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.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
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
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