Police Union Says Whitmire Should Get A Statue-Would Be Better If He'd Stand For Our Freedom

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​The picture above was sent out by the Houston Police Officers Houston. The union believes Mayor Whitmire merits a statue because of the recent proposed union contract with the city.

The contract is very expensive to taxpayers and has no performance standards as part of the big money. These things are important, but are a bit outside the work I do on the Houston Democracy Project. I will comment soon on the ongoing Houston city budget process about how the city has no idea how federal cuts will impact the budget. The six Republicans on Houston City Council especially, must take responsibility
for bad circumstances they have helped create.

My focus here is that the proposed contract makes it even more difficult to discipline Houston Police officers. This comes at the same time Trump has issued an Executive Order making police almost unaccountable & establishing a framework for U.S. military cooperation with local law enforcement.

From The Houston Chronicle:

"The tentative agreement will also give officers the opportunity to reduce any suspensions of three days or less down to discipline without a suspension and give those suspended five days or less the opportunity to use up to 10 days. Officers will only be orally interrogated by internal affairs if criminal activity is suspected...Officers who are called to court will also receive a minimum four hours of overtime, compared to the existing two-hour minimum, records show."

This contract in these times should make Houston Police more accountable to the people of Houston. Not the other way around. The Democrat we elected as Mayor should understand this obvious fact.

The Houston Police Union has in recent weeks retweeted and given further voice to extremists such as Charlie Kirk, Wesley Hunt and Dan Patrick, undermined law and order by being part of the relentless attacks on our judges and been silent about sustained assaults on civil liberties from Trump.

Each police officer will have the autonomy in the challenging days ahead to decide to follow or not follow any unconstitutional orders & any orders that take away freedoms established by law. This is the standard by which public officials and people with authority will be judged on when the day of lawful and procedural account comes for the Trump Administration. We can’t assess people in advance or create a self-fulfilling prophecy of wrong action. People must be taken as individuals. 

It is disappointing Mayor Whitmire is so comfortable with police union support. The police union does not reflect the values of our city. 

These subjects can be uncomfortable to think about because the stakes are so high with our rights on the line. But this is where we are. We must see clearly, speak up & advocate for ourselves.

Here is information on contacting and following Houston City Council--

Public comment time at Houston City Council is each Tuesday at 2 PM. Here is how you can speak at Council and here is how to contact your councilmember.  The earlier before the session you sign up, the higher up on the speaker's list you'll be. The agenda session to conduct Council business is each Wednesday at 9 AM. The agenda is posted in advance. Council can be watched live on HTV Houston Television and the most recent session is available at any time on the HTV feed on Facebook. Here is the link to past sessions of Council.

​Here is the Houston Democracy Project list of things each of us can do to fight Trump/Musk. Here is a fundraising pitch for the Houston Democracy Project. I'm doing the work and showing up in many different ways.  Please help the effort. ​​

I'm on the Egberto Willies Politics Done Right Show every Thursday from 6 AM to 7 AM for the Houston Democracy Project segment. You can hear the show on the radio, stream it on KPFT or watch later Egberto's YouTube channel.

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