Dallas crime up and DPD overtime is down per a Dallas City Council vote earlier which removed additional funds from the Dallas City budget.
City Council is putting the finishing touches on next year’s budget which will be finalized on September 22, 2021.
The biggest fireworks were when Dallas Police Department’s overtime budget was cut by $10M and moved into city reserves awaiting results of an audit. The vote was 8-7 in favor of defunding the department and ignores recent failures of officer availability to respond to three children assaulted last week.
Crime Up And DPD Overtime Down – Again
Citizens can still contact their member of City Council prior to the final vote on September 22, 2021.
Assaulted By Fireworks – No Response From Dallas Police
Dallas Police did not send out an officer to investigate or take a report at either the location of the assault, the residents home, or the treating facility for burns suffered from the explosion.
The City of Dallas data breach gets worse in a breaking story first reported by the Dallas Morning News.
City officials discovered an additional fifteen terabytes of missing Dallas Police Department evidence in the ongoing audit initially reported because of a District Attorney disclosure to defense counsel.
Police Chief Eddie García told Dallas City Council members that crimes against people were most likely not affected, but Dallas District Attorney John Creuzot would not go so far.
Dallas Data Breach Gets Worse And Continues IT Problems
Other Side Dallas will continue monitoring this story that was first learned about by City Manager TC Broadnax in April 2021, but not disclosed until John Creuzot was required to disclose the defense attorneys.
The disclosure led to the release of an alleged murderer.
A new Texas law may mean street racing seizures are coming for those participating in street racing under certain conditions.
Dallas County Democrat John Turner‘s Street Racing Bill, number 2315, allows law enforcement to seize and potentially forfeit vehicles if the racer is a repeat offender, driving under the influence, has an open alcohol container, or causes injury or death.
The new law may give additional tools to Dallas Police.
Under Chief Renee Hall, Dallas Police seemed to ignore street racing, but since Chief Eddie Garcia’s arrival it seems he is more apt to take on issues hitting middle class Dallas in the areas of quality of life.
Additionally, giving more credence to Dallas Police ignoring the problem, an off-duty Dallas police officer, Joseph George, died after he lost control of his 2015 Ford Mustang while racing with another car, according to police. He was a four-year veteran of the department.
Street Racing Seizures Vs. Construction
Locally John Creuzot has said he will do everything he can to stop street racing – including car seizures – but some members of City Council have tried to zone away street racing including Chad West.
The new law goes into effect on September 1, 2021.
Dallas Police Department officer’s Amber Guyger conviction upheld in the Fifth Court of Appeals. Guyger shot and killed her neighbor Botham Jean, inside his own apartment in 2018, failed in this first murder conviction appeal.
Guyger is serving a ten year sentence for the murder of Botham Jean.
Jean, a Black man who lived in the same apartment building as Guyger was eating ice cream in his apartment when she entered and shot him in September 2018.
Amber Guyger Conviction Upheld
Guyger, who is white, testified that she thought she was entering her own apartment and thought Jean was an intruder. She was later fired from the Dallas Police Department after the shooting.
Guyger’s lawyers argued her 2019 trial was not enough to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Guyger committed murder. Their argument was she had a “reasonable belief” that she was in her own apartment. If jurors believed she had a “reasonable belief” she was in her own home, she would have been allowed to use deadly force in self-defense.
Guyger can still raise the case to Texas’ Court of Criminal Appeals, but Thursday’s ruling is a setback to Guyger’s attempt to receive a reduced sentence. As it stands, she could be eligible for parole as soon as 2024.
There has been no public comment from Dallas Police Association (DPA) or its President Mike Mata. After the incident, Mata was accused of tampering with evidence after he aked that a police cruiser camera be turned off while he spoke to Guyger.
Mata was not charged by a Grand Jury who heard evidence and was cleared of any wrong doing. At the time he sadi he welcomed an Internal Affairs investigation believing he would receive the exoneration he ended up receiving through the court system.
During the Guyger murder trial, prosecutors used security camera video to suggest the DPA acted improperly when Mata arrived on the scene after the shooting.
Per eyewitnesses and social media accounts, Dallas Love Field airport was “on lockdown” after an individual ran through a TSA checkpoint.
Dallas Love Field Airport confirmed that an individual did breach the TSA checkpoint. It led to a brief halt of passenger screening, but “there was no impact to flight operations.”
Dallas Love Field Security Breach Adds To Unruly Passenger Wave
According to FAA data, there have been more than 3500 unruly passenger incidents in 2021 as of July 20, 2021.
Passengers at Dallas Love Field posted to Twitter said that the waits were far longer than the fifteen minutes the airport claimed.
This is the second incident at Love Field in just over a week. The first was the arrival of a passenger from Nigeria with monkeypox – a rare condition similar to smallpox.
Local officers recently chased a male suspect away fron a preteen girl who appears to be a Rangers coach caught with his pants down and masturbating per police insider.
The youth coach with the MLB RBI program was not at the West Dallas sports complex, but the insider tells Other Side Dallas he was viewing an underage girl approximately seven or eight years old in the vicinity of local security officers who broke a surveillance operation to warn him away from the area.
Major League Baseball and Texas Rangers officials were notified earlier this week. As of Thursday they had not responded for comment. The coach, alleged to be Edward Taylor, was identified when he was named in a press release and a neighbor called in the tip.
Rangers Coach Caught With Pants Down – Not The First Incident
The Texas Rangers are hosting a regional Major League Baseball RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner cities) tournament this weekend, but the allegation against one of their coaches is not the first problem this year at the complex.
Earlier this year a head coach was ejected after refusing to leave the field and umpires had to leave the field due to violent behavior by coaches at the Mercy Street Complex.
There areat least two other incidents where coaches threatened one another or acted dangerously during the RBI season.
Issues have been ongoing for years according to one softball coach who refused to be named.
She states every year the Rangers program director, Juan Leonel Gárciga, has to bring up the topic of on field violence, but he never handles it until after an incident and he almost always rewards coaches friendly to him.
In a previous year an umpire on the field told a high school student to “shut the fuck up” per a source employed by the Rangers so behavior control goes beyond coaching and staff, but is more widespread.
City staff say anyone in possession of, or using, fireworks will have them confiscated and a citation will be issued. Fines can be up to $2,000. However in 2020 Dallas Fire Rescue and the Dallas Police Department together confiscated nearly half ton of fireworks (900 pounds) and only issued eleven citations.
It is unclear if Dallas’ 9-1-1 Call Center is fully staffed to handle the increased calls expected over the holiday weekend.
Ruel Hamilton was convicted Tuesday of three of four counts of conspiracy and bribing two former Dallas City Council members, the late Carolyn Davis and Dwaine Caraway. Caraway is serving a nearly five-year prison sentence for accepting bribes and kickbacks.
A federal jury convicted Hamilton, the president of AmeriSouth Realty Group, of one count of conspiracy and two counts of bribery of an agent of a local government receiving federal funds.
Ruel Hamilton Case
From 2013 to 2015, Mr. Hamilton paid tens of thousands of dollars in bribes to Carolyn Davis, who was then serving as chair of the city’s Housing Committee.
Ms. Davis supported Hamilton’s Royal Crest housing project, voting to authorize a real estate development loan in a quid pro quo situation, despite the project not meeting the city’s housing priorities for multifamily units.
“The people of Dallas deserve true public servants, not those bought and paid for by the city’s elite. By using money to bend elected officials to his will, Mr. Hamilton betrayed the communities he purports to hold dear,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Prerak Shah.
He continued, “The U.S. Attorney’s Office will not allow a kickback culture to fester at City Hall. To anyone considering this sort of unscrupulous behavior: Think twice. Our prosecutors are tenacious, and we are determined to root out corruption wherever we find it.”
Dwaine Caraway’s conviction was also connected to the Dallas County Schools scandal. Carolyn Davis was killed in a DWI auto accident in 2019.
Dallas Police Department Officer Tyrone Williams was arrested for Sexual Assault of a Child. He was transported and booked into the Lew Sterret Justice Center.
Tyrone Williams – One Of Many Criminal DPD Officers
Dallas Police have suffered numerous officers acting poorly in the past year. Earlier in 2021, Keith Huber was arrested for Family Violence Assault – Bodily Injury.
Additionally, a DPD Officer arrested in Fort Worth has an interesting history. Dallas police officer, Senior Corporal Daniel Collins, was arrested Thursday on a charge of transportation of child pornography, officials said. According to his Facebook page he appears to also be a self avowed “ISIS hunter.”
Another officer, Brian Deininger, continues to lead field sobriety training despite his own issues with alcohol impairment behind the wheel.
