Demand for an apology from the Cathedral of Hope for endangering the safety of the Dallas LGBT.
They played games with the issue of the safety of the Dallas LGBT, and we need to make it clear to everyone that the safety of the Dallas LGBT is not a game.
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The January 18th “Townhall” revealed that the security of the Dallas LGBT had been undermined by the Cathedral of Hope.
The Dallas LGBT needs to the police to take the safety of the Dallas LGBT seriously, when there are situations like armed Nazis looking for an excuse to massacre the LGBT.
This is the meeting in question with video of the meeting.
What we found out at that meeting is that the Cathedral of Hope leadership and others accepted excuses from the Dallas Police Department for an extremely slow response, but used the meeting to justify to the attendees that that the extremely slow response was justified.
When the risk of a massacre is imminent, the police need to show up FAST.
Excuses won’t raise the dead. They won’t bring back alive shot up LGBT people.
My letter to Rev. Dr. Neil G. Thomas.
August 17, 2024
Edward H. Sebesta
Dallas, TX 75XXX
Rev. Dr. Neil G. Thomas
Cathedral of Hope
5910 Cedar Springs Road
Dallas, TX 75235
Dear Rev. Dr. Thomas:
I am writing to ask you to apologize for your conduct at a January 18, 2024 meeting called by yourself at the Cathedral of Hope, which you titled, “Safety & Security Town Hall.” From what I observed and the statements made by you and your group and their actions proposing a special district was a serious harm to the security of the LGBT in Dallas. When persons proposing to be leaders or influential members of the community have actions which seriously harm the safety of the LGBT in Dallas, these actions need to be call out. The following is a report with video of the meeting.
Being that there are multiple issues with the meeting, these issues will be taken one at a time. The really serious issue will be the third issue.
[1] A bait and switch. The meeting was to propose a special use district to provide additional police in an immediate area of the Cedar Springs strip of bars. There is no problem with that, it would be good that the area of LGBT bars would have extra security. However, the meeting was announced about the security of the LGBT in Dallas in reference to a recent rally of armed Nazis at an entry way to the parking lot of the Cathedral of Hope.
Oddly, there were no maps of the proposed special district. Exactly how was this district going to provide security for the Cedar Spring strip with LGBT bars and yet reach out to encompass the Cathedral of Hope and the location of the Nazi protest?
The distance from the further northwest point of what might be argued part of The Strip would be the intersection of Douglas and Cedar springs at the corner of the Kroger. From there to the Cathedral of hope is 1.6 miles of residential areas and businesses which aren’t part of The Strip or the Cathedral of Hope. A map of the distance from the corner of Kroger and to the Cathedral of Hope is included in this letter.
A meeting about the security of the LGBT in Dallas should actually be about the security of the LGBT in Dallas.
Was this district going to include islands of the special district, be non-contiguous? Was the special district to be two or more separate spots on the map?
How was this special district to protect the LGBT outside it? A security district would likely be a good first step to improve the safety of the LGBT in Dallas since it is geographic location which much of the LGBT go to, but it is just that, just a possible step, not a comprehensive plan.
And it is very unclear exactly how it would have covered the location where the Nazis had their rally at the entry way to the Cathedral of Hope. Maps would have been nice.
This meeting could have actually been about discussing all the issues of the security of the LGBT in Dallas, but it was instead the use of the community’s concern to push a very particular agenda item.
[2] Cathedral of Hopes rejection of a Hate Crimes Unit for the police. The comment was that it wouldn’t be a deterrence and the subject was dismissed with annoyance since the promotion of the special district was now being impeded by other people’s ideas.
It is true, a hate crimes unit wouldn’t be a deterrence for the crazy type of persons who commit massacres. That is a misdirection by the Cathedral of Hope person. A hate-crimes unit operates by monitoring extremist groups and proactively preventing them. They could collect information and make sure extremists don’t slip through the cracks of the bureaucracy and shot up people as happened in Colorado.
https://dallasgayliberation.substack.com/p/dallas-police-dept-needs-a-hate-crimes
It a massacre would be horrible of course, but it would be additionally infuriating if the massacre could have been avoided easily, but there was a lack of action and no focus.
The police with a “coordinated effort” shut down this plot.
A focused effort by law enforcement stopped this plot.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/11/us/michigan-whitmer-plot/index.html
If we had a hate crimes unit, the police could have been there a few minutes before the armed Nazis were there at the Cathedral of Hope.
If there is a massacre of the LGBT in Dallas in a case where there was bungling, neglect, and lack of effort or focus, such as happened at the Q Club shooting, which easily could have been prevented, the blood is on your hands.
[3] However, it was the excuses made for the police very slow response to armed Nazis protesting at the Cathedral of hope which are the most appalling. According to the Cathedral of Hopes account that they gave, it took 20 minutes for a single police car to show up, and it took then an additional 40 minutes for enough police to deal with the situation, an hour in total.
People were talking about police protocols in responding which was considered acceptable, and your group said that it was a problem of understaffing and the delay was reasonable. The meeting was largely an excuse fest for the police for their dilatory response.
If some protocol is keeping the police from showing up quickly when there is imminent risk of Nazis conducing a massacre, they their protocol is STUPID. A person would be stupid to think otherwise. The protocol should be changed.
You give the idea to the police that the LGBT community at large is accepting of excuses of a dilatory response when there is a clear and present danger of the LGBT being massacred.
If armed Nazis show up at Station 4 or Sue Ellens or the Roundup or some place on the Strip, and the risk of a massacre is imminent, the police can think that the LGBT “leadership” understands that the police are understaffed and unless someone has actually been shot, they will maybe show up in 20 or 30 minutes, and they can advise the LGBT people calling, “if one or more people are shot and bleeding, please call back.”
A Gay event anywhere is the city has their safety compromised by you, because the police now think excuses for not responding quickly is acceptable.
Do you think it would take an hour for an effective police response if armed Nazis showed up at Temple Emanu-El? No the police would be coming with many police cars with sirens blaring and a helicopter overhead.
If the armed Nazis picketed the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum on Houston St., do you think the Dallas Police would say we are really busy, but we will try to get there as soon as we can? NO. There would be police and police cars and snipers and a helicopter or two.
In participating in protests with African American groups in 2017, 2018, and later, the police were there before we were there. They had resources to always, I mean always, be present at a protest by African Americans, often there before most of the protestors showed up.
Let me share with you a truth about human affairs:
Where there is a will, there is a way.
If some terrorist group is terrorizing, and there is a real risk of a massacre imminent, the police need to find a way to show up in a hurry. They need to figure out how to do their goddamned jobs.
This is not going to happen, the police trying to figure out how to show up in a timely way, if a massacre is possibly imminent, with LGBT “leaders” worrying about what the straight people will think if they are too demanding.
This is not going to happen, the police trying to figure out how to show up in a timely way, if a massacre is possibly imminent, with LGBT “leaders” worrying about doing the “Dallas Way” and not being those bad radical Gays who are loud and rude.
It is Dallas LGBT leaders like you is why the Dallas Police raided The Club baths in 2010 and arrested eleven men knew they could get away with it and did. It is leaders like you that we have no human rights commission in Dallas, whereas Fort Worth has had one since 1967.
You need to issue a public apology, and also take action so that the Dallas Police Dept. doesn’t think excuses are acceptable when the risk of massacre of the LGBT is imminent. It isn’t just that you compromised your own safety, you compromised the safety of all the LGBT in the city of Dallas.
Sincerely yours,
Edward H. Sebesta
P.S. I don’t know if the Cathedral of Hope has a fainting couch, but I will make this suggestion anyways. Next time your human rights are disregarded, you might actually, protest.
Why this letter?
I doubt that I will hear back, but the so-called “leadership” of the Dallas LGBT need to know that they will be held accountable and there will be some review and record of what they do.
Also, in reflecting on why Dallas isn’t safe for Gays, we need to recognize that it is more than individual bad decisions or actions like the one described in this letter. I will add this to the post, “Dallas is Unsafe for the LGBT, Visit at your own risk.”
We need to understand that the “Dallas Way,” is a disease undermining our community. This is a “way that doesn’t want to every protest or ever be demanding, but wants to be always pleading and always worries what the straight people will think.
