Officers, union call for the Dallas Chief to resign – NOW
By unidentified police officer
Law Enforcement Today
June 15, 2019
The position of police chief goes one of two different ways, depending on where you live. In most of our departments, it’s someone who has risen through the ranks over the years. They’ve earned the title and the position.
In other parts of the country, it’s a game of politics. It’s all about pandering and being able to check certain boxes.
Welcome to Dallas, Texas.
Dallas is in the state where freedom and common sense are suppose to still exist. Yet here we have a chief who is more concerned with the feelings of criminals than she is with actually protecting her officers.
This week, she actually came out and claimed that violent felons are “forced to commit violent acts” by society.
That’s right, brothers and sisters. This police chief is blaming US for the violence of repeat offenders.
Personal responsibility? Sure – but it’s not the criminals who she wants to take it. It’s YOU.
She made the comments when speaking about two recent homicide cases. She actually said that the homicides were not the fault of those who committed them.
“There are individuals in this city who have returned from prison who cannot find a job, who are not educated. In those instances, those individuals are forced to commit violent acts,” Dallas Police Chief Chief Renee Hall said.
No wonder why my department can’t seem to keep good cops.
As a matter of fact, it’s generally agreed upon by everyone from the Mayor to City Council and the union that the department needs at LEAST 500 more police officers ASAP.
For once, CBS, Dallas-Fort Worth actually got something right. They pointed out that most of the local officers don’t agree with the uneducated statement that came out of the chief’s mouth.
They touched on the fact that her statement suggests that criminal records and lack of education force people to commit violent crimes.
One of the guys speaking out is the head of the Dallas Police Association, Mike Mata, who sent CBS a statement:
By saying people who are ex-offenders “choose to commit violent acts” places the blame on the offender but still eludes to their criminal past being an excuse.
The Chief saying that people “forced to commit violent acts” it places the blame on society and makes the offenders the victim. I don’t believe anyone is forced to violently attack another person.
I believe in sentencing guidelines reform and educating violators prior to releasing back into society so they can have the best possible chance of not re-offending but we also have to be accountable for our own actions and never in any way validate an excuse to commit a violent act.
The National Latino Law Enforcement Officers Association also spoke out against the lunacy.
So of course our fearless leader tried to “clarify” her comment, but only really ended up doubling down:
“Today point was simple — there is no excuse for crime. Crime in general however, is on the rise in Dallas for many reasons. One of them being a lack of resources and opportunity. In no way, am I using that as an excuse to commit a crime. However, we have to work together as a community to remain vigilant and pro-active. I’ve asked our pastoral community, as a beginning, to develop ways to teach people how to resolve disputes without violence and find opportunities without resorting to crime.”
If she was smart, she would have kept her mouth shut. You can’t say that there’s no excuse for crime and then make excuses for crime. You can’t give criminals a pass because we aren’t giving them enough welfare.
It wasn’t long ago that the chief was asked about what she was doing to improve the morale. This was before she made this statement blaming violent crime on cops and the rest of society. Here’s what she said:
“It’s never enough,” she told him. “When I got here, you guys wanted beards. I gave you beards. You wanted outer vest carriers. I got those. You talked about never seeing the police chief in the past. I showed up at the hospital when someone was injured, and it wasn’t enough because I had on pedicure shoes.” The cops laughed. “Whatever I do, it’s never enough,” she told them. “At some point, you’ve got to stop looking at me to improve morale. And you’ve got to start looking at yourselves.”
She’s been a complete hypocrite on divisiveness. The chief refuses to meet separately with the unions – of which there are several. One is black, one is Hispanic, and one is mostly white. The previous chiefs have meet with them separately and together, something she refuses to do.
“Why are we so divided?” she keeps asking.
In the next breath, she says people don’t like black people.
“Coming to Dallas and having people here who historically dislike black people for no reason at all—other than the fact that they’re black—is different for me,” she says. “It seems acceptable here.”
It’s worth pointing out that, going back to 1999, three of the last four police chiefs in Dallas, including one interim chief, were black.
On Wednesday, one of the officer associations called for her resignation as well, citing a vote of no confidence by its members.
The National Latino Law Enforcement Organization’s Greater Dallas chapter President George Aranda, a sergeant, said the department has suffered under what he called Hall’s “lack of leadership.”
“We need to go in a new direction,” Aranda said. “We need a new crime fighter here.”
Hall was hired last July, and pissed off the department guys and women immediately with several ridiculous decisions.
Of course she blamed everyone hating her on her gender and race.
First, she reorganized the department, demoting several beloved, longtime chiefs.
Next, she disbanded the vice unit, after saying she’d found “concerning irregularities”.
Then finally, the fact that she couldn’t pass the test.
She spent months on the job not in uniform.
She had about a year to pass the state exam to become certified as a cop in Texas, but said she couldn’t find time to study and kept falling asleep at home.
“I was trying to do it without stepping away from my daily duties,” she says.
She finally got it together.
“I got exhausted listening to the criticism. The media would not move on until I finished that test.”
Well, right. Because you’re supposed to pass the damn test – not procrastinate on it. She finally took two-and-a-half weeks off to study for it and then said her mom was so upset over how she was treated by the media that she hasn’t come to visit. You read that right.
The city has a huge shortage in officers – and we need a leader. Not someone who is going to blame officers for the actions of criminals. Not someone who can’t stay awake. Not someone who blames everything on race and gender. Not someone who destroys a department from within.
I’d end by saying it’s time to resign, chief. But the truth is you never should have gotten the job to begin with.
2 comments:
I wish I could say this is enough to get her the heave-ho. Unfortunately I don't think that. AS the article notes, many big city police chiefs are politicians and not "real" cops.
I wouldn't work for Dallas PD if they were giving out 5 year full pensions!
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