Elections Have Consequences!

“The Houston Police Department plays an indispensable role”. We hear this a lot as it is written on every retirement proclamation given upon retirement.  We would all like to believe that the citizens of Houston agree with the sentiment of these words.  Sadly, it appears that several of our current city council members do not agree.  In fact, they disregarded the Chief of Police, the command staff, and many others when they voted to pass an ordinance disregarding state and federal laws.  I understand that this is a hot button issue for national politics, but we do not get involved in national issues like this.  In fact, we have done everything possible to stay out of the fray until we were forced to address it.  Several members of council decided to bring an ordinance forward that would force HPD to treat immigration warrants differently than other warrants.  Unfortunately, none of the council members reached out to us or the department before voting for the ordinance.  This ordinance put our officers in a bad position.  If we do not act on one of these warrants, (at least calling immigration) then release them, we could be held accountable should that individual harm anyone in the future.  If Immigration tells us to release them, then we would be covered. This is nothing more than local politicians trying to fight national issues.

This quickly escalated when council member Shabazz said in open session that we (HPD) were stopping black and brown people for no reason, and some were being “disappeared”.  I took offense to that and made it known that we would not stand for that type of rhetoric. Our officers work hard every day to do their job and to have someone disparage them this way really got to me.   Obviously, I addressed this issue in the next council meeting, and it got heated.  I stand by every word I said at council, though I could have said it a little calmer than I did, but I will not allow anyone to disparage our officers or tell us they know better than we do when it comes to policing. And make no mistake about it, Council member Salinas, Pollard, and Kamin are coming at us again regarding traffic stops.  I have seen a proposal that would limit the reasons for a stop to only “moving violations”.  This is a clear attempt to circumvent state law which we cannot allow.

We must start paying attention to our local politics as we are moving into a new era.  We are getting some very progressive candidates running for office and winning. This has been seen across the state in all big cities like Austin, Dallis, and Fort Worth.  In a debate yesterday for Houston City Council District C, they were asked, “what group would you never seek endorsement from?” Candidate Joe Panzarella quickly stated, the HPOU. Nick Hellyar, whom we endorsed, stated he would not accept an endorsement from any hate group. The difference in these two candidates is very clear, but it will be a very close race. There will be more battles as we see more law and order hating individuals running for office.  I encourage everyone to pay attention to our local politics and make sure you vote and encourage others to vote for public safety over politics.