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07/31/03  He's the reason the bad guys have taken over.

Being just a working stiff, and a female at that, I know it's  uppity of me to offer a brief explanation of why Dallas is the #1 Crime City in the County.  Two words or four syllables or 13 letters.   TERRELL BOLTON

	TERRELL BOLTON
As depicted on www.Undergroundcop.com		As depicted on www.dallaspolice.net/index.cfm

We would be better off if Gary Coleman (the left picture) were running the Dallas Police Department.  After all, he has real experience as a security guard.  Terrell Bolton made his bones on the milk and cookie circuit of Crime Watch Groups.  

Terrell Bolton is beyond incompetent.

If you are a fan of Ayn Rand, you can see the parallels between Dallas 2003 and the World the heroes escaped in her "Atlas Shrugged".  The incompetents and mid-brains had finally reached all levels of power and control.  Because they were promoted for political reasons and not for ability or experience or knowledge, no one in power had a clue about what needed to be done or how to do it.

If something got broke, there was no one who knew how to fix it.  If someone knew how to fix it, he or she dared not expose their expertise for fear of reprisal or harassment by the incompetents in control who were afraid the masses might recognize the wrong people were running things.

Sounds like the Dallas Police Department.  

For that matter, it is exactly like every department at City Hall from the City Manager on down.  Only the City Manager can fire the Chief of Police, and Ted Benavides will never fire Terrell Bolton because his own high dollar job is dependent on Bolton's African-American protectors on the city council.

Is The Dallas Managed News beginning to admit Terrell Bolton is THE  problem?  

Dallas has No. 1 big-city crime rate; 07/30/200307/30/2003  By MICHAEL GRABELL / The Dallas Morning News07/30/2003

Dallas is on pace to have the highest crime rate among the nation's largest cities for the sixth year in a row, fueled in part by a 72 percent spike in homicides, according to statistics for the first half of this year.    A Dallas resident was twice as likely to be a crime victim than someone from Los Angeles, statistics through the end of June show. And, if projections hold true, the numbers average out to nearly one in 10 residents being victims by year's end.    Crime in the city this year is up from the same period last year, not only for homicides but also for robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries, thefts and auto thefts.    Dallas police officials said the midyear figures don't tell the full story. Homicide numbers are half what they were in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Violent crime per capita continues to drop steadily. . . .   The apparent surge has alarmed some who fear Dallas is being taken over by robbers and thugs. . . .  Department initiatives are working, said Assistant Police Chief Randy Hampton, who oversees the patrol bureau. . . .  Mayor Laura Miller said the Police Department should be preventing more crime. . . . Ms. Miller said. "The fact that we have such a high crime rate is inexcusable.    "Just over half our budget is wrapped up in police and fire, and most of that is in salaries," she added. "Therefore, I believe our citizens should be getting better protection." . . .  Dallas' crime, when figured with its population, comes out on top among cities with more than a million people. . . .  Police Chief Terrell Bolton has launched a number of initiatives to prevent burglary and theft, Ms. Houston said. . . .  Because of those initiatives, Dallas residents report more crimes than residents of other cities, making the city appear to have more crime, Ms. Houston said. . . .Council members and criminologists emphasize the need for communities to support the Police Department. . . . But some residents said the fake-drug scandal, lawsuits over officer demotions and bickering about police salaries have marred officer morale and evaporated the community's respect for the department.    They said the city could do more to prevent crime, such as having stricter code enforcement and hiring more police. Dallas has about 2.4 officers per 1,000 people. New York has nearly twice that number. . . .  Council member Mitchell Rasansky said the statistics are "not very flattering for the city of Dallas."   "I think the buck stops with our police chief," he said. "This is not a stat that our higher-ups in our Police Department should be proud of. This is something they should be embarrassed about."

Basically, our incompetent Chief of Police has his PR gal telling us it's all a statistical mistake.  People aren't getting murdered and raped and robbed in record numbers.  She says it's just more people reporting crimes and "making the city appear to have more crime."  Can you believe she actually said that? 

Dallas Observer's Jim Schutze is being more blunt, and it's very hard for that bleeding heart to admit that someone with pigmentation darker than his (which is everyone in the whole World) could actually be a bad guy.

No. 1 With a Bullet Welcome to America's crime capital BY JIM SCHUTZE Dallasobserver.com  originally published: July 31, 2003

Dallas is Number One. We have the worst crime rate of America's major cities, based on the most recent set of FBI crime statistics. And guess what? It's getting way worse even as you read this.    Murders in Dallas in June were up 300 percent over the same period in the previous year. For the first six months of this year compared with the first six months of last year, murder in Dallas is up 71 percent.    Nobody can catch us now. . . .  In fact, the number of Dallasites who were raped, robbed, assaulted, burglarized or otherwise stolen from last year is almost twice the number of votes cast in the recent election and runoff election for all 14 council members. . . .  We are the second worst in the country for violent crime. We are numero uno in robbery, burglary and arson. Your chances of being burglarized in Dallas are twice what they are in New York City. . . .Dallas Police Department numbers show this is an excellent venue for burglars, for example. According to the department's clearance rates for business burglary, almost 93 out of 100 business burglars in the city this year will go un-caught. . . .   A 93 out of 100 chance of getting away with it seems much better than running away to Mexico. After all, you might get stopped at the border. . . . I am aware that the most recent numbers finally have put some kind of fear of God in our otherwise oddly complacent city leadership; phone calls are flying back and forth between their various vacation spots as we speak, and a special briefing of the city council is being hurriedly cobbled together for early September, probably with an eye toward bringing in an outside auditor to see what in the hell is wrong with the police department. And all of that is absolutely to the good. . . .  Wasn't Laura Miller going to tackle the basics? Is there something more basic than having the worst crime rate in the country? . . .   she actually may have done a little better than her colleagues. She's still the only one at City Hall who ever dared to ask our police chief a serious question about why his department can't tell the difference between cocaine and wallboard . . . Bolton, who gets more Queeg-like with every passing hour, has convinced what passes for black leadership in this city that it's all about his being the city's first black chief. Therefore, anyone who complains about the horrendous crime rate under his regime is a racist.  . . .   enough blame left here to go around. We have the very public instance earlier in the year when Dallas police officers stormed the city council chambers like a bunch of pissed-off Gomers from Frisco, making a scene because they didn't get a huge enough pay raise. Who was the hero in that picture? . . .  Calie Stephens, editor of a Web page called www.dallascrime.com . . .  made an excellent point: There probably isn't anything City Hall could do to enhance the city's tax base that would be as effective as bringing down the crime rate. If crime and criminality were ever containerized in identifiable parts of town, those days are long gone. We see it spilling and spreading and oozing everywhere. . . .

At the risk of being repetitive, the person to blame for this mess is none other than former Mayor, Ron Kirk (affectionately known on DallasArena.com as "Con Jerk").  It was Kirk who went to Denton and hired Ted Benavides as our City Manager when Denton was ready to fire him for his lousy job performance.  Kirk didn't care about TB's incompetence.  He wanted a "yes man" who would not get in the way of his efforts to give away our public moneys to all of his ODB friends who must have been promising him future rewards.  Like high $$ positions on corporate boards, ala PetsMart.

It may be a stretch to go after PetsMart for putting Con Jerk on their Board of Directors, but it's the principle.  This guy sold out everyone of all colors, financial situation and any other delineation.  Ron Kirk left us with a city that is cash-strapped (but we have a big new sports arena), badly managed by a doofus who did not distinguish himself while an Assistant City Manager  and policed by a complete moron who is the only one in Dallas who doesn't know his limitations.

Don't give us any more excuses.  Terrell Bolton has to go. 

Don't waste more time with more departmental reorganizations intended to squelch any complaints about his management.  Terrell Bolton has to go. 

What does Chief Bolton himself have to say about all this?

Bolton argues crime is down in last decade;  Chief disagrees that people are safer in New York than in Dallas 07/31/200307/30/2003  By MICHAEL GRABELL / The Dallas Morning News

Dallas Police Chief Terrell Bolton stressed Wednesday that the city's crime rate has fallen significantly in the last decade, despite an apparent spike in crime for the first half of the year. . . .  The news conference came the same day as a report in The Dallas Morning News that showed Dallas would have the highest crime rate among the nation's largest cities for the sixth year in a row if projections hold true through the end of the year. . . .  Chief Bolton said. "I think you're whistling 'Dixie' if you think the police chief can have some impact on a crook or a hoodlum that goes into a convenience store and pulls a gun on a clerk." . . .  Reached Wednesday on vacation, Mayor Laura Miller said she planned to begin weekly accountability meetings with police officials and council members to address crime problems and share ideas on how to combat them. She said she was planning the first one for Tuesday. . . . Last year, Dallas had about 92.5 crimes per 1,000 people, fueled by a high rate of robberies, burglaries and thefts per person, according to FBI data collected from police departments. Phoenix was second and San Antonio third. . . . Dallas also was No. 1 in crime rate for the previous four years. . . . Chief Bolton tried to debunk the idea of comparing cities and concluding that Dallas has a high crime rate.    "There's no way you can convince anybody of that one, that it's safer in New York," he said. . . . "A lot of people think there is high crime," said Jorge Torres, 27, of Arcadia Park. "They feel they always have to watch their kids. I think most of the people are afraid to call the police for [fear of] retribution." . . .  The mayor's accountability meetings would include council members Elba Garcia, Gary Griffith and Donald Hill, who sit on the public safety committee, in addition to Chief Bolton and officials from the city manager's office. . . .

 
It's not Bolton's fault if he put inexperienced suck-ups in command positions and field officers cannot do their jobs because they are continually undermined by the idiots  Bolton has over them.   Right!

The Mayor means well, but her accountability encounters are doomed from the get go.  Look who's on the public safety committee:

Elba Garcia -- Not a chance she will find any fault with Bolton since she is part of the Benavides defense shield to protect our first Hispanic City Manager -- 
No matter what.

Gary Griffith -- As an MPossible ally, Griffith will play the same racial politics we saw from Mary Poss.  No way will he fault Bolton or Benavides for anything.

Don Hill -- Bolton must have some pictures on Hill, because Hill will cover TB's rear regardless of what the Chief does or how bad things get in this town.

Other than Mitch Rasansky, Sandy Greyson or possibly Bill Blaydes, absolutely no one on this council will call for Terrell Bolton's removal. 

Until Bolton and Benavides are gone, nothing gets better.

We will continue to lose our best young officers to better situations in the suburbs.  Instead of being a sought after position (as it was pre-Bolton) where we got to pick and choose candidates for the Police Academy, we will continue to have to accept anyone who can even pass the exams.

The incident at the Pleasant Grove Rec Center where a police officer showed up to avenge some assault on his daughter with his own gang and wound up shooting a kid (maybe a juvenile delinquent) in the crowd is typical of the mayhem under Terrell Bolton's lack of leadership.  

What is there to study?  Why do we need one accountability session, much less weekly?  Terrell Bolton needs to go now.  

We are on tilt, and our elected officials seem to think things can be set aright with meetings and reviews.  Get real.  We need to get rid of Terrell Bolton.

POST EDITION INSERT FROM DMN:

EDITORIAL PAGE: Crime Rate Unacceptable: If Bolton can't reverse slide, get chief who can 07/31/2003

The latest Dallas crime statistics provide Police Chief Terrell Bolton clear marching orders, a destination and a deadline.    Dallas is on track to record the highest crime rate among the nation's big cities for the sixth year in a row, according to statistics released this week.  . . .  Most disturbing is the fact that these statistics are just the latest in the Dallas Police Department's downward slide under Chief Bolton. First there was a $6.5 million settlement of lawsuits following Chief Bolton's early personnel shakeup. Then there was the infamous fake drug scandal, which subjected dozens of wrongly accused individuals to jail time and which is likely to wind up costing the city untold millions in civil cases. . . . recent reports documenting the lowest morale within the Dallas police in recent memory, raising obvious questions about how well police are performing their duties. . . .  And let's be clear: This isn't about Chief Bolton being the city's first African-American police chief.  . . .  What it is about is accountability. Chief Bolton's credibility ? and that of City Manager Ted Benavides and the City Council ? is on the line.  . . .  Chief Bolton simply must reverse his department's slide. If he can't do it by the time the next report is made public in six months, Dallas needs to find a chief who can.

 
We are the Country's Crime Capital.  And who is responsible for that?

It's the Chief of Police, Stupid!