Letter to Dallas Mayor Johnson: We need a Human Rights Commission and a Hate Crime unit in the Dallas Police Department. Update. Petition started.
Mailed letter to Mayor Johnson on 11/28/2022 asking for both with copies to all the Dallas City Council letters. Here is the contents of the two letters.
This is the link to the petition to get a Human Rights Commission at Change.org https://chng.it/XrsMZ9P8cR Please sign and share.
Share this post so people can be informed on what is happening with Gay liberation in Dallas. Don’t let media gatekeepers keep you in the dark.
Letter to Dallas Mayor Johnson asking for a Human Rights Commission and a Hate Crimes unit in the Dallas Police Dept. mailed 11/28/2022 by certified mail. Links to earlier posts on both topics were in the letter so they show up here in Substack format. But they were printed out also and included with the letter sent to each person.
Mayor Eric Johnson, City of Dallas, 1500 Marilla St., Dallas, TX 75201
Dear Hon. Johnson:
In past decade Dallas has had at least three hate crime shootings. There was the killing of five police officers in 2016 by Micah X. Johnson, the shooting of three Koreans at a Beauty parlor by Jeremy Smith in 2022, and Anthony Paz Torres killed one Muslim man and injured others at Omar’s Wheels & Tires in 2015.
With the inflammatory rhetoric of Kelly Neidert of Protect Texas Kids and armed groups showing up at bars and books stores in North Texas including that segment of Cedar Springs Road which has many LGBT+ bars, I think it is a matter of when, not if, there is a massacre of LGBT+ in Dallas.
The City of Dallas needs to have a hate crime unit in the Dallas Police Department with at least one person to focus on the prevention of hate crimes, providing instruction on how public places might defend themselves against hate crimes, and providing instruction on responding to hate crimes.
I have enclosed and have online this short article as to why we need a Dallas Police Dept. Hate Crimes Unit.
At the May 16, 2022 police presentation at the Korean Culture Center, I learned that there wasn’t routine tracking of hate crimes and the data had been compiled just for that meeting. The shooting of the victim at the Hair World Salon was first declared not to be a hate crime by Police Chief Garcia, but later we find out that there had been two previous business where Asian business had been attacked. One can only wonder when the series of attacks might have stopped had there not been people injured at the Hair World Salon.
The City of Dallas needs to get a grip on the menace of hate crimes and have a goal of preventing hate crimes. Not future resolutions of condolences, editorials of sadness in the local media, not flowers, when some bar or business is shot up, LGBT, or otherwise, but a determined plan of action now to prevent hate crimes so none of those other actions and items are necessary.
We also need to have a Dallas human rights commission. Fort Worth has had one since 1967. I enclose a copy of the following short article which is online at this link.
Recently, at a public meeting I heard the usual response from a city council person that he would love to have a Dallas human rights commission, but there needs to be eight Dallas City Council members for it to pass. I have heard that excuse given before when some supposed champion of civil rights has been asked to support Dallas getting a human rights commission.
I think it is rather remarkable that a city which purports to be a modern progressive city that you couldn’t get eight out of 15 persons to support a human rights commission for the City of Dallas. The assertion that an ordinance for a human rights commission couldn’t be passed by the Dallas City Council suggests that under the smiling surface of Dallas there is a creepy undercurrent which is the reality of Dallas.
I suggest at least one Dallas City Council member submit an ordinance for a human rights commission and let’s find out who is who regarding civil rights and who is merely cosplaying as some champion of civil rights. This is known as fighting for civil rights.
If we get a human rights commission established in Dallas in 2023, it will be 56 years after Fort Worth established there, but better way, way, way late than never.
Sincerely yours,
Edward H. Sebesta
CC: Chad West, Jesse Moreno, Casey Thomas II, Carolyn King Arnold, Jaime Resendez, Omar Narvaez, Adam Bazaldua, Tennell Atkins, Paula Blackmon, Adam McGough, Jaynie Schultz, Cara Mendelsohn, Gay Donnell Willis, Paul E. Ridley.
The struggle for a Human Rights Commission is going to be a longer struggle than to get end the practice of members of homophobic institutions giving invocations at Dallas City Council meetings, but it would be a big step forward for the City of Dallas and would work to recognize, document and oppose discrimination and make Dallas a better place.
A hate crimes unit is urgently needed to prevent another violent attack on minorities.
With this first mailing I am launching the effort. I hope that people can share this post so we can get the widest support for getting both a Human Rights Commission and a Dallas Police Dept. Hate Crimes Unit.
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