Diane Benjamin Hijacks Meeting

Diane Benjamin Hijacks Meeting

Diane Benjamin hijacks meeting on community safety co-hosted between D11 and D13 city council members Jaynie Schultz and Gay Donnell Willis.

Benjamin, who is the mother of failed 2021 D11 city council candidate Barry Wernick, took to complaining to Dallas Police Chief Garcia that this was a photo op for the incumbents.

Similar Trump style tactics doomed Wernick’s campaign.

She then went on to drop a favorite line of Candy Evans that Council Member Schultz voted to remove overtime from the Dallas Police budget. (It is unclear if Benjamin came to attack Schultz at Evans’ direction or not.)

The full video is here, but Ms. Benjamin’s involvement starts are 36:35.

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Diane Benjamin Hijacks Meeting – No Mention Of Squirrel Murder

Ms. Benjamin is a local realtor, landlord, and Republican activist.

Diane Benjamin Hijacks Meeting

At the start of her comments she described being robbed at gun point twice in her alley. She however seems to have forgotten the murder in her backyard.

Almost eighteen months ago Benjamin took to Nextdoor to say someone had beheaded a squirrel.

At the time, Dallas Police were assisting on a triple homicide, but Benjamin felt the need to proclaim her self victimization.

Harlan Crow Second Citizenship

Harlan Crow Second Citizenship

Harlan Crow second citizenship news makes news internationally. The Intercept and Pogo jointly reported that Crow holds a second passport for St. Kitts and Nevis yesterday.

Crow bought his citizenship in a cash for citizenship scheme. This makes him a dual citizen of both the United States and St. Kitts and Nevis.

Harlan Crow Second Citizenship

Crow made recent headlines as a longtime benefactor to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas owns a second passport.

St. Kitts and Nevis is known as a tax haven known for impenetrable financial secrecy.

A whistleblower provided documents showing Crow and his brother Trammel paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for the second citizenship status.

Experts on financial transparency say the island’s tax regime would make tracking Crow assets nearly impossible. This includes gifts to Supreme Court justices, such as Clarence Thomas.

Harlan Crow Second Citizenship Issues

Crow is in headlines because of multiple financial gifts to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

The dual citizenship status purchased complicates questions about his compliance with federal tax laws. It also draws into question transparency over his gifts to Justice Thomas and potentially others.

Other Side Dallas will continue to post updates on this story as they become available.

Missing Teens Sold For Sex

Missing Teens Sold For Sex

Missing Teens sold for sex in Missouri are foster children from the Dallas, Texas area per court records and police.

Court records show the sixteen and seventeen year old victims are foster children from the Texas Department of Children and Family Services.

Missing Teens Sold For Sex

“Unfortunately, there are opportunities for traffickers, considering the I-70 corridor and proximity to the airport, that sexual traffickers can take advantage of,” St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell told media.

Joemarius Green and Chantel Robinson, his girlfriend, were arrested and charged with sex trafficking the girls.

Missing Teens Sold For Sex

Several entrepreneurial Dallas area criminals have been charged with human trafficking.

Local first responders including police, fire, and EMS all undergo training in identifying human trafficking to rescue these victims.

Governor Greg Abbott would not comment on the leadership at the Department of Child and Family Services losing the girls.

The Texas legislature is in session currently, but no real action is expected from the Republican led legislature.

Far right firebrand Bryan Slaton, R-Royse City, had “sexual relations” with an underage intern about a month ago. There are mounting rumors that Arlington state representative Tony Tinderholt was also serving underage interns alcohol despite multiple marriages.

Local Early Voting Starts

Local Early Voting Starts

Local Early Voting starts this morning and continues through next Tuesday at polling places across Dallas County.

Local Early Voting Starts

As usual Dallas County will be responsible for the elections for both members of city council and Dallas Independent School District Board of Trustees.

Mayor Eric Johnson is running unopposed despite the rumors he was pushing candidates against several incumbents.

Local Early Voting Starts, But Voters Disinterested

Low turnout numbers continue to plague Dallas elections.

In 1995, Ron Kirk was elected mayor for the City of Dallas with 23% of eligible voters casting ballots.

When Eric Johnson was elected mayor less than half that number turned out in the nine-person race.

To date, voters are barely trickling in and there has been no super issue pushing voters to participate.

Candy Evans Covert Campaign

Candy Evans Covert Campaign

Candy Evans covert campaign seems to be in full cycle as she repeats the mistakes of Barry Wernick from 2021.

Earlier this week a post on Nextdoor was made by Tina Lewis.

Ms. Lewis is not on Candy Evans’ campaign team, but she does appear to have access to Ms. Evans’ Facebook page. She first posted the screenshot below, before posting again the next day cropping out the connection to Ms. Evans’ campaign.

Candy Evans Covert Campaign

Candy Evans Covert Campaign Repeats Past Mistakes

This is not an egregious campaign violation, but it is a repeat violation of the conservative faction in the Park Cities area.

In 2021, Barry Wernick’s campaign team admitted to doctoring Facebook photos during his run for city council.

In 2021, local Republican women also quietly voiced concern that Ms. Evans was not prepared for city council.

Three confirmed local Republicans believed she lacked the policy chops to compete with better equipped candidates like Jaynie Schultz.

“She can barely stay on message,” said one.

Another complained, “Candy Evans is a dilettante who can’t organize a two car motorcade.” She continued, “Evans would destroy conservative credibility at the horseshoe.”

Evans campaign focus has been singularly on the $10M set-aside budget for Dallas Police Department‘s overtime budget. It is not clear Evans is even campaigning on any other issue.

Dallasite Buys Supreme Court

Dallasite Buys Supreme Court

Dallasite buys Supreme Court of the United States per a ProPublica article late last week alleging Harlan Crow paid for lavish trips for Clarence Thomas.

Dallasite Buys Supreme Court

Per the ProPublica report, Justice Thomas has accepted luxury trips consistently for twenty years from billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow.

Thomas has not disclosed those trips which breaks a long-standing norms for judicial behavior.

The Crow-Thomas trips included island-hopping through Indonesia on a superyacht and annual summer stays at a private Adirondack resort.

ProPublica says the extent and frequency of gifts to Thomas has no known precedent in the history of the Court.

This brings some to question how a Dallasite buys Supreme Court access.

The ethical lapses make Dallas’ ‘normal’ ethics issues almost boring.

Justice Thomas issued a brief statement.

“Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable,” Thomas said.

His statement continues, “I have endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure, and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines.”

“Justice Thomas likes to focus on the language of authoritative texts, and that’s not what he’s doing,” said Kathleen Clark. Clark is a legal ethics expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

Dallasite Buys Supreme Court: Just One Issue?

Beyond the questions related to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas are Crow’s own decisions on interior decorating.

Crow’s garden includes statues that appear to celebrate world dictators.

Dallasite Buys Supreme Court
Statues of World Dictators

Statues in what some call the “Garden of Evil” are Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, and Yugoslav dictator Josip Broz Tito. 

Additionally, Crow has two paintings by Adolf Hitler and a signed copy of Mein Kampf. This is in addition to other assorted Nazi paraphanelia.

Dallas Police Transparency

Dallas Police Transparency

Dallas Police transparency is coming says Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia in a statement on a new public dashboard.

Dallas Police Department revealed its new use of force database yesterday.

The website can be viewed here.

There is a new tool for citizens to monitor Dallas Police Department use of force data. The dashboard will provide current data back to 2014.

“You know, it’s the most polarizing issue in American law enforcement, is use of force,” said Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia.

Dallas Police Transparency

“We’re trying to be as transparent as possible,” Garcia added.

Transparency is key when it comes to maintaining trust between law enforcement and the community per Chief Garcia.

He said bringing the database to the public was an effort that took about two years to complete.

The public will find it breaks down data into the subject’s gender, race, age, and area the incidents happened.

DPD administrators said the information will help the public know what is occurring. It will also help DPD measure if there’s evidence of questionable cultures of policing.

“There’s things in the report that there are disparities in some areas,” Said Garcia.

He went on “we found that there is no disparate treatment when they utilize force, regardless of race or ethnicity.”

Dallas Police Transparency Will Be Change

The new transparency does not reflect recent activity by Dallas Police to make up policy on the fly. Cases of protecting First Amendment rights have been covered by Other Side Dallas previously.

There have been other efforts by Chief Garcia to reduce the public’s connection to real time police data.

Molina High School Teacher Shot

Molina High School Teacher Shot

A Molina high school teacher shot by a Desoto Police Department officer may have been committing a crime – not teaching.

Michael Christopher Nunez, 47, was a teacher at Dallas Independent School District‘s Moises E. Molina High School. He was fatally shot on Monday morning in connection to a burglary investigation.

It is unclear why Mr. Nunez was not at school, but at Desoto dispatched officers to 300 block of Polk Street in DeSoto at 11:40AM Monday.

Molina High School Teacher Shot

They were sent to investigate a reported robbery when they encountered Mr. Nunez.

A 911 caller stated a man had entered the caller’s residence with an “unknown item.” A Desoto police officer fired at Nunez as he advanced toward the officer.

More Dallas ISD Violence: Molina High School Teacher Shot

This shooting comes less than a week after a student shot another at Thomas Jefferson High School.

It is another embarrassing incident for Molina High School which has had its share the past few years.

Google Mustang Red1A Incident

Google Mustang Red1A

An incident at Google Mustang Red1A project has employees shaken. Monday morning an employee was pinned between a housing deck and a mobile home trailer at the construction site.

Google Mustang Red1A

A firefighter who responded to the scene said the trade worker was transported to Methodist Dallas Medical Center.

The employee is described as being critically injured. He was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit with multiple fractures and an internal arterial bleed.

It is unclear what led to the Monday tragedy, but an investigation is underway.

Google Mustang Red1A

The Mustang Red1A site just started construction in the past two months.

The site is being built by Holder Construction for Google on the Dallas/Ellis County line under extreme secrecy. The perimeter is guarded twenty-four hours a day and no one is allowed on site without approval.

Several conservative activists have noted the future buildings will house a data center used by the National Security Administration.

The site is another example of the City of Dallas losing construction projects due to long permitting times.

Eric Nadel Misses Opener

Eric Nadel Misses Opener

Eric Nadel misses opener for the Texas Rangers next week per a new statement from the Rangers Ballclub and Nadel.

Nadel who has been involved in mental health advocacy for years stated he was dealing with anxiety, insomnia, and depression.

Eric Nadel Misses Opener

Nadel labels himself a “mental health activist and advocate for the homeless” in his Twitter bio. He hosts benefit concerts regularly for non-profit organizations as Focus on Teens and Café Momentum, which aim to provide for at-risk and homeless youth.

Nadel is also a longtime supporter of The National Alliance on Mental Illness and The Campaign to Change Direction.

Nadel is often seen in the community at everything from fall high school baseball games to other benefits.

There is no word on when he will return. Matt Hicks and Jared Sandler will handle radio duties until his return.

Statement: Eric Nadel Misses Opener

Other Side Dallas wishes Nadel the best and looks forward to hearing the Ford Frick Award winner later this season.