Dallas’ new police chief, David Brown, spoke last Tuesday night during the regular monthly meeting of LULAC Council 4871—The Dallas Rainbow Council. As far as I know, this marked Brown’s first appearance before an LGBT group since he became chief. As you can see from the video, it was pretty dark inside Havana, where the meeting was held. But Brown’s comments concerning the recent hate crime near Cedar Springs are at least worth a listen.
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If he can clean up a longstanding corrupt department, more power to him.
The chief sounds like an intelligent and dedicated man who is willing to reach out and work with our community. It appears, however, that some DPD officers could use some intensive education on how one goes about properly investigating and classifying a hate crime. Although DPD did increase patrols in Oak Lawn immediately after the incident (I noted this with my own eyes), they apparently failed to notify local businesses and the greater LGBT community in a timely manner. So, in short, bad police work, ignorance, or both put our community at a potentially greater risk for at least 48 hours after the incident. Sounds like we need to advocate for better training and education for our “professional” police force…
Well said TR! We need more police on the streets around the gayborhood!
Thanks, Lil’ Carl. I will add that in my opinion the police are only part of the equation. We as a GBLT community have to be more aware of our surroundings and knowledgeable about how to protect ourselves. We have find better ways to cooperate, communicate, and collaborate with DPD. As the chief mentioned in his talk, social networking sounds like a great start. Many progressive-minded police departments in our country rely heavily on social networking with their communities, and many are seeing meaningful results.