Kuff has questions about mayoral candidate John Whitmire’s plan to bring 200 DPS troopers to Houston to patrol the streets. I’m more of a “Hell No!” on this notion. If I have a question, it’s for the black and brown politicians who have lined up to support Whitmire: Do you support bringing DPS to Houston?
Austin had a similar arrangement with the DPS to “fight crime,” but stats show DPS practices were more about racial profiling, as 82% of misdemeanor arrests were of black and brown folks. And after the most recent “fiasco” (as Whitmire calls it) on the border, in which DPS troopers were told to push children and migrants into the Rio Grande to stop them from crossing, and Greg Abbott’s use of deadly razor wire and floating balls which have been found to be pieced together with sharp, saw-toothed metal, to trap migrants to death, why oh why would John Whitmire think that bringing such a badly run law enforcement agency to Houston would be a good idea?
Oh, let’s not forget that other fiasco in Uvalde, TX, where DPS Director McCraw and Greg Abbott proved their incompetence.
As Kuff reminds us, Houston can get rid of a local police chief if the Mayor doesn’t like his crime-fighting abilities or wants someone to scapegoat, but they can’t do much of anything about a Governor and his minion DPS director when their agency racially profiles, “accidentally” shoots, or pulls a weapon on the next black or brown teenager.
No doubt, DPS is already around Houston and Harris County doing traffic duty, perhaps checking on big trucks that are violating standards. Fine, keep them doing that. We all know there are idiots on the road that need to be stopped to keep us safe, too. But we have HPD, HCSO, a bunch of constables, and other local law enforcement agencies that are supposed to be protecting and serving. If there is crime and our politicians have failed to get to the bottom of why it is happening (hint: It’s poverty!), then we need better politicians.
At this point, it is safe to say that John Whitmire is not one of those politicians.