11/13/06  Counseling - Not Prosecution is new DA's Philosophy

First things first.  In case some DallasArena.com reader doesn't know, I'm a Republican.  Have been since I was 12 when Gen. Eisenhower defeated Adali Stevenson.  Never been tempted to switch.  I'm one of those "socially liberal, fiscally conservative" Republicans.  More than my party affiliation or anything else, I am for law and order and keeping the crooks behind bars.

We now have a bunch of elected people who will be in charge of prosecuting and punishing criminals who don't believe in doing either.

In the last Legislative session, Democrat State Rep. Rafael Anchia tried to get legislation through to bump car thefts and break-ins back up to a felony.  His bill did not get through.  With our new District Attorney-Elect, the bill would probably have no effect anyway, even had State Rep. Anchia been successful.  I will never forget the press conference Anchia called where he stood with the community when some little liberal reporter criticized him for wanting to put young male hoodlums in jail rather than "keeping them in the community where they could get guidance and counseling."  State Rep. Anchia said "I stand with these law abiding citizens," referring to over 20 community leaders from several neighborhoods in his district (including Republican me).

Here's what our DA-Elect had on his own website before someone with an ounce of sense advised him to take it down:

Now, I'm not going to pick at the grammatical errors because I frequently am writing in the wee hours of the night/early morning and sometimes weary eyes miss blatant errors.  Still, this was his law firm's website, not a little commentary site like DallasArena.com.  What really frightens me is his sales pitch to potential criminal clients:

If you are not worried, you should be.  The new philosophy at the Dallas County Courthouse will be to coddle criminals, disbelieve cops and dismiss concerns of victims.  Certainly doesn't sound like victims can expect justice in Dallas County after January 1st.

Voters put a new face on justice Incoming officials already fighting fears they are soft on crime Sunday, November 12, 2006 By BROOKS EGERTON, ROBERT THARP and MICHAEL GRABELL / The Dallas Morning News

Dallas County's freshly elected criminal justice officials promise far-reaching reforms, in the name of fairness and rehabilitation and tackling one of the nation's worst crime rates.    These officials ? all of them Democrats, most of them longtime defense attorneys ? envision a new age of cooperation among the justice system's many players. They talk about toughening up on repeat offenders, violent criminals and probation violators, while helping low-level lawbreakers turn their lives around. ... Craig Watkins, Dallas County's first black district attorney, has one of the biggest challenges, given the prominence of his position and some particularly strident language that once appeared on his law firm's Web site, which has been taken down.    There, he vowed to defend clients "by any means necessary" and added: "I enjoy manipulating the Government; most times the cases they bring against my clients are weak and unsubstantiated."    Such statements, combined with his campaign-trail criticism of District Attorney Bill Hill's staff, have made some seasoned prosecutors and police officers uneasy. ... He has declined to be interviewed in detail since his election, saying that he will outline his plans Monday. ... Several Watkins allies won criminal judgeships in Tuesday's historic elections, which swept most Republican officeholders from power in Dallas County. These judges-to-be are talking more freely and said their rise to power would level the playing field for defendants, ending an era in which many judges were elected after careers as prosecutors.    Lena Levario, a defense attorney who was a felony court judge in the 1990s and will return to that role in January, said that from her experience it has been difficult to convince the current judges that a police officer is being untruthful. ... "The incoming judges would be more likely to judge a police officer's testimony [like] anybody else's testimony," Ms. Levario said, "instead of giving them the benefit of the doubt."    Senior Cpl. Glenn White, president of the Dallas Police Association, said he hoped that the statements on Mr. Watkins' old law firm site are "not indicative of how he plans to run the Dallas County DA's office. ... We're going to be really fed up if he's looking for loopholes trying to get people off when we as police officers are out there trying to put these people in jail." ... Toby Shook, the veteran member of Mr. Hill's staff whom Mr. Watkins defeated, said he is still considering his plans but did not rule out continuing to work as a prosecutor. ... In a campaign flier, Mr. Shook took aim at some of the statements on Mr. Watkins' law firm site and noted that his opponent had been nearly $100,000 delinquent on income taxes. ... Indeed, some of the reforms touted by the new criminal justice officials were in the wind before Tuesday, driven more by necessity than ideology: Jails and prisons are full. Probationers are vanishing. And budgets are busting. ... The time between arrest and indictment used to average about 30 days ? often longer in drug cases to allow for chemical tests. The many people who couldn't afford bail sat in jail.    Now the lag time is down to about 10 days. ... Mr. Price and some incoming criminal judges want to build on that momentum by, among other things, releasing poor people accused of nonviolent crimes with little or no cash bail. Pretrial jailing of this population "is costing taxpayers millions," said Ms. Levario, the judge-elect. ... "A lot of people equate rehabilitation to wimpy liberal stuff, but if it reduces crime, we need to use it," said Ms. Levario. "You need to set them up to succeed," Mr. Magnis said, "and you can't wait three months for that." ...

My friend, Judge Faith Johnson, was beat by a woman who was "encouraged to resign" from the Public Defender's Office and then was let go by two subsequent law firms.  Tracy Holmes graduated LAST in her class at St. Mary's in San Antonio.  We won't even go into all of her personal problems.  She's a certified mess, and she's going to be a judge come January 1.  By the way, Holmes was endorsed by The Dallas Managed News. 

Judge Johnson was the first African-American woman prosecutor for Dallas County.  Faith definitely has a pro-victim attitude, and she does give police officers the "benefit of the doubt".  That's exactly what I want from a criminal court judge.  That's not what we are going to have from most of these Judge-Elects.  I am seriously scared.

This was a bizarre election, and Democrats should not assume it is the future.  Give them their due, they won and they won big.  Still, we had the biggest bond election in our city's history, and  held in November with partisan elections, rather than in May with municipal elections.  Don't dismiss that component.

Even with all the extraneous stuff going on, and the inept effort by the Dallas County GOP Chair, there are some numbers that might interest you, regardless of your party affiliation.

Right off the top, Dallas County has 51,003 fewer registered voters than in 2000.  The county population increased, but we have 51,003 fewer registered voters.  So much for "Today we march, tomorrow we vote".  

We had 40,607 fewer people vote in 2006 than in 2002.

Why?  There was a lot of stuff on the ballot.  Dallas had 15 bond propositions.  Other Dallas County cities had liquor sales initiatives and bond propositions.  So, why was there such a huge drop off of voters?

Democrats had 14,657 fewer straight ticket voters in 2006 than in 2002, and they were working their base like crazy. 

Republicans had a 27,013 drop off in straight ticket voters with little or no effort to get out the base vote.  GOP County Chair Kenn George, Congressman Pete Sessions and Sandra Dee Gary Griffith used the ridiculous strategy of ignoring the GOP base and going after the undecided voters. 

God spare us the "undecided voter".  I would rather deal with a committed Democrat any day of the week than someone who is undecided after almost a year of political speeches and advertising.  How could anyone be undecided?   As the election judge in my precinct, I can tell you there were lots of voters who were clueless about the candidates, but they were decided.

Democrats worked hard.  Republicans took a positive outcome for granted. 

I would be more than happy to see this as merely political contest had the Democrats put up better candidates.  Don't forget this story on Dallas.org about a racist comment by DA-Elect Watkins made to Allen Gwinn.   Craig Watkins: Da Gangsta's DA?

Democrats could have had a winner in Larry Jarrett, but they nominated someone who has owed over $100,000 in back taxes to the IRS.  They nominated and got a BAIL BONDSMAN elected as Dallas County District Attorney.

Allen Gwinn has some interesting points in his piece on Dallas.org, Punishment.   Thought I would link to whatever he might have written.  Had to laugh when I realized he had picked up on the same obvious point -- a bunch of registered voters didn't vote for anyone.   He compared 2006 to 2004, and 237,923 straight ticket voters stayed home.  Republicans had a 50% drop off, and Democrats had a 44% drop off. 

Still comes out that Democrats are to be congratulated for getting 56% of their 2004 straight ticket voters to come out and vote in 2006.  Hopefully, Republicans will not be so complacent in 2008.

All the partisan numbers aside, I am very worried that Dallas County is going to become a "sanctuary county" for criminals, based on quoted comments from DA-Elect Watkins and Judge-Elect Lena Levario.   When a Criminal Judge says she's not going to give police officers the benefit of the doubt, we have real problems right here in Trinity Sewer City.

Dallas voters who stayed home on election day are more responsible for the election outcome than either Republicans or Democrats.

For the next four years criminals who land in certain Dallas County courts will have more credibility than Dallas police officers and will probably have more credibility than the victims of the criminals.  Our DA-Elect cares more about "rehabilitation" than punishment.  November 7th was indeed a good day for criminals in Dallas County.

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