Bolton Standard Time

02/11/02 It's not science fiction -- it's Dallas reality!!

With all the election doings, it's hard to pay attention to other stuff going on at City Hall. Normal people are moving in Central Standard Time, but City Hall is working in Bolton Standard Time.

I've been trying to ignore the Bolton situation, but Robert Tharp's story last week is just irresistible:

Bolton to FBI: Keep it short: Dallas chief's letter also asks for expansion of fake-drug investigation by ROBERT THARP / DMN 02/09/2002

Dallas Police Chief Terrell Bolton has urged federal authorities not to let the FBI's investigation into the handling of more than 70 dismissed drug cases linger long enough to tarnish the department's reputation.

It's hard to believe Bolton is concerned about the "department's reputation" considering what he has done to it. I'm not the only one who sees some irony in Chief TB asking the FBI to hurry its investigation into the Dallas Gypsum Scandal. This is from UndergroundCops.com:

That this is the guy who thought it was a waste of time to have DPD working with the FBI in tracking Osama Bin Ladin's activities 2 years ago;

That he was not interested in helping expedite the investigation of Lipscomb and the adult clubs when he refused to cooperate with the FBI;

That he transferred numerous key people out of investigative assignments so they could answer calls, resulting in fewer clearances, fewer arrests, more calls and increased response times and crime;

That we have more people in administrative assignments and on special assignments than ever;

That he and his command staff attempted to be paid for more overtime than anyone before prompting a State Senator to threaten legislation prohibiting it.

Yeh, I think this is the guy I would be listening to on how conduct an investigation! Not!

There are so many shots to take at Bolton, you ought to get a Teddy Bear when you hit two of the yellow duckys on the conveyor belt. What hits the bell for me is the audacity of this jerk who let all of those men rot in jail while he was covering his large rear. He had no concept of time while those men were in jail losing their jobs. No hurry! Their desperation was no concern to Chief TB -- after all most of them were Mexican Nationals. He would have let them just stay in jail. When Brett Shipp at Ch. 8 started snooping around, Bolton started moving a little faster to cover his hiney. Now, with the FBI is looking into this mess, Bolton is moving at warp speed and wants the FBI to move with his new urgency.

Kirk's council puppets and City MisManager Ted Benavides are still moving on the old Bolton Drag It Out Standard Time. They are caught in a terrible time warp. They know things are happening faster than they can react or protect themselves. They know it looks like they are in on the conspiracy. They do not have a clue what to do now.

Clearly, there is some huge cover-up in Bolton's Administration. He is such a dunderhead, he thinks he can outsmart the FBI. After all, he has outsmarted the City MisManager and he has Ron Kirk's council puppets quaking in their boots. They are damned if they do nothing, and they know he will play the race card if they demand the City MisManager remove Bolton from command, even temporarily while the FBI investigation is going on.

Here are some questions inquiring minds want to know:

Why were only 2 officers placed on suspended leave, when Police commanders knew for 3 months there was a problem?

How come other officers have not been placed on paid leave before the FBI got involved? You would think a problem of this size would have to involve more than 2 officers? How can you have any honest internal investigation in the police department when some of the wrongdoers may be part of the investigation?

If Chief TB, his own command staff and even the DA's office knew in September there was a serious problem with the "sheet rock" evidence, why would Chief TB praise his officers and the no good lying informant at a press on December 31? In Chief TB, DallasArena.com commented on the ludicrousness his explanation:

Here's what the Chief (surrounded by all sorts of guns that had nothing to do with the gypsum drug ring) said exactly:

Experts tell us that if someone had ingested this substance that we seized in all likelihood would have caused very serious illness, damage to their lungs and possibly death if they'd used the appropriate amount to make that happen. So it's important that we're diligent in our fight, especially to get drugs off the streets, whether they are drugs or whether they are poison.

When I heard him say that in front of microphones and TV cameras, I thought it was a joke. After all, it was New Years Eve. But he really said it and really meant it, and I didn't hear any reporters laugh out loud. You can take the guy out of Mississippi, but that doesn't make him ready for prime time.

Incidentally, one reader thought I was using "Mississippi" as some pejorative, or even racial, shot at Chief TB. The Chief is from Mississippi -- has family there. I'm from Texas -- have lots of family here. But I digress --

Why haven't we heard from Mayor PreTend Poss about this Bolton mess? Well, she has been quite busy playing mayor and campaigning against Laura Miller. You can't say she is campaigning for Dunning because she mentions him about as much as his campaign mailers -- which is next to never. Here she is rubbing elbows with real mayors from other cities in that big confab regarding Homefront Security, and we have an enormous security problem right in our own Police Department.

You can't really expect City MisManager Ted Benavides to get too concerned about another big mess in the Police Department. This is the same guy who claims he investigated Bolton's involvement with Caligula Rizos and determined that Bolton was innocent -- because BOLTON TOLD HIM SO.

Everyone at City Hall is in a state of denial. There just is no other explanation. Except for Mitch Rasansky, all the council seem to think the whole thing will just blow over if they just keep their heads down and their mouths shut. That's about as realistic as confusing crushed sheetrock with illegal drugs. This mess is as much their doing as it is the fault of Chief TB.

In the WFAA mayoral debate, Tom Dunning said Dallas cops are not 14th in parity with cops in the suburbs, but they are 4th because they have this great retirement package. When you are in your 20's and 30's and trying to support your family, a great retirement package is not a real high priority.

Cops and firefighters need take home pay.

Tom Dunning's business is selling benefit packages -- mostly to companies acquired by Tom Hicks. He is 55 years old, rich and completely disconnected from some young cop's life. Dunning not only does not recognize the personal problems of our men and women in Blue, but he knows little or nothing about what they do on the job. During the WFAA debate, he said he would get more police officers on the street. When Chris Heinbaugh challenged how he could do that when DPD starting salaries are so low as compared to the suburbs, he started explaining some procedure that sounded very near Bolton's strategy when he sent all of those detectives back out to patrol.

Police officers who heard Dunning, say his plan will not work. This is from www.undergoundcop.com:

I just listened to the last debate on Channel 8. Miller stated she was in favor of a pay raise for public safety and that she would meet and talk with the associations. Dunning said that he would like to get us a raise this year because we didn't get one last year. He didn't know what that would be but our "total pay package" placed us fourth in the area. Sound like Kirk? He also said that he would not meet with employees nor allow the City Mgr to do so because he considered that to be collective bargaining. He also has a plan to put Detectives back in uniform and on the street one day a week. There goes the old clearance rate. He also said some other things about Lew Sterrett procedures that proves he is clueless. The problem is that he sounds credible. Better get out the support for Miller.

I agree with the officer on everything but that Dunning sounds credible.

If you want to get this and other messes at City Hall cleared up, you need to ELECT LAURA MILLER for Mayor.