Lopez, a local turd, known by the cops as a street thug, saw Stuart on the side of the road ahead of him and swerved to hit him, and he did.
Hearing about this good man's death makes my blood boil when I think of all the police antagonists we have been reading about lately. It makes be cringe when I see these people on city councils and in positions of public leadership, who make it their mission to micro-manage the police departments in their communities.
It make be want to puke when I watch some Galveston city council persons spend hours grilling the police chief over bullshit they know absolutely nothing about. I get sick to my stomach to watch an idiot on TV who mumbles and bumbles and repeats himself over and over, in and effort to make a sentence that others can understand. My gosh, who in hell elected this fool? And to think that Stuart Alexander laid down his life in Corpus Christi to protect people like this.
And it's not just in Galveston. These same self-annointed prima donnas (a vain or undisciplined person who finds it difficult to work under direction or as part of a team) are dealing misery to police officers in Bayou Vista. In Santa Fe they have a mayor who wanted to do away with the entire police department and turn their duties over to the Sheriff who told him right off he didn't want the job and didn't have the manpower to do it.
In Houston they have Quanell X who is mostly a TV performer who defends black criminals against the police department, doesn't have a real job, and wears high dollar suits and ties, drives a fancy car, lives in an upscale home and probably drinks something better than Bull Dog Malt Liquor. Where in the hell does he get his money and why don't he raise hell when a black cop kicks someone's ass?
These are the kinds of people that Stuart Alexander died protecting. These are the kind of people that any officer, from Galveston, Bayou Vista, Santa Fe, or anywhere else, would go to any early grave trying to protect.
Do you think that for one minute any of these so-called political or community leaders give a shit? Hell no! They never even think about it.
These kind of people don't care that Galveston cops gave up part of their monthtly pay to help the city recover from a devastaing storm. All they care about is having a civilian review board so they can hamstring the police department.
Have we ever heard of a review board for the public works department. Where do we complain about the city worker who leans on his shovel all day long while talking on his cell phone and drinking a Diet Pepsi? What about the bus driver we see driving a big city bus down the street while eating a hamburger and playing his I-Pod? Is there a review board for these people? Hell no!
I have found over the years that people of this ilk have usually had an experience with the police in which they didn't fare well. Maybe just a traffic ticket, may their delinquest kid was arrested, maybe someone stole something out of their unlocked car and the police didn't get it back and arrest the thief. They were busy trying to solve a double-murder somewhere.
People, wake up! How many cop funerals must you watch on TV before you realize that some people who sit in responsible positions, on city councils and commissioner courts, are idiots and are there to carry out their own personal agendas. They are supposed to be there to see that the people in their districts or precincts get the services they are entitled to. They are not elected to manage anything, especially the police or fire departments. Most of them have never even ridden in a police car, unless it was in the back seat.
The next time you hear about one of our police officers being shot down, run down or beat down, by some worthless piece of human fecal matter, just remember those who want him reviewed by a civilian review board.
If Stuart Alexander's wife and kids sues Daniel Lopez for the loss of their husband and father, what in the hell are they going to get? Not a damn thing. But if Alexander had killed that worthless scum, you can bet his criminal family would have sued the hell out of the city of Corpus Christi, the police department and Alexander himself. And you can also bet that he would have gotten a money settlement from one of them.
That's the way I see it, and if you see it different, I don't give a damn.
Breck Porter
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Cops Hot On The Trail of Galveston Killer
There is a police investigation going on in Galveston, Texas that is unlike any we have seen in recent memory by the city police department. We all remember the Baby Grace investigation which was about an 8 on the Ricter Scale, but that was the Sheriff's Office case and they wrapped that one up in fairly short order, considering.
The current case involves the violent attack of a woman back in January in which the victim was savagely beaten, partially disrobed, and left for dead. She survived, but when she got out of the hospital she took off and she's either been hiding ever since or she is just one of those people who don't know what's going on in the world outside. Knowing her background, she probably fits that category.
One officer involved in the investigation says she is either hiding from the police or is afraid that if she shows her face, the bad guy will come for her again. Either way, police are desperately trying to find her because she may hold the key they need to solve two murders. They are convinced that whoever beat her up, also assaulted and killed two other women within a month of her assault.
Charles Wiley, the police chief, a usually soft spoken, easy going, laid back type of guy, has all hands on deck for this case, assigning 10 of his detectives to the investigation, full-time. That is a large percentage of his entire detective squad in a department that is already 20 officers undermanned. Not only that, he asked for and got, help from several neighboring agencies. It's always good to get the whole police community involved in these type cases. So often we have seen an investigating agency try to keep everything in their own little corner of the world so they get all the glory when the case comes to a successful end. Yes, cops, even police chiefs have egos, but they are all pushed aside in this case.
Earlier this week detectives arrested a man in a sexual assault case that bore some similarties to these latest cases, in that the victim was brutally beaten and left for dead. Police connected him to a 2006 case through his DNA which was taken while he was a prison inmate. They have rushed his DNA to Austin to see if they get a match on these latest victims.
Police are quick to say however, that they aren't betting their whole pot on the guy and they have several other suspects that "look pretty good." We know they have probably pulled in every registered sex offender in the area and are no doubt getting DNA samples from the one's they don't already have, and no doubt they are pin-pointing where they were at the time of the assaults and murders. It's a big job. Galveston, at our last count about 2-years ago had over 150 registered sex offenders living on the island. With the influx of the riff raff that washed ashore with Hurricane Ike, who knows how many more there are.
Wiley, a great proponent of community based policing, has all his beat cops asking questions in the neighorhoods. This is where community policing can really pay off, in these kinds of investigations.
Often these cases are smeared all over the front pages and the TV news for a day or two, then they sort of just fade away when reporters aren't getting anything new from police, but that doesn't mean the investigation has slowed. Believe me, there are a lot of cops busting their butts 24/7 on this one, and if I were a betting man, my money would be on an arrest in the not too distant future.
Watch for it. The police know a hell of lot more than they're telling us, you can bet on that.
Breck Porter
editor@thepolicenews.net
The current case involves the violent attack of a woman back in January in which the victim was savagely beaten, partially disrobed, and left for dead. She survived, but when she got out of the hospital she took off and she's either been hiding ever since or she is just one of those people who don't know what's going on in the world outside. Knowing her background, she probably fits that category.
One officer involved in the investigation says she is either hiding from the police or is afraid that if she shows her face, the bad guy will come for her again. Either way, police are desperately trying to find her because she may hold the key they need to solve two murders. They are convinced that whoever beat her up, also assaulted and killed two other women within a month of her assault.
Charles Wiley, the police chief, a usually soft spoken, easy going, laid back type of guy, has all hands on deck for this case, assigning 10 of his detectives to the investigation, full-time. That is a large percentage of his entire detective squad in a department that is already 20 officers undermanned. Not only that, he asked for and got, help from several neighboring agencies. It's always good to get the whole police community involved in these type cases. So often we have seen an investigating agency try to keep everything in their own little corner of the world so they get all the glory when the case comes to a successful end. Yes, cops, even police chiefs have egos, but they are all pushed aside in this case.
Earlier this week detectives arrested a man in a sexual assault case that bore some similarties to these latest cases, in that the victim was brutally beaten and left for dead. Police connected him to a 2006 case through his DNA which was taken while he was a prison inmate. They have rushed his DNA to Austin to see if they get a match on these latest victims.
Police are quick to say however, that they aren't betting their whole pot on the guy and they have several other suspects that "look pretty good." We know they have probably pulled in every registered sex offender in the area and are no doubt getting DNA samples from the one's they don't already have, and no doubt they are pin-pointing where they were at the time of the assaults and murders. It's a big job. Galveston, at our last count about 2-years ago had over 150 registered sex offenders living on the island. With the influx of the riff raff that washed ashore with Hurricane Ike, who knows how many more there are.
Wiley, a great proponent of community based policing, has all his beat cops asking questions in the neighorhoods. This is where community policing can really pay off, in these kinds of investigations.
Often these cases are smeared all over the front pages and the TV news for a day or two, then they sort of just fade away when reporters aren't getting anything new from police, but that doesn't mean the investigation has slowed. Believe me, there are a lot of cops busting their butts 24/7 on this one, and if I were a betting man, my money would be on an arrest in the not too distant future.
Watch for it. The police know a hell of lot more than they're telling us, you can bet on that.
Breck Porter
editor@thepolicenews.net
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Does Galveston Need It's Own Quannel X?
Charles Wiley has been back in his hometown of Galveston just barely eight months. If you don't know who Charles Wiley is, he's the new police chief in town. Already he has faced a bigger challenge than any police chief since the 1900 Hurricane that almost wiped Galveston off the map.
Not only did Wiley lead Galveston's police force successfully through the storm of the century, saving lives and losing not a single officer, his own home was nearly destroyed. In fact, he has just completed moving back into it.
Welcome back to Galveston Chief! Thank you for your leadership and skills in the most horrific event in 108 years. Now, we're going to tar and feather you and run you out of town.
That's what is happening to Charles Wiley at the hands of one of Galveston's well known, longtime trouble makers and Quannel X wanna-be, Tarris Woods, elected to the city council last year by the city's predominently black district.
It seems no one, including the media which prides itself in digging up dirt on politicians and candidates, took time to dig into Mr. Woods. No one asked, or reported on, why Woods, a one-time city firefighter, left that job several years ago. No one apparently asked Woods, who claims to have been a police officer at one time somewhere, exactly where and when he was a cop. No one apparently looked into court records in which Mr. Woods is recorded making remarks like, "I can't work with white people."
This is the guy who is now attacking the city's new police chief, who, by the way, is probably the most qualified, professional, police chief appointed to the position in decades. And, he is certainly what many have demanded for years, a chief from outside the Galveston Police Department. Residents have demanded for years that the city sweep out the politics and coy games going on in the department. So they did.
From 48 applicants throughout the United States, City Manager Steve LeBlanc selected Charles Wiley and the city council affirmed his appointment. It was a good fit for Wiley and a good fit for the city. Wiley wanted to return to his hometown and the city needed a professional lawman with wide ranging experience, someone who had actually seen what policing is like north of the causeway, someone not tied to the same old ways of doing business. Galveston is known everywhere for keeping everything tight knit, close to the chest, shut off to outsiders. Keeping it in the family has been the Galveston way since the island was controlled by gambling bosses and mob rule.
Back to Woods. His latest disturbance is to call a closed meeting of city council to discuss the job performance of Charles Wiley. It's hard to imagine that Woods is capable of evaulating anyone, or anything, after watching and listening to him bumble and babble and stutter during council meetings, trying to form a complete sentence that anyone can understand.
In a recent council meeting, he tried to express his interpretation of exactly what the police department's Internal Affairs Division is and how it's connected to the Office of Professional Standards. Wiley tried to explain that Internal Affairs is just one part of the OPS, that the OPS performs many functions. Woods kept repeating that's not the way it was, "when I wore the blue," suggesting he was once a police officer. If he was, no one has been able to confirm it. Was he referring to his blue fireman's uniform without explaining it?
Well, Mr. Woods will find out today that his attempt to get behind closed doors to launch his attack on the police chief isn't going to work. Woods has now started a fight with a man who is not going to lay down and roll over for his grand standing and public ignorance. Wiley is coming to the meeting with a lawyer and demand that Woods attempted lynching be held in an open meeting for all the world to see. That's the way it's going to be too, because that's the law. If Wiley wants it to be open, then open it will be.
Babble, babble, mumble, mumble, stutter, stutter. Your move Tarris!
Not only did Wiley lead Galveston's police force successfully through the storm of the century, saving lives and losing not a single officer, his own home was nearly destroyed. In fact, he has just completed moving back into it.
Welcome back to Galveston Chief! Thank you for your leadership and skills in the most horrific event in 108 years. Now, we're going to tar and feather you and run you out of town.
That's what is happening to Charles Wiley at the hands of one of Galveston's well known, longtime trouble makers and Quannel X wanna-be, Tarris Woods, elected to the city council last year by the city's predominently black district.
It seems no one, including the media which prides itself in digging up dirt on politicians and candidates, took time to dig into Mr. Woods. No one asked, or reported on, why Woods, a one-time city firefighter, left that job several years ago. No one apparently asked Woods, who claims to have been a police officer at one time somewhere, exactly where and when he was a cop. No one apparently looked into court records in which Mr. Woods is recorded making remarks like, "I can't work with white people."
This is the guy who is now attacking the city's new police chief, who, by the way, is probably the most qualified, professional, police chief appointed to the position in decades. And, he is certainly what many have demanded for years, a chief from outside the Galveston Police Department. Residents have demanded for years that the city sweep out the politics and coy games going on in the department. So they did.
From 48 applicants throughout the United States, City Manager Steve LeBlanc selected Charles Wiley and the city council affirmed his appointment. It was a good fit for Wiley and a good fit for the city. Wiley wanted to return to his hometown and the city needed a professional lawman with wide ranging experience, someone who had actually seen what policing is like north of the causeway, someone not tied to the same old ways of doing business. Galveston is known everywhere for keeping everything tight knit, close to the chest, shut off to outsiders. Keeping it in the family has been the Galveston way since the island was controlled by gambling bosses and mob rule.
Back to Woods. His latest disturbance is to call a closed meeting of city council to discuss the job performance of Charles Wiley. It's hard to imagine that Woods is capable of evaulating anyone, or anything, after watching and listening to him bumble and babble and stutter during council meetings, trying to form a complete sentence that anyone can understand.
In a recent council meeting, he tried to express his interpretation of exactly what the police department's Internal Affairs Division is and how it's connected to the Office of Professional Standards. Wiley tried to explain that Internal Affairs is just one part of the OPS, that the OPS performs many functions. Woods kept repeating that's not the way it was, "when I wore the blue," suggesting he was once a police officer. If he was, no one has been able to confirm it. Was he referring to his blue fireman's uniform without explaining it?
Well, Mr. Woods will find out today that his attempt to get behind closed doors to launch his attack on the police chief isn't going to work. Woods has now started a fight with a man who is not going to lay down and roll over for his grand standing and public ignorance. Wiley is coming to the meeting with a lawyer and demand that Woods attempted lynching be held in an open meeting for all the world to see. That's the way it's going to be too, because that's the law. If Wiley wants it to be open, then open it will be.
Babble, babble, mumble, mumble, stutter, stutter. Your move Tarris!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
What Is It With TV News?
Have you noticed how TV news likes to promote itself? How TV news anchors like to boast about the other TV anchors on the same station? What's with that anyway?
TV anchor Joe talks about all the great attributes of TV anchor Jane. Then TV anchor Jane, in a different spot, tells what a great guy TV anchor Joe is.
He's really involved in his community, she says about him. She really digs deep to find all the facts about a story, he says about her.
Why are they telling us this? If we didn't like what we were seeing, we wouldn't be watching. Can't we decide who we like and don't like without them helping us figure it out? Apparently they think we need convincing. They must suffer from lack of confidence if they feel it necessary to tell us over and over how wonderful and devoted they and their colleagues are.
Come on, just read the news. I'll decide if I like you or not.
And what about the way they promote their newscasts.
We do it best on Channel X.
Channel X, first on the scene, first with the news, first with the weather, first with this and that. You saw it first on X.
Apparently I already like Channel X. I'm watching it, aren't I? If I weren't watching it, I wouldn't be seeing all these promotion spots, so it wouldn't matter.
What Channel X should do, if it wants to convince non-Channel X viewers to watch Channel X, is to run commercials on Channels Y and Z. And Channels Y and Z could so the same on Channel X.
Just give me the news at five and six. I don't care what you guys think of each other, and I doubt others do either. I don't care where you buy your clothes, get your hair done, or what kind of deodorant you use.
Just read the news! That's all we want.
That's the way I see it. How about you?
Breck
TV anchor Joe talks about all the great attributes of TV anchor Jane. Then TV anchor Jane, in a different spot, tells what a great guy TV anchor Joe is.
He's really involved in his community, she says about him. She really digs deep to find all the facts about a story, he says about her.
Why are they telling us this? If we didn't like what we were seeing, we wouldn't be watching. Can't we decide who we like and don't like without them helping us figure it out? Apparently they think we need convincing. They must suffer from lack of confidence if they feel it necessary to tell us over and over how wonderful and devoted they and their colleagues are.
Come on, just read the news. I'll decide if I like you or not.
And what about the way they promote their newscasts.
We do it best on Channel X.
Channel X, first on the scene, first with the news, first with the weather, first with this and that. You saw it first on X.
Apparently I already like Channel X. I'm watching it, aren't I? If I weren't watching it, I wouldn't be seeing all these promotion spots, so it wouldn't matter.
What Channel X should do, if it wants to convince non-Channel X viewers to watch Channel X, is to run commercials on Channels Y and Z. And Channels Y and Z could so the same on Channel X.
Just give me the news at five and six. I don't care what you guys think of each other, and I doubt others do either. I don't care where you buy your clothes, get your hair done, or what kind of deodorant you use.
Just read the news! That's all we want.
That's the way I see it. How about you?
Breck
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Come To Galveston Island, But B.Y.O.C.
I recently had a flashback to the billboard we all saw a couple of summers back, of Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas astride a Harley Davidson Motorcycle, all decked out in a bandana, black leather jacket, motorcycle boots, the whole nine yards. The billboard, at the causeway, faced incoming traffic and beckoned the 200,000 or so expected bikers to the Lone Star Motorcycle Rally. And they came.
Of course, part of the Mayor's job is to stimulate the local economy. It's the job of all city officials and park board officials and convention and tourist bureau people, and they will go to any limit to keep a steady flow of tourist dollars coming over to the south side of the big bridge. Their hopes and their missions are to coax the mulitudes to the island, leaving a good share of their assets and personal fortunes when they finally depart back to their homes on the north side of the big bridge. And this happens in more ways than one.
To be successful at enticing people to Galveston, these same officials must be very careful not mention some of the not-so-fun things these visitors may experience while enjoying the sun and fun on this exotic island.
We mustn't let them know that the crime rate on the island is at an all time high. They leave it to the media to sniff out these details. And we mustn't let them know that the number of policemen are at an all time low, less than three cops for every 1,000 residents. That's residents, people who actually live on the island. In the summer, when the beaches are full and the strand is busy, and the cars are bumper-to-bumper on the causeway, the ratio of cops to citizen is even further fractionalized.
About 45,000 of Galveston's pre-hurricane Ike residents still live here, down by 15,000, according to somebody in the press. We have about 153 cops on the island, so that means there are about two point something police for every one thousand islanders. Jamaica Beach has more than that. So does every other city in the county at last count, but those cities aren't trying to funnel hundreds of thousands of tourists into their cities.
It was recently announced that home and business burglaries have soared in Galveston. One would expect that the last thing a city would want to do when crime is soaring is to get rid of some of it's cops. Not so in Galveston. In Galveston, as crime increases, cops get hit with pay cuts and there is a great likelyhood that in April, some of them will be sent packing, in search of jobs elsewhere. What a welcome invitation to burglars, thieves and others in the crime business. I said, "crime business" not "anti-Crime business." Surely they will be delighted to see the steady flow of blue going north as they convoy into town with their burglar tools, guns, knives, hotwires, and whatever devices they use to pillage and plunder a defenseless island.
I picture a new billboard on the causeway of Lyda Ann on her motorcycle, all decked out in leather, waving people onto the island, with the caption, "Welcome to Galveston Island. B.Y.O.C.", Bring Your Own Cop.
The thing that city officials want us all to know is, they are running out of money. Hurricane Ike washed away the city treasury and even though the feds are sending money to stimulate the economy and save jobs, the jobs being saved are not cop jobs or firefighter jobs or jobs of many other city employees. Apparently, even though the President has announced these federal funds are specifically to prevent the layoff of cops and firefighters and other first responders, that does not apply in Galveston. Galveston instead will fix potholes, and make the beaches beautiful for all those tourist dollars they hope will return.
Oh, what summer fun the crooks will have. They will be back on the Seawall, watching and waiting as visitors leave their cars unattened and lay out on the beach for hours, or visit restaurants and shops, pouring money in the Galveston economy. They probably won't discover until a day or two later, when they are back home in Houston or Pasadena or Baytown or Louisiana, that the contents of their gloveboxes or center consoles are empty. Whatever valuables were left in their cars have been transferred to pawn shops and fences on the mainland or somewhere.
And the people who live in Galveston, dare not venture from their homes or businesses for very long periods of time for surely the burglars will come visiting, departing with their treasured belongings.
Where are the cops when all this is happening? Well, the cop assigned to that beat was probably busy with one of the other 333 people assigned to him. Actually, more like 999 since it's summertime and the population has tripled.
The invitation is open. Come to Galveston Island, where we are getting rid of cops as fast as we can, so we will have money to entertain you and your pocketbook, but you should B.Y.O.C.
Of course, part of the Mayor's job is to stimulate the local economy. It's the job of all city officials and park board officials and convention and tourist bureau people, and they will go to any limit to keep a steady flow of tourist dollars coming over to the south side of the big bridge. Their hopes and their missions are to coax the mulitudes to the island, leaving a good share of their assets and personal fortunes when they finally depart back to their homes on the north side of the big bridge. And this happens in more ways than one.
To be successful at enticing people to Galveston, these same officials must be very careful not mention some of the not-so-fun things these visitors may experience while enjoying the sun and fun on this exotic island.
We mustn't let them know that the crime rate on the island is at an all time high. They leave it to the media to sniff out these details. And we mustn't let them know that the number of policemen are at an all time low, less than three cops for every 1,000 residents. That's residents, people who actually live on the island. In the summer, when the beaches are full and the strand is busy, and the cars are bumper-to-bumper on the causeway, the ratio of cops to citizen is even further fractionalized.
About 45,000 of Galveston's pre-hurricane Ike residents still live here, down by 15,000, according to somebody in the press. We have about 153 cops on the island, so that means there are about two point something police for every one thousand islanders. Jamaica Beach has more than that. So does every other city in the county at last count, but those cities aren't trying to funnel hundreds of thousands of tourists into their cities.
It was recently announced that home and business burglaries have soared in Galveston. One would expect that the last thing a city would want to do when crime is soaring is to get rid of some of it's cops. Not so in Galveston. In Galveston, as crime increases, cops get hit with pay cuts and there is a great likelyhood that in April, some of them will be sent packing, in search of jobs elsewhere. What a welcome invitation to burglars, thieves and others in the crime business. I said, "crime business" not "anti-Crime business." Surely they will be delighted to see the steady flow of blue going north as they convoy into town with their burglar tools, guns, knives, hotwires, and whatever devices they use to pillage and plunder a defenseless island.
I picture a new billboard on the causeway of Lyda Ann on her motorcycle, all decked out in leather, waving people onto the island, with the caption, "Welcome to Galveston Island. B.Y.O.C.", Bring Your Own Cop.
The thing that city officials want us all to know is, they are running out of money. Hurricane Ike washed away the city treasury and even though the feds are sending money to stimulate the economy and save jobs, the jobs being saved are not cop jobs or firefighter jobs or jobs of many other city employees. Apparently, even though the President has announced these federal funds are specifically to prevent the layoff of cops and firefighters and other first responders, that does not apply in Galveston. Galveston instead will fix potholes, and make the beaches beautiful for all those tourist dollars they hope will return.
Oh, what summer fun the crooks will have. They will be back on the Seawall, watching and waiting as visitors leave their cars unattened and lay out on the beach for hours, or visit restaurants and shops, pouring money in the Galveston economy. They probably won't discover until a day or two later, when they are back home in Houston or Pasadena or Baytown or Louisiana, that the contents of their gloveboxes or center consoles are empty. Whatever valuables were left in their cars have been transferred to pawn shops and fences on the mainland or somewhere.
And the people who live in Galveston, dare not venture from their homes or businesses for very long periods of time for surely the burglars will come visiting, departing with their treasured belongings.
Where are the cops when all this is happening? Well, the cop assigned to that beat was probably busy with one of the other 333 people assigned to him. Actually, more like 999 since it's summertime and the population has tripled.
The invitation is open. Come to Galveston Island, where we are getting rid of cops as fast as we can, so we will have money to entertain you and your pocketbook, but you should B.Y.O.C.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Term "Rich Police" Stirs Emotions
Thursday, Feb. 5th, The Police News published two stories in which Galveston Police Officers were referred to as 'rich, overpaid police.' Both stories were about incidents in which the officers were involved which do not happen everyday.
One story involved officers rescuing a potential suicide jump from the 75 foot high Galveston Causeway into Galveston Bay. The other was about detectives and crime scene investigators at the scene of a brutal murder and probably savage sex assault.
Needless to say, our use of the terms 'rich and overpaid', brought an immediate assault from readers. "Are you stupid?" asked one reader.
Here is our explanation for our use of these dreaded words. On Jan. 25th, the publisher of Galveston's only newspaper, produced an editorial with the title line "Rich police bleeding island dry." We wanted to see what readers, and yes, the officers themselves, would have to say if we referred to them as 'rich and overpaid' in a story about their lifesaving and investigative performances in these two stories. Well, we found out. The emails began coming in immediately in a steady stream. One police officer even called by phone. He couldn't believe The Police News would do that.
This morning there is another editorial in the only newspaper in town, trying to sooth the wounds left by the first editorial and denying the use of specific words that were insinuated, but not used.
The paper denied using the word, 'overpaid' but said, "The city has a finite amount of money to spend on all Galveston's needs. So, every dime paid to the police and other employees affects what it can spend to fix potholes, improve drainage and repair broken traffic lights."
So, wouldn't the average reader take that to mean the police are 'overpaid' since we still have potholes, drainage pipes and traffic lights that are broken and not working? Wouldn't that mean that if we take enough money away from fire and police, we could fix all those things? Doesn't it sound like these cops are being overpaid?
Then the publisher unleashed an assault on police and fire unions and the fact they bargain with the city for wages and benefits. According to him, nothing good can come from this kind of system. Apparently that newspaper doesn't believe city officials and police can be trusted to bargain in good faith and reach an agreement that does not abuse the public treasury.
The median income in Galveston is $34, 153 according to the newspaper. Cops shouldn't make more than the people they serve apparently.
These police and firefighters are the same police and firefighters that remained on Galveston Island as Hurricane Ike assaulted the city, destroying property and killing people. They stayed on the island and protected the property of wealthy newspaper editors and publishers. They stayed on the island as newspaper employees ran for higher ground.
These rich police officers pulled a distraught woman from the top of the Galveston Causeway before she leapt to her death.
These rich cops are desperately trying to find and arrest the savage killer of a woman on Broadway who was beaten to death and probably raped.
Twenty of these rich cops are in graveyards around the city, having been killed while working the streets of Galveston. None of them died sitting in an air conditioned office writing letters to the editor or reading the newspaper.
These rich cops are also citizens. Citizens who get together every three years, sit down with their employer, and talk about such things as how much pay they can get in the next three year cycle, what of of insurance benefits the city can provide for their families, what kind of pension they can expect 20 or 25 years from now. They talk about the same issues that many other citizens talk about with their employers. Do newspaper employees have that privilege? I don't know, but what would be wrong with it if they did?
And by the way. Last month police and firefighters took a voluntary pay cut of 3% in an effort to help their city recover from the devastation left by Ike.
Did the price of the local newspaper go down, or is it still the same as before Ike?
These rich cops are sitting across the table with people we elect to take care of this for us. Do we not trust them to represent us fairly in these talks? Are we so stupid that we elect people to represent us that we can't trust? I think not.
I don't know about you, but if some deranged idiot bangs on my door in the middle of the night, or if some savage freak rapes and murders someone in my family, I hope some of those 'rich cops' take enough time away from counting their money to come help me and my family.
Breck Porter, Editor/Publisher
The Police News
editor@thepolicenews.net
One story involved officers rescuing a potential suicide jump from the 75 foot high Galveston Causeway into Galveston Bay. The other was about detectives and crime scene investigators at the scene of a brutal murder and probably savage sex assault.
Needless to say, our use of the terms 'rich and overpaid', brought an immediate assault from readers. "Are you stupid?" asked one reader.
Here is our explanation for our use of these dreaded words. On Jan. 25th, the publisher of Galveston's only newspaper, produced an editorial with the title line "Rich police bleeding island dry." We wanted to see what readers, and yes, the officers themselves, would have to say if we referred to them as 'rich and overpaid' in a story about their lifesaving and investigative performances in these two stories. Well, we found out. The emails began coming in immediately in a steady stream. One police officer even called by phone. He couldn't believe The Police News would do that.
This morning there is another editorial in the only newspaper in town, trying to sooth the wounds left by the first editorial and denying the use of specific words that were insinuated, but not used.
The paper denied using the word, 'overpaid' but said, "The city has a finite amount of money to spend on all Galveston's needs. So, every dime paid to the police and other employees affects what it can spend to fix potholes, improve drainage and repair broken traffic lights."
So, wouldn't the average reader take that to mean the police are 'overpaid' since we still have potholes, drainage pipes and traffic lights that are broken and not working? Wouldn't that mean that if we take enough money away from fire and police, we could fix all those things? Doesn't it sound like these cops are being overpaid?
Then the publisher unleashed an assault on police and fire unions and the fact they bargain with the city for wages and benefits. According to him, nothing good can come from this kind of system. Apparently that newspaper doesn't believe city officials and police can be trusted to bargain in good faith and reach an agreement that does not abuse the public treasury.
The median income in Galveston is $34, 153 according to the newspaper. Cops shouldn't make more than the people they serve apparently.
These police and firefighters are the same police and firefighters that remained on Galveston Island as Hurricane Ike assaulted the city, destroying property and killing people. They stayed on the island and protected the property of wealthy newspaper editors and publishers. They stayed on the island as newspaper employees ran for higher ground.
These rich police officers pulled a distraught woman from the top of the Galveston Causeway before she leapt to her death.
These rich cops are desperately trying to find and arrest the savage killer of a woman on Broadway who was beaten to death and probably raped.
Twenty of these rich cops are in graveyards around the city, having been killed while working the streets of Galveston. None of them died sitting in an air conditioned office writing letters to the editor or reading the newspaper.
These rich cops are also citizens. Citizens who get together every three years, sit down with their employer, and talk about such things as how much pay they can get in the next three year cycle, what of of insurance benefits the city can provide for their families, what kind of pension they can expect 20 or 25 years from now. They talk about the same issues that many other citizens talk about with their employers. Do newspaper employees have that privilege? I don't know, but what would be wrong with it if they did?
And by the way. Last month police and firefighters took a voluntary pay cut of 3% in an effort to help their city recover from the devastation left by Ike.
Did the price of the local newspaper go down, or is it still the same as before Ike?
These rich cops are sitting across the table with people we elect to take care of this for us. Do we not trust them to represent us fairly in these talks? Are we so stupid that we elect people to represent us that we can't trust? I think not.
I don't know about you, but if some deranged idiot bangs on my door in the middle of the night, or if some savage freak rapes and murders someone in my family, I hope some of those 'rich cops' take enough time away from counting their money to come help me and my family.
Breck Porter, Editor/Publisher
The Police News
editor@thepolicenews.net
Monday, January 19, 2009
Police Have A Language of Their Own
If you don't listen to a police scanner regularly and pay close attention to those "police spokespersons" on TV, you may not have noticed how cops talk and the language they use.
For example. Have you noticed that hardly anyone ever 'dies' anymore, or how no one is ever 'dead' anymore? The new word for the afterlife used by the police department talking heads is 'deceased.'
"The man was flown to the hospital where he was pronounced DECEASED." It used to be DOA for Dead On Arrival but at some point or the other, someone decided that DEAD or DIED is no longer an acceptable way to refer to someone who is either DEAD or DIED. Now they are DECEASED.
Remember when people used to GET out of their cars? Cops used to GET out of their cars too. But today, they EXIT their VEHICLES. The police spokesman on TV stands in front of the camera and says, "When the officers arrived on the scene, they immediately exited their vehicles." What's up with that? We didn't expect that when they arrived on the scene they would just sit in their cars. We expected them to get out of their cars, but instead they exited their vehicles.
How long has it been since we heard the police spokesman on TV say, "The officer drew his pistol and shot the bad guy." They don't draw and shoot anymore. Here is the standard, by-the-book statement the police spokesman repeats for the cameras everytime a cop shoots a bad guy.
"The officer, fearing for his life or the life of others, discharged his service weapon at the suspect, striking him five times in the liver." Then he may follow that up with, "The man then hit the ground deceased."
So why do all these so-called Public Information Officers talk the same? No matter from which department or area of the country, we see them day after day in front of the TV cameras, repeating the same phrases over and over. Why does TV continue to interview them? We know what they're going to say.
It is standardized phrasing. With these prepared scripts, departments can send anyone, with minimum training, before the media to talk without ever really saying anything of subtance. A department can assign someone as it's Public Information Officer to rattle off these memorized phrases for the media, who really has no knowledge of the incident. He/she can show up at the scene of a news event and be briefed in a matter of minutes, comb his hair, straighten his tie, and stand in front of the cameras. And when he is through talking, the public knows no more than they did before he/she recited.
The next time you see this on TV, watch and listen carefully. You'll see.
That's the way I see it.
How about you?
For example. Have you noticed that hardly anyone ever 'dies' anymore, or how no one is ever 'dead' anymore? The new word for the afterlife used by the police department talking heads is 'deceased.'
"The man was flown to the hospital where he was pronounced DECEASED." It used to be DOA for Dead On Arrival but at some point or the other, someone decided that DEAD or DIED is no longer an acceptable way to refer to someone who is either DEAD or DIED. Now they are DECEASED.
Remember when people used to GET out of their cars? Cops used to GET out of their cars too. But today, they EXIT their VEHICLES. The police spokesman on TV stands in front of the camera and says, "When the officers arrived on the scene, they immediately exited their vehicles." What's up with that? We didn't expect that when they arrived on the scene they would just sit in their cars. We expected them to get out of their cars, but instead they exited their vehicles.
How long has it been since we heard the police spokesman on TV say, "The officer drew his pistol and shot the bad guy." They don't draw and shoot anymore. Here is the standard, by-the-book statement the police spokesman repeats for the cameras everytime a cop shoots a bad guy.
"The officer, fearing for his life or the life of others, discharged his service weapon at the suspect, striking him five times in the liver." Then he may follow that up with, "The man then hit the ground deceased."
So why do all these so-called Public Information Officers talk the same? No matter from which department or area of the country, we see them day after day in front of the TV cameras, repeating the same phrases over and over. Why does TV continue to interview them? We know what they're going to say.
It is standardized phrasing. With these prepared scripts, departments can send anyone, with minimum training, before the media to talk without ever really saying anything of subtance. A department can assign someone as it's Public Information Officer to rattle off these memorized phrases for the media, who really has no knowledge of the incident. He/she can show up at the scene of a news event and be briefed in a matter of minutes, comb his hair, straighten his tie, and stand in front of the cameras. And when he is through talking, the public knows no more than they did before he/she recited.
The next time you see this on TV, watch and listen carefully. You'll see.
That's the way I see it.
How about you?
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Same Song, Second Verse
In La Marque, Texas residents are complaining before city council about crime in their neighborhoods. Some say they are afraid to walk down their own streets. And they should be.
Robberies in this Gulf Coast city nearly doubled in 2008.
The police chief says while most major crime in the city of 13,000 decreased last year, other crimes spiked. Police responded to over 3,000 more calls in 2008 than in 2007. There were more arrests, and more traffic stops.
Of course we always hear the citizens complain about lack of police protections. "Where are the cops?" is a familiar outcry.
In the case of La Marque, the police force has remained at the same manpower strength for the past five years as the crime rate has increased. Who's fault is that?
In each of those five years Police Chief Richard Price has urged the city council to provide money for more police officers. In each of those five years they have denied his request.
Criminals, like jungle animals, prey on the weakest. They go to the place of least resistence, where there is the best chance they will not be caught. So when the population continues to grow, there are more potential victims to prey on and police manpower fails to keep pace, the criminal moves in.
The La Marque City Council is not the only council in the country guilty of ignoring this problem. Politicians everywhere throw the money at projects they can point at in the next election cycle. They want to tell voters about the streets and sewers they fixed, the new street light, stop signs, schools zones, curbs and gutters, things the people can see. They can't tell a voter, "I kept you from being murdered last year by voting for more police."
In most places where people are screaming about the lack of police services or police protection, it's not the police at blame, it's the lack of police.
That's the way I see it.
breck@breckporter.com
Robberies in this Gulf Coast city nearly doubled in 2008.
The police chief says while most major crime in the city of 13,000 decreased last year, other crimes spiked. Police responded to over 3,000 more calls in 2008 than in 2007. There were more arrests, and more traffic stops.
Of course we always hear the citizens complain about lack of police protections. "Where are the cops?" is a familiar outcry.
In the case of La Marque, the police force has remained at the same manpower strength for the past five years as the crime rate has increased. Who's fault is that?
In each of those five years Police Chief Richard Price has urged the city council to provide money for more police officers. In each of those five years they have denied his request.
Criminals, like jungle animals, prey on the weakest. They go to the place of least resistence, where there is the best chance they will not be caught. So when the population continues to grow, there are more potential victims to prey on and police manpower fails to keep pace, the criminal moves in.
The La Marque City Council is not the only council in the country guilty of ignoring this problem. Politicians everywhere throw the money at projects they can point at in the next election cycle. They want to tell voters about the streets and sewers they fixed, the new street light, stop signs, schools zones, curbs and gutters, things the people can see. They can't tell a voter, "I kept you from being murdered last year by voting for more police."
In most places where people are screaming about the lack of police services or police protection, it's not the police at blame, it's the lack of police.
That's the way I see it.
breck@breckporter.com
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
It's The Cop's Fault, Sue'em, Sue'em
Last Saturday in Houston a 17-year old delinquest stole a pickup truck, then ran from police when they got after him.
As the pursuit progressed, the pursuing officer broke off as the speeding truck entered a residential neighborhood. In fact the fleeing truck was completely out of sight of the officer when it crashed into another vehicle, killing one of it's occupants and injuring the other.
Immediately the family of one of the victims began blaming the police. By Monday they had hired a lawyer and were threatening to sue the officer, the police department and the City of Houston.
Family members were on all the local TV stations critisizing the police department's pursuit policy, even though they had no idea what the policy is.
Family members plan to appear before the city council to ask for a policy change. They haven't said what part of the policy they want to change, neither has their lawyer, but it makes good TV.
Houston City Council member James Rodriquez, who represents the district in which the crash occurred has sided squarely with the police department. He blames the crook. How strange?
A police spokesman told TV cameras the officer involved complied with department policy regarding police pursuits.
No one wants to see someone die or be injured in a tragic event such as this one, but it happens. So long as crooks are allowed to roam free, raping, robbing, stealing, killing and plundering, and police don't chase them down for fear of loosing their jobs, the crooks win.
For some, the opportunity to sue, in hopes of getting a quick and easy cash settlement, is just too tempting to pass, and this sure looks like another one of those temptations.
As the pursuit progressed, the pursuing officer broke off as the speeding truck entered a residential neighborhood. In fact the fleeing truck was completely out of sight of the officer when it crashed into another vehicle, killing one of it's occupants and injuring the other.
Immediately the family of one of the victims began blaming the police. By Monday they had hired a lawyer and were threatening to sue the officer, the police department and the City of Houston.
Family members were on all the local TV stations critisizing the police department's pursuit policy, even though they had no idea what the policy is.
Family members plan to appear before the city council to ask for a policy change. They haven't said what part of the policy they want to change, neither has their lawyer, but it makes good TV.
Houston City Council member James Rodriquez, who represents the district in which the crash occurred has sided squarely with the police department. He blames the crook. How strange?
A police spokesman told TV cameras the officer involved complied with department policy regarding police pursuits.
No one wants to see someone die or be injured in a tragic event such as this one, but it happens. So long as crooks are allowed to roam free, raping, robbing, stealing, killing and plundering, and police don't chase them down for fear of loosing their jobs, the crooks win.
For some, the opportunity to sue, in hopes of getting a quick and easy cash settlement, is just too tempting to pass, and this sure looks like another one of those temptations.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Following my commentary on The Police News website recently in which I agreed with a new policy of Galveston Police Chief Charles Wiley which prevents off-duty police officer's from accepting extra jobs in businesses which derive more than 55% of it's income from alcohol sales, I received this unsigned e-mail:
"Bar jobs are not all slop joints or buckets of blood. If you think the City has a liability problem with officers working the bars wait until the officers are pulled out. The fights will become more violent and shootings inside the bars will increase. Many shootings and stabbings have been prevented by the uniformed officer at the door of the bar. No one ever talks about the violent crimes that did not happen because of an uniformed officers presence. Dealing with drunk, drugged and mentally disturbed people is a business that invites lawsuits. Most people who spout off have never had to put their hands on anyone or stand up for anything. There are good cops and bad cops. Let's create an atmosphere that rewards the good cops and roots out the bad. The theory that bad things happens in bars and the city get sued so let's pull the cops out of the bars can be expanded to bad things happen in poor neighborhoods and the city gets sued so let pull the cops out of there too."
I hope this unsigned letter was not from a police officer. If it was, I am concerned for his sense of reasoning and understanding.
There are cities and counties all over the country that do not allow it's officers to work in the establishments which we have described. I have yet to hear that police have lost control of the beer joints, honky tonks, and dives, to the drunk and disorderly.
State laws, on the books for years, have given police authority to inspect these places at will. It used to be that beat cops would get out of their patrol cars occasionally and walk through the dives which were known trouble spots on their beats. This was always a great deterrent, but we seldom see it anymore because bar owners claim harrassment when they do.
I suspect that if there were no other way to control these places and maintain peace in these places, municipal and county government could refuse to issue them a business permit. The state could refuse to issue them a liquor license. In fact, local law enforcement may now petition the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission to suspend the license of any establishment deemed to be a public nuisance. We need not station an armed guard or police officer in these places.
Those in positions of leadership in police agencies will rush to tell you that the presence of an armed police officer in the place where people are on a mission of becoming drunk and obnoxious, is just asking for trouble. Sooner or later there is bound to be either a confrontation, either by the officer to the drunk or vice versa.
I believe there is some misunderstanding about the policy. It does not prevent officers from working in restaurants, hotels, concerts, fairgrounds, or other places where adult beverages are sold or consumed. It applies to places where booze is the main commodity, ice houses and the like where people just sit around and poor booze down their gullets.
What about hotels that have sitdown bars inside and officers are hired for security on the hotel premises. Police departments I am familiar with specify the officer is not to enter the bar or lounge unless he/she is called by management. In that case, the officer calls for an on-duty officer for backup before he/she even enters the bar.
The unsigned writer is correct when he/she says, "No one ever talks about the violent crimes that did not happen because of a uniformed officer's presence."
No one ever talks about airplanes that didn't crash either. We don't talk about car wrecks, or fights, or shootings, or stabbings, that didn't happened. We don't talk about cops that don't get sued, or shot or stabbed or arrested. But we DO talk about the one's that DO!
And that is my point. And I'm sure that is also the point of those that must take the flack for these incidents, and defend the lawsuits that result.
Breck Porter
"Bar jobs are not all slop joints or buckets of blood. If you think the City has a liability problem with officers working the bars wait until the officers are pulled out. The fights will become more violent and shootings inside the bars will increase. Many shootings and stabbings have been prevented by the uniformed officer at the door of the bar. No one ever talks about the violent crimes that did not happen because of an uniformed officers presence. Dealing with drunk, drugged and mentally disturbed people is a business that invites lawsuits. Most people who spout off have never had to put their hands on anyone or stand up for anything. There are good cops and bad cops. Let's create an atmosphere that rewards the good cops and roots out the bad. The theory that bad things happens in bars and the city get sued so let's pull the cops out of the bars can be expanded to bad things happen in poor neighborhoods and the city gets sued so let pull the cops out of there too."
I hope this unsigned letter was not from a police officer. If it was, I am concerned for his sense of reasoning and understanding.
There are cities and counties all over the country that do not allow it's officers to work in the establishments which we have described. I have yet to hear that police have lost control of the beer joints, honky tonks, and dives, to the drunk and disorderly.
State laws, on the books for years, have given police authority to inspect these places at will. It used to be that beat cops would get out of their patrol cars occasionally and walk through the dives which were known trouble spots on their beats. This was always a great deterrent, but we seldom see it anymore because bar owners claim harrassment when they do.
I suspect that if there were no other way to control these places and maintain peace in these places, municipal and county government could refuse to issue them a business permit. The state could refuse to issue them a liquor license. In fact, local law enforcement may now petition the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission to suspend the license of any establishment deemed to be a public nuisance. We need not station an armed guard or police officer in these places.
Those in positions of leadership in police agencies will rush to tell you that the presence of an armed police officer in the place where people are on a mission of becoming drunk and obnoxious, is just asking for trouble. Sooner or later there is bound to be either a confrontation, either by the officer to the drunk or vice versa.
I believe there is some misunderstanding about the policy. It does not prevent officers from working in restaurants, hotels, concerts, fairgrounds, or other places where adult beverages are sold or consumed. It applies to places where booze is the main commodity, ice houses and the like where people just sit around and poor booze down their gullets.
What about hotels that have sitdown bars inside and officers are hired for security on the hotel premises. Police departments I am familiar with specify the officer is not to enter the bar or lounge unless he/she is called by management. In that case, the officer calls for an on-duty officer for backup before he/she even enters the bar.
The unsigned writer is correct when he/she says, "No one ever talks about the violent crimes that did not happen because of a uniformed officer's presence."
No one ever talks about airplanes that didn't crash either. We don't talk about car wrecks, or fights, or shootings, or stabbings, that didn't happened. We don't talk about cops that don't get sued, or shot or stabbed or arrested. But we DO talk about the one's that DO!
And that is my point. And I'm sure that is also the point of those that must take the flack for these incidents, and defend the lawsuits that result.
Breck Porter
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