​ Houston City Council updates:

1. The Model Cities grant application is not on the agenda for Wednesday, October 7. This grant would tie HPD policies to federal policies on immigration, prioritizing "American" victims of crime and even "loitering." (Here is next week's agenda. Check it out to get a sense of what council considers each week. The more each of us know, the stronger we all are.)

Thank you to everyone who has advocated on this issue. Our advocacy has had impact. I don't know if it is coming back to the agenda-It has been listed and pulled twice-, Whitmire is doing something sneaky or if it is dead. We will keep vigilant on this important concern. 

Update! Just as I was about to post this, I checked NPR KUHF news and there is a report suggesting the city does not intend to pursue the grant. Big if true. 

Activism matters. We don't want our policing here in Houston defined by Donald Trump and Todd Blanche.

2. Chris Brown remains employed by the city despite working 15 hour weeks for a $127,000 salary and his belligerent pompous performance before council yesterday 9/30. Above you see Mr. Brown telling council yesterday that he merits a big salary for having been around for so long. 

It's all part of Mayor Whitmire's culture of entitlement for his bros like Marty Lancton and Doug Griffith at the so-called public safety unions. Belligerence gets a pass if you are the Mayor's buddy, while at the same time the mayor is openly rude to so many community members who make the effort to speak before council.

Disappointing conduct yesterday, 9/30, from Councilmember Sallie Alcorn who used a point of order against Controller Chris Hollins, while never saying a word about Mayor Whitmire's abrasive conduct toward Houstonians, or about Chris Brown's non-responsiveness yesterday to questions from Councilmember Alejandra Salinas.

Councilmember Alcorn has endorsed Mayor Whitmire for re-election in 2027. She is term-limited for 2027.
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Thanks to my colleague Hai Son Bui for the graphic below. The public has the right to know all the details of Mr. Brown's sketchy employment.

Here is the link to contact information for Houston City Council. Give them a call or send an e-mail about Model Cities, Chris Brown or whatever you like.

​3. Houston City Council will meet in consolidated session next week. Public Comment Session will be Wednesday, 10/7, at 9:30 AM. The reason for the schedule change is National Night Out on Tuesday, 10/6.

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There was a protest outside Houston City Hall yesterday, 9/29, regarding ICE in Houston & the Trump Department of Justice Model Cities grant Whitmire & HPD want. The grant would mandate HPD accept Trump priorities for immigration, policing & “loitering.”

Democratic Councilmember Alejandra Salinas came out from the ongoing council public comment session to briefly address the crowd. She said keep fighting & that an ICE ordinance would at some point come back to council.

I appreciated the acknowledgement of the protesters & a commitment to further action. Mostly when you speak at council, councilmembers just stare at you like you arrived from Andromeda—or they look at their phones. And they often avoid protests and political events that they don't have some measure of control over.

Ms. Salinas acknowledged the agency of the Houstonians at city hall by emphasizing the need to keep fighting. She asked for our efforts rather than just working through conventional politics. Elected officials are not saviors. 

Also at yesterday's evening public comment session, Democratic Councilmembers Ed Pollard & Tarsha Jackson said that after initial support they now oppose Flock Cameras.  

Our activism matters. 

The next action is when you organize it. The 1st Amendment is your permit. The only credential needed is your presence. Voting is not enough. The work ahead is ours. 

​Yesterday, 9/22, I spoke-picture below-at Houston City Council about the City of Houston intent to apply for a Department of Justice Model Cities grant. The issue is currently being held. Whitmire says the city wants to see what exactly will be required by accepting the grant if awarded to Houston. Whitmire says what they really want from the grant is $ they can use for homeless initiatives. It is a stretch to trust either the Department of Justice or Whitmire.

Here is the DOJ description of the program and here is information on contacting councilmembers to tell them you don't want this.

Here is what I said at council:

Thank you to the people of Houston for providing this forum. My name is Neil Aquino & I live in Houston. My comments are about Item 26 pulled from the agenda for the moment.

The framework for the DOJ Model Cities program mandates the city work with immigration enforcement. Submitting the grant application would be yet further confirmation Houston works with ICE.

The explanatory document holds up Memphis and Washington as models of good policing. Both cities have National Guard deployments. Is this what we want?

It says we must prioritize the safety of “American” children and prioritize “American” victims of sex trafficking over others. That’s an acceptable HPD policy?

The document addresses “urban loitering.” That’s the language used. Who will be policing our loiterers? Our militarized transit system with so many cops and reduced bus service? Our $305,000 a year constables? The politically connected, paid-agitators at the police union always whining about something? DPS that may well have called ICE about Salgado? HPD under the auspices of our white supremacist DOJ? National Guard troops?

Why don’t we run an actual city here instead of a fort or occupied zone?

You tell us over and over you can’t control what the federal government does. So you invite them right into our city? What assurance will any opt-out or agreement have, when you’ve told us a zillion times you have no control over them?

Two top threats to public safety in Houston are the federal government & the state government. Protect us from them.

Mayor Whitmire says there are unlimited HPD overtime $ to police what he calls “pop-up protests.” Those folks at No Kings rallies and on sidewalks and highway overpasses are overwhelmingly rank & file Democrats and democracy advocates—and who don’t want Donald Trump defining how we are policed.

The people on the streets are far more measured and significantly less dangerous than a Ken Paxton supporter. You don’t need unlimited resources to watch your own constituents take part in protests you should be joining.

I watch every council session and understand Houston needs money—But there is no fiscal need for more ICE thugs, National Guard troops or helping Kash Patel or whoever to monitor loitering.

Don’t apply for this grant with all its dirty, tainted money.

Thank you.

Today is my birthday and I’m making a pitch for donations to help meet expenses for my work on the Houston Democracy Project.

This work includes:

* I’ve been invited many times to speak at Democratic club meetings, Indivisible chapters and other groups across the Houston-region. I talk about the power we have as rank and file Democrats and democracy advocates. I’ve been a featured speaker at three Downtown Houston No Kings rallies.

* The weekly Houston Democracy Project hour on Politics Done Right on KPFT.

* An important role in maintaining the John Cornyn Houston Office Protest for almost 10 years. I show up on the streets as an organizer and also often as a rank & file participant.

* I watch every session of Houston City Council, offer commentary on Council debates regarding democracy issues, ICE in Houston and many issues before council. I’m an often-used resource for Houstonians who have questions about council and Mayor Whitmire.

* I'm playing a meaningful part in working to help find candidates and elect a more progressive and responsive Houston City Council in 2027.

* An extensive social media presence across multiple platforms and a well-read blog.

All of this takes time and costs money. My expenses include gas and many miles traveled. I show up for all communities and you can count on me to be present and engaged in an election interference crisis. I am at the least, as good an investment as most candidates and elected officials. I never let up.
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Thank you for your consideration. Link to contribute both above and below. 

​The next No Kings has been scheduled for Saturday, October 17. Above you see word of the protest nationally.

The two themes are getting out of the early vote & mobilizing for the potential of election interference.

Sounds good to me. 

There have been productive series of recorded Zoom calls staged by Indivisible addressing these two topics. The August 26 call discusses more direct forms of election interference. The bottom line is that it'll be rank and file people serving as witnesses, documenting interference and intimidation & being willing to respond to with rapid-response protest who will make an important difference. 

Below you see two events already-planned for the Houston-region. One in Clear Lake and the other in League City.

​There will be many more of these local events on October 17. The general plan in Houston is a suggestion that communities have the event earlier in the day, and then a larger final rally in Downtown Houston. The downtown event is planned from 4 PM TO 6 PM. 

You can set up a No Kings event wherever you are. 

​The next action is one you organize it. The 1st Amendment is your permit. The only credential needed is your presence. Voting will not be enough. The work ahead is ours. 

​In 2025, the Houston Police Department and the city administration changed the policy that dealt with how HPD conducted ( Or did not conduct.) investigations of shootings involving law enforcement agencies other than Houston police. 

Above you see Mayor Whitmire on at Houston City Council on July 8th, 2026. This was the day after ICE murdered Lorenzo Salgado Araujo at 6821 Canal St. in Houston. The mayor is saying that the shooting was a federal matter and that HPD did not have a role. He did not mention that up until the start of the 2nd Trump Administration, HPD guidelines would have mandated an effort to investigate as a matter of policy.

Here is an account of what each Houston City Councilmember said at that July 8 council meeting.  Here is a recording of that meeting. The discussion starts at the 3 hour 10 minute point. 

Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare began an investigation right away. 

It was public pressure that got Mayor Whitmire to do something other than just wish the issue would go away. Under Mayor Whitmire and his HPD, the City of Houston had already embraced a policy of no accountability for federal government violence on Houston streets.

From the Houston Chronicle: (Theoretically a gift link.)

More than a year before a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in east Houston, Mayor John Whitmire's administration quietly changed a decades-old policy that required Houston Police Department detectives to investigate every officer-involved shooting within city limits, regardless of which agency those officers work for...Since at least the 1990s, HPD officers have responded to these shootings, collecting evidence at the scene and coordinating interviews of witnesses and the officers involved, according to experts and past presentations to Houston City Council. In early 2025, however, Houston Police Chief Noe Diaz changed course and started deferring to the law enforcement agency responsible for the shooting...Instead of automatically responding, now HPD treats each shooting on a case-by-case basis, Diaz said. They opted not to respond when they were notified about Salgado's shooting....The change came roughly a month after President Donald Trump assumed office for a second term, promising dramatically expanded immigration enforcement. In January 2025, his administration began pulling grants from cities and law enforcement agencies it said were not ideologically aligned with its priorities. Diaz said Trump’s administration and its positioning on grants had nothing to do with the agency’s decision....As a result of the policy change, HPD investigators did not respond to the scene when an ICE agent shot and killed Salgado in July. Instead, representatives with the district attorney’s office were the first local investigators to the scene, a day later, losing precious hours to collect their own evidence and testimony before federal authorities consolidated control....Brian Higgins, a retired New Jersey police chief and criminal justice professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said there is no way to consider the change without the context of the Trump administration...“The standard of any jurisdiction - local, state, federal, etc. - is that the agency having primary jurisdiction sends officers to a shooting within their area of responsibility,” Higgins said, adding he couldn’t see other major agencies, like the New York City Police Department, making similar concessions...HPD’s policy change effectively turns every federal officer-involved shooting into something department leaders get to pick and choose whether to respond to, Higgins said....And it appears that’s exactly what happened in Salgado’s shooting. Dispatchers at HPD first heard about the shooting at 6:52 a.m. – less than two minutes after federal authorities say it happened. By 6:57 a.m., according to scanner traffic, an HPD official told investigators the situation was under control, per orders from HPD headquarters.....“I think they decided not to get involved in all this,” Harris said. “It’s too much of a hot potato.”

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​Above you see most of our crew today for Week 500 of the John Cornyn Houston Office Protest. That is 9 years & 32 weeks dating back to 2017. Below you see three other pictures from Week 500. 

Over 500 weeks, many thousands motorists and pedestrians have seen us and been encouraged. People know about us across the county & region. Many friendships have been formed, we don’t back down when threatened (And we’ve been threatened) & we’ve set a strong example of showing up openly and confidently for democracy no matter what.

We have no external resources or funding & no connections to electeds or to anything but our own autonomy. We will have to mobilize ourselves & be our own rapid-response network in the challenging days ahead.

I emphasize we have sustained the Protest for almost 10 years without money, connections to any elected officials, or to anything but our own autonomy--Because that is how it is for most of us. Most of us are just navigating as best we can.

We can act on our own behalf, make a difference, act in self-defense from an authoritarian political system, without waiting on anybody or being dependent on anybody.

We are entitled to our own collective identity and individual identity as rank and file Democrats & democracy advocates however we define ourselves politically. Elected officials are our elected employees.

The next action is when you organize it, the 1st Amendment is your permit, the only credential needed is your presence. Voting won’t be enough. The work ahead is ours.
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Join us for Week 501. Tuesday, 9/15, 11:30-1, 5300 Memorial Dr.

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There are three protests I'm aware of tomorrow, Labor Day, 9/7

You see word of one above and another below. 

There is also this in Katy tomorrow:

Join the "Workers Over Billionaires" Labor Day protest on Monday, September 7, 2026, from noon to 1 PM at 21010 Katy Freeway. Stand up for fair wages and worker power.

What to Bring and Wear
- Sun protection: Wear a hat and sunscreen.
- Hydration: Bring plenty of water.
- Parking: Park away from the local restaurants to leave spaces open for their customers. There is enough parking.

Sign Ideas
"People Over Profit"
"Fair Pay Now"
"Workers Built This Economy

This is organized by Marsha Kamish who does the repeatedly successful Katy No Kings protests in the same location. There is plenty of parking. 

Week 500 of the John Cornyn Houston Office Protest is Tuesday, 9/8, 11:30-1, 5300 Memorial Dr. 

The next action is when you organize it. The 1st Amendment is out permit. The only credential needed is your presence. Voting will not be enough. The work ahead is ours

​On Wednesday evening, 9/2, I joined Egberto Willies as guest-speakers at the September meeting of the excellent Kingwood Area Democrats. Egberto is host of Politics Done Right on KPFT & also has a Substack and YouTube presence. You see Egberto & myself above. Holding the microphone is club president Daren Baker who does a fine job.

Here is what I said Wednesday:

1. Voting will not be enough. Mobilization and rapid response will be up to us. Be ready for anything.

2. Have grace for yourself as we confront an authoritarian, white supremacist opponent. You can’t reach every voter or compel everyone to vote. We are giving free labor to an exploitive political system. Do your best.

3. We are entitled to an independent collective identity as rank & file Democrats and democracy advocates separate from the Democratic Party, elected officials and candidates. Candidates and elected officials come and go. Our need to be free remains. Our time and resources belong to us.

4. For Kingwood Area Democrats who live in Houston city limits, we can elect a better Houston City Council in 2027. Share word with all that Republican far-right councilmembers Willie Davis and Twila Carter can be defeated in 2027.

5. The next action is when you organize it. The 1st Amendment is out permit. The only credential needed is your presence. The work ahead is ours.