Citizen D
Michael Davis
Rad Field
                             

09/20/04  Crack Head's Lifestyle Killed Him, NOT the Police.

A Dallas County Grand Jury no-billed 7 DPD officers last week in the death of an obese crack head who had inflicted all of his ills on himself and anyone within reach of his self-destructive ways.

In July, I commented on how badly these 7 Policemen were being treated in WHAT MAKES THEM DO IT?.  I was surprised when several people I consider smart and pro-cop said Chief Kunkle was right to pull them off the street even if it made our city less safe and even it was terribly unfair to the officers.  One truly big shot called me about my comments -- didn't convince me but certainly impressed me.

I stand by my original position that we were punishing the good guys and the fat crack head killed himself.  I was also under the impression in July that the officers did use the choke hold to try to subdue the 300 lb crazed wacko.  I do now concede that having the Grand Jury "no-bill" these officers is a stronger validation of their innocence than anything else that could be done.  With the huge financial hit most of the 7 officers  took as a result, they may not think it's a fair trade off.

After the Grand Jury no-billed the 7 Policemen this week, a DPD officer sent the following to DallasArena.com:

	Observant Officer:    Chief Kunkle is not winning the battle for hearts and minds inside DPD, and  certainly not any of the 7 officers he placed on "restricted" duty for being on the scene when Pedro Fernandez, Jr died.     Contrary to press reports, the Lateral Vascular Neck restraint (LVNR) was not used on Fernandez.  There was no wrong-doing.  There were no strikes performed with batons -- other than those thrown by Fernandez, there were no punches thrown.    He was struck one time on the shoulder in an attempt to dislodge his arm from under his enormous bulk (a perfectly legal technique.) That's it. Nothing else.    The Medical Examiner (who doesn't work for DPD) found no evidence of trauma anywhere. No bruises.  No broken bones.  Not even suspicious marks. None.     The M.E. was tired of the cries of racists and decided to leave it on the DA's doorstep and rule the death a homicide. Fernandez died because he was 5'6" and weighed 320+ pounds. Fernandez died because his heart was twice the size it should have been and was 70% blocked with plaque. Fernandez died because he had a fatty liver. Fernandez died because he was on methamphetamine and had drank an 18-pack of beer within a 3-hour period. Fernandez died because he was "restrained." Fernandez died because he was psychologically stressed.    Just hours before meeting with members of the Hispanic community, Chief Kunkle decided to place all 7 officers on restrictive duty.  No overtime.  No extra-jobs.  Chief Kunkle did not meet with the 7 officers.  Chief Kyle Royster told the officers of their reassignment.      Chief Kunkle has yet to meet with the 7 officers or offer any kind of explanation.  Chief Kunkle has never apologized for leaving us without any support, and actions made the 7 officers look guilty.  An officer's greatest asset in this department is his reputation.  The reputation of those 7 officers have been severely damaged because of Chief Kunkle's decision.    No officers that I've talked to about this situation think the Chief did the right thing.  We look at those 7 officers' situation as they were doing their job.  They were working hard and following policy. Instead of being rewarded for their efforts, they were punished.  Their names have been dragged through the mud by every two-bit reporter from here to Brownsville, as far West as San Jose, CA and as far East as Atlanta, GA.   Chief Kunkle may have thought he was back in Tarrant County where cases go to the Grand Jury within 2-3 weeks.      Fernandez died on June 29th. The case was heard by the Dallas County Grand Jury on September 17th. That's 10 weeks.    To date, some of the 7 officers have lost as much as $3000 (or more) in income due to lost overtime, which DPD officers routinely work --  roughly a month's salary.    Chief Kunkle's policy is a punishment.  It's a punishment that DPD officers cannot appeal.  It's the moral and financial equivalent to a one month suspension without pay.    Funny thing, Chief Kunkle wants his officers to feel comfortable talking to the press.  He encourages it.   God help him if a reporter sticks a microphone in my face and asks me anything, not to mention any of those 7 offices victimized by Fernandez and Chief Kunkle.  The public will know exactly how the rank and file feels about this policy.    We thought the mayor was callous by saying that an officer should use his sick or vacation benefits to help out when severely injured in the line of duty.  By his actions action, Chief Kunkle is telling officers they need a good savings account in case someone dies while they are doing their jobs.    This policy has many officers afraid to do their jobs for fear of losing their homes or being forced into bankruptcy.  I am hoping to buy a house this year and using my overtime from the last half of the year as a down payment.  Had I been one of those 7 officers, I'ld be working my tail off for the next three months just trying to catch up.    Chief Kunkle is fond of pointing out that his troops call him Uncle Kunkle.  Uncle?  In whose family?  Not mine.

Our Observant Officer says no choke hold was used, no baton, etc.  If that's the case (and I believe him), restricting them to desk duty for 10 weeks was wrong and punitive to the good guys.  Even if they did use a choke hold, it would have been justified and they should have been allowed to work their overtime and extra jobs.

I know some Presidential candidates think you can reason and strive to communicate with bad guys and lunatics, and they will be won over by the effort you made to "understand" their concerns and wants.  That's baloney on an international level, and it's almost suicidal on a local level when cops are dealing with wackos high on drugs instead of religious fanaticism.

Police and firefighters do not stop being human when they step between us and the bad guys.  They only show us the difference between them and most of us wienies.  They stand up and step out, when most of us crouch down to protect ourselves.

Before you read this little excerpt from Holly Yan's DMN report on the Grand Jury no-billing the 7 officers (it wasn't much longer than the sections cited), I want to ask when a Dallas Grand Jury started being "a grand jury"?  A Grand Jury is the ultimate citizen service, and each Grand Jury is essential to making our system of crime and punishment work successfully.  It offends me when Belo allows its reporters to belittle important citizen service, while promoting race baiters and trial lawyers like the guy representing the crack head's family.

Grand jury declines to indict 7 officers in suspect's death:  Man died while being restrained; paramedics also won't face charges September 17, 2004 By HOLLY YAN / The Dallas Morning News

A grand jury declined to indict seven Dallas police officers Friday after they were investigated in the death of a man who died in police custody in June.    Pedro Fernandez, 33, passed out and died during a struggle with police officers trying to arrest him. The officers used pepper spray and a controversial neck hold to try to restrain Mr. Fernandez.    The Dallas County medical examiner's office ruled the case a homicide and found that the 300-pound man's death was influenced by an enlarged heart, severely clogged arteries, restraint asphyxia, physiologic stress, and cocaine and methamphetamine use.    The seven officers ? Benustiano Avila, Brandi Kramer, Julio Ortiz, Michael Pottorff, Randall Presley, Chad Smith and Glenn Thompson ? will return to full duty within the next few days, Dallas police Lt. Todd Thomasson said. ... the grand jury declined to indict three paramedics who treated Mr. Fernandez before he died. Raul Loya, an attorney for Mr. Fernandez's family, ... saying the ruling was influenced by the Police Department's conflict of interest in presenting the case.    "I don't think [health problems] contributed to his death," Mr. Loya said. ... "he had six officers on top of him, with pepper spray in his lungs, to purposely injure him." ... district attorney's office, said the family never provided authorities with a separate autopsy report disputing the Dallas County medical examiner's findings.    "We had delayed the grand jury in order for them to secure that, and they did not."...

Over all, Ms. Yan seems to have fairly assessed the situation, but our Observant Officer says "the Lateral Vascular Neck restraint (LVNR) was not used on Fernandez".  This is a serious mistake on a DMN reporter's part to assume an allegation as fact. 

We don't allow Our Officers to hit deranged crack heads with a baton, even when the officers are trying to protect themselves.

We don't allow Our Officers to use the choke hold, even when Our Officers are trying to protect another DPD officer.

Heaven forbid one of Our Officers shoots a suspect about to take the officer's life or having just or about to injure or kill another DPD officer or a Dallas citizen!

We have pretty much told Our Officers they are supposed to stand back and watch while the bad guys, crazed crack heads, etc. spread mayhem and chaos across our city.

I still don't know why our cops and firefighters do what they do for so little pay and so little appreciation.

Most DMN columnists are liberal and stand ready to side AGAINST any police officer in any dispute with a criminal suspect.  If they don't outright accuse the officer of doing wrong, they do it with innuendos and one-side reporting.

At this point, I want to say something very plain and bold.  Minorities are just as capable as Big Bad Whitey of doing wrong. 

Just by their surnames, two of the 7 victimized police officers are Hispanic.  Do you really believe they would have stood by and let the other 5 officers abuse an innocent Hispanic who was only trying to protect himself? 

If you do believe the version of the ambulance chaser representing the fat crack head's family, why are you reading DallasArena.com?  To believe that guy's claim, you have to believe that minorities are not capable of making grown up decisions or leading normal, law-abiding lives.  To believe that guy's claim, you have to think all Hispanic men abuse their families, abuse drugs and alcohol and eat themselves into a suicidal condition.  To believe that guy's claim, you have to be a bigot.

My neighborhood is almost 50% (if not more) Hispanic.  Sometimes a party gets a little loud and last a little too late -- but not often.  Some neighbors have too many cars for their driveway and park on the street, which annoys the heck out of the rest of us.  It is no white-bread neighborhood, but it's a wonderful neighborhood.  I chair our Crime Watch/HOA group and see the crime stats for our beat.  We don't see the police even having to stop at a house very often and never to resolve a violent situation that Fernandez was inflicting on his family the night he died.

If my neighbors are typical of Hispanic men (and I know they are), anyone who believes that Fernandez is a typical Hispanic male is a bigot.

Police officers deal with the bottom of the bucket of humanity.  They expect to less from an Hispanic man or an African-American man than they do from a White man.  Anyone who thinks cops should make allowances for bad behavior from an ethnic minority is a bigot.

That's what it comes down to -- the ODB, many reporters, so-called minority leaders all think so little of Hispanic and African-American men that they don't think they are capable of being law-abiding adults.  It's not the cops who are the bigots.

Everything should not be about race in this city.  We have one of the smartest men in town who is an aviator himself being considered for a vacancy on the DFW Board.  Because the person leaving is Asian-American, suddenly that seat must be assigned to another Asian-American.  Our Mayor's adversaries on the council (all four Black council members) are already trying to turn a simple DFW Board appointment into a race issue, rather than selecting the most qualified person available. 

Pursuit of D/FW board spot lays council rifts bare:  White businessman, Asian lawyer seek job with contracts on line September 17, 2004 By DIANNE SOL? / The Dallas Morning News

... For those in the minority community, serving on the board also represents an opportunity to see that minority and women entrepreneurs get a strong shot at business contracts. ... Some of the most lucrative contracts are expected to be announced this fall for concessions, dining and shopping at the new international terminal. That terminal ? known as Terminal D ? is set to open in the summer of 2005. ... Mr. Collmer, who is 69, is favored by some City Council members because of his past board experience. ... Mr. Collmer's candidacy, however, may suffer because of the belief that he is backed by the mayor ? a factor that could further aggravate racial tensions at the City Council, said two people familiar with the appointment process. Just two weeks ago, in a discussion over subsidizing football games, Dr. Maxine Thornton-Reese, a black Dallas City Council member, publicly accused Ms. Miller of prejudice and pushing "the white agenda."    Mr. Collmer is also a former chairman of the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce. ... Mr. Hsueh, who is 53, said he was asked by City Council member Don Hill, who is black, to consider the board appointment.    "Duty calls, so I said OK," Mr. Hsueh said, "and then I realized I was being drawn into city politics. I just want to do it based on my merits and not who I know in politics." ...

Mr. Hsueh should understand that nothing Don Hill does is based on merit.  If you believe Don Hill or Brain-Dead Thornton-Reese are remotely concerned about the Asian-American community representation on city boards or commissions, you are an idiot. 

In the first place, the Asian-American community in Dallas County is much larger than the Asian-American community in the City of Dallas.  There are only 7 Dallas seats to be filled.  White Dallas citizens are still the largest ethnic group, even if a combination of all other groups is larger.   It is stupid and bigoted to divide all government decisions along racial lines.  It benefits no one except race baiters like Hill, T-Reese and their gang.

Two weeks ago Our Mayor correctly said the council had rewarded bad behavior by giving in to Shakedown Chaney and Brain-Dead T-Reese.  Now, Our Mayor has backtracked and blames herself for the scam that Chaney and T-Reese pulled off.

Mayor's really trying this time: September 15, 2004 By JAMES RAGLAND / The Dallas Morning News

... Just because the mayor may not always be on the same page with black council members doesn't mean she's not trying to improve her standing in the black community. ...  "When she speaks, she speaks as though she speaks for the whole city, and that's not the case," said Steve Williams, an aide to Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill, the ranking black council member. "And I think they [the black council members] have had enough of it." ... Political savvy is best gauged on the field, and that's where Ms. Miller occasionally steps on land mines.    The latest example was the big blowup over whether the city should dole out money to support the annual Grambling-Prairie View A&M football game. ... the mayor's not entirely at fault for the volcano that erupted. ... "Well, that clearly was a hard day," Ms. Miller told me last week. "We had a lot of issues that brought race into it, and feelings were just raw that day." ... "We want the mayor to be successful," Mr. Hill told me last week. "But it has to be on the council's terms and not just the mayor's terms."    The black council members must meet the mayor halfway if Ms. Miller is sincerely trying to find solutions to problems that affect their communities.    More than that, they shouldn't play the race card ? as Dr. Maxine Thornton-Reese did by yelling out loud that the mayor is pushing a "white agenda" ? to embarrass Ms. Miller or gain political leverage.    Our city is too fragile for that.    The mayor acknowledged that she must mend some fences, ... "Maxine has every right to get mad and yell at me," she said. "It's my job to sit down and make sure my relationship is good with everybody, and I do that every single day." ...

I've already screamed at Our Mayor personally over her "hit me again" comments to Ragland.  She was not the bad doer, she was not the council member trying to pull off another shakedown and misuse of taxpayer funds, she was not the council member playing the race card.  Our Mayor was trying to spend our tax dollars responsibly.  Shakedown Chaney's plan was to divert our tax dollars to the promoter of the Grambling-Prairie View game, not to the teams.  Chaney just wound up T-Reese to spout something stupid to cover his fat, crooked rear.  Brain-Dead forgot her lines and resorted to her favorite race baiting mantra.

Being a typical bleeding heart liberal, Our Mayor thinks we should accept less than adult behavior from minority council members.  If she doesn't respect herself enough to punish T-Reese for that stunt, Our Mayor should at least respect the Mayor's Office enough to strip that stupid bigot of any committee chair she holds. 

Our Mayor should have adjourned the meeting for a few minutes and said "Dr. Thornton-Reese needs to go into TIME-OUT for a few minutes.  She's been a bad girl."

That's what the current parenting  experts say you do when a child misbehaves or throws a temper tantrum -- put them in time out.

Our Mayor must be willing to stand up for the dignity of her office, for which ALL Dallas voters get to vote -- not just a few dead people near Pleasant Grove.  To allow bad behavior from a minority council member means she expects less from them than she would from a White elected official.  An example of "the soft bigotry of low expectations." 

A terrible injustice was done to 7 fine police officers because our elected and appointed city officials are so subject to screams of racial prejudice that they bend over backwards to avoid confrontations with minority leaders.  Is there no elected official who will call the race baiters' bluff?

Because we only have one daily paper (not as widely circulated as they once led us and their advertisers to believe), the ODB and the professional race baiters are likely to continue to control the rest of us by guilt trips and outright deception.

Surely, there's someone out there who will step up and step out and call out these wimps and race baiters.

sb