Dallas Branch NAACP Calls for the Resignation of DISD Superintendent

Casey Thomas, President of the Dallas Branch National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (“Dallas NAACP”) attended the Dallas Independent School District (“DISD”) Board meeting on September 25, 2008 and requested the immediate resignation of Dr. Michael Hinojosa as Superintendent of DISD.

Pres. Thomas read a letter to both the board and a packed room of concerned Dallas citizens. The letter in it’s’ entirety is below.

“On behalf of the Executive Committee of the Dallas branch of the NAACP, we request the resignation of Dr. Michael Hinojosa as Superintendent of the Dallas Independent School District. We did not come to this decision only as a result of this most recent event and this was not a knee jerk reaction.

The following series of events have led us to this decision:

• The downgrade from Principals to Deans at Yvonne Ewell Townview Magnet
• The credit card scandal (“P” card)
• The dismantling of Spruce High School and allowing Samuell High School to be on the brink of dismantling
• Roosevelt grading scandal
• The mishandling of stripping South Oak Cliff basketball team of their state championship
• The mishandling of the movement of clusters from Skyline Career Center to Emmet Conrad High School
• The $54 million dollar shortfall back in March 2008
• The mishandling of the attempt to change the grading policy, a national embarrassment
• The recent DISD bond proposal barely passing, showing a lack of confidence by the citizens of Dallas
• The latest $64 million budget shortfall
• The 11 low-performing and academically unacceptable high schools in Dallas ISD.

“The combination of the above listed reasons have shown a pattern of failure to provide fiscal responsibility and has made it impossible to continue to have confidence in the leadership of Dr. Hinojosa for this school district”. Pres. Thomas had the support of executive committee members of the Dallas Branch.

Ike strands freighter in Gulf; Houston braces

MICHAEL GRACZYK (AP)

- A sprawling and strengthening Hurricane Ike steamed through the Gulf of Mexico on Friday on a track toward the nation’s fourth-largest city, where authorities told residents to brace rather than flee.

The Coast Guard scrambled to respond to a pre-dawn distress call about a 584-foot bulk freighter with 22 people aboard that broke down in the path of the storm about 90 miles southeast of Galveston. The Category 2 storm with its 105-mph winds could cause 50-foot waves and made rescue by ship impossible, Petty Officer Patrick Kelley said.

“They’re so far offshore, you’re looking at only helicopter responses. Then you’re dealing with winds,” Kelley said, adding that the Coast Guard was weighing its response options.

Kelley did not provide the name of the ship, which was hauling petroleum coke, or details on where it was headed.

Ike’s eye was forecast to strike somewhere near Galveston late Friday, but the massive system was already buffeting Texas and Louisiana.

The National Weather Service warned residents of smaller structures on Galveston they could “face certain death” if they ignored an order to evacuate; most had complied.

Evacuation orders also were in effect for low-lying sections of the Houston area. Authorities urged homeowners to board up windows, clear the decks of furniture and stock up on drinking water and nonperishable food.

Officials said residents should not flock to the roadways en masse, creating the same kind of gridlock that cost lives - and a little political capital - when Hurricane Rita threatened Houston in 2005.

“It will be, in candor, something that people will be scared of,” Houston Mayor Bill White warned. “A number of people in this community have not experienced the magnitude of these winds.”

The decision is a stark contrast to how emergency management officials responded to Hurricane Rita in 2005. As the storm closed in three years ago, the region implemented its plan: Evacuate the 2 million people in the coastal communities first, past the metropolis of Houston; once they were out of harm’s way, Houston would follow in an orderly fashion.

But three days before landfall, Rita bloomed into a Category 5 and tracked toward the city. City and Harris County officials told Houstonians to hit the road, even while the population of Galveston Island was still clogging the freeways. It was a decision that proved tragic: 110 people died during the effort, making the evacuation more deadly than the eventual Category 4 storm, which killed nine.

With the lessons of that disaster, public officials were left with a vexing choice this time. Because Ike’s path wasn’t clear until just about 48 hours before the storm, officials didn’t have a lot of time to make evacuation calls.

“Almost all of them are in a pretty tough spot,” said Michael Lindell, a Texas A&M University urban planner and emergency management expert. “The problem is elected officials were not elected to be hurricane experts.

“It’s staring into the barrel of a gun. It’s a very challenging problem for them and there isn’t any easy answer.”

Ike was forecast to make landfall early Saturday southwest of Galveston, a barrier island and beach town about 50 miles southeast of downtown Houston and scene of the nation’s deadliest hurricane, the great storm of 1900 that left at least 6,000 dead.

Though Houston didn’t evacuate, low-lying communities predicted to be the bulls-eye of the storm did. People on the island were ordered evacuated Thursday, joining residents of at least nine zip codes in flood-prone areas of Harris County, in which Houston is located, along with hundreds of thousands of fellow Texans in counties up and down the coastline.

“I don’t have a crystal ball, but if I did, I think it would tell me a sad story,” said Randy Smith, the police chief and a waterfront property owner on Surfside Beach, just down the coast from Galveston and a possible landfall target.

“And that story would be that we’re faced with devastation of a catastrophic range. I think we’re going to see a storm like most of us haven’t seen.”

Most metropolitan residents appeared to be heeding orders and staying put. Edgar Ortiz, a 55-year-old maintenance worker from east Houston, said leaders were providing wise advice, considering what happened during Rita, but said people were inclined to make up their own minds.

“I guess people tend to want to stay where they’re at,” he said as he shopped for bottled water, toilet paper and canned goods. “A lot of people don’t want to leave. I don’t want to leave. You may be taking a risk, but that’s just how it is.”

Maria Belmonte, 42, of Channelview, said she was stuck in traffic for 18 hours as she evacuated for Rita. This time, she was comfortable with the recommendation to stay put - but she said she would reconsider if the forecast worsened Friday.

“We have small kids, and we need to think about their safety,” said Belmonte, a records clerk at an elementary school.

Ike would be the first major hurricane to hit a U.S. metropolitan area since Katrina devastated New Orleans three years ago. For Houston, it would be the first major hurricane since Alicia in August 1983 came ashore on Galveston Island, killing 21 people and causing $2 billion in damage.

Ike is so big, it could inflict a punishing blow even in those areas that do not get a direct hit. Forecasters warned because of Ike’s size and the shallow Texas coastal waters, it could produce a surge, or wall of water, 20 feet high, and waves of perhaps 50 feet. It could also dump 10 inches or more of rain.

At 8 a.m. EDT Friday, the storm was centered about 230 miles southeast of Galveston, moving to the west-northwest near 13 mph. Ike was a Category 2 storm with maximum sustained winds near 105 mph.

Hurricane warnings were in effect over a 400-mile stretch of coastline from south of Corpus Christi to Morgan City, La., and many residents who fled Hurricane Gustav two weeks ago only to be spared in East Texas were packing up again Thursday.

Tropical storm warnings extended south almost to the Mexican border and east to the Mississippi-Alabama line, including New Orleans.

The oil and gas industry was closely watching the storm because it was headed straight for the nation’s biggest complex of refineries and petrochemical plants. The upper Texas coast accounts for one-fifth of U.S. refining capacity.

The first rain and wind was set to arrive later Friday. Residents were scurrying to get ready, and hardware stores put limits on the number of gas containers that could be sold. Batteries, drinking water and other storm supplies were running low, and grocery stores were getting set to close. Houston was slowly shutting down, and people beginning to head inside. The only thing to do was wait and see what Ike had in store.

“It’s a big storm,” Texas Gov. Rick Perry said. “I cannot overemphasize the danger that is facing us. It’s going to do some substantial damage. It’s going to knock out power. It’s going to cause massive flooding.”

Noose Left on Chair of Black Student Leader

AP

- Police looked for clues Monday into who placed a noose on the office chair of the Abilene Christian University student body president last week.

Daniel Paul Watkins, a senior political science major from Fredricksburg, Va., found the noose on his chair Wednesday in the office he uses as head of Abilene Christian University’s Student Congress. Watkins is black.

Campus police were trying to determine whether the action constituted a hate crime, school president Royce Money said Monday. No threat was left with the noose.

Blacks make up as much as 13 percent of a student body that numbers about 4,700.

Houston Study shows Tasers used more on black suspects

JUAN A. LOZANO (AP)

- Houston police officers have used Tasers more on black suspects than any other group of individuals, according to a city study released Monday.

Of 1,417 Taser deployments by officers between December 2004 and June 2007, nearly 67 percent were used on black suspects, according to an audit put together for the city by a team of criminology, statistics and mathematics experts. About 25 percent of Houston’s population is black.

But Houston police quickly pointed out that their use of Tasers has nothing to do with race, only a person’s behavior.

“It’s not a racial issue. A Taser device is no different from a radar gun. It’s race neutral,” Executive Assistant Police Chief Charles McClelland said after the Houston City Council meeting where the report was released.

The independent audit was requested by Houston Mayor Bill White in 2006, after several high-profile incidents. That year, Houston Texans offensive lineman Fred Weary was shocked during a traffic stop, and an officer called to quiet a noisy music club shocked musicians and concertgoers. The latter incident was videotaped and later shown on YouTube.

The study found that black officers were less likely than white or Latino officers to use Tasers on a black suspect.

“We have to spend more time in determining why these racial and ethnic differences exist,” said City Controller Annise Parker, whose office put the audit together. “Simply ignoring them or saying they are not significant is not going to make them go away.”

McClelland said Houston police arrest more than 100,000 people each year, and less than one-half of 1 percent of those individuals are ever involved in a Taser event.

“It is so rare,” he said.

The report did not give a breakdown of arrests by minorities.

Minister Robert Muhammad, with the southwest regional headquarters for The Nation of Islam, disputed McClelland’s claim that race is not a factor in the use of Tasers.

“Can we say it’s racism? Yes, and some people would argue no,” said Muhammad, who is based in Houston. “The greater argument is abuse of authority. We give them authority to protect us. But instead of using that authority to protect us, they abuse us with it.”

The 175-page report has a section that summarizes answers officers gave when asked why Tasers were being used more on black suspects. Their responses included: “Racist officers are doing the tasing,” “The crime rate is higher in the African American race,” and “The African American culture is more aggressive. The suspects have more attitude and are more combative.”

Some critics have called for tighter restrictions or even an end on officers’ use of Tasers, but Parker said Tasers are not going away.

“We need to figure out the best way to use them,” she said.

The city spent $4.7 million on Tasers in 2004. The Tasers were introduced a year after the shootings of two unarmed teens. But the audit found that Tasers, which were touted as an alternative to the use of deadly force, did not reduce the number of officer-involved shootings.

Parker said she believes there might be a disconnect between what citizens think is the appropriate use of Tasers and how Houston police should use them.

“We have to have a common understanding on when and how Tasers should be used. We encourage the department to have a dialogue with the community,” she said.

McClelland said police and the media need to do a better job of educating the public about how Tasers are used. He disputed that Tasers were promoted as being a way to reduce the use of deadly force, and said his expectation was that they wouldn’t increase the number of officer-involved shootings.

“I don’t think any of you would expect a Houston police officer to use a less lethal device when someone is exhibiting deadly force. That’s just nonsense,” he said.

Muhammad said with the millions spent on buying Tasers, up to $1 million should be allocated for community intervention projects “so our young black males are not victims of Taser use, deadly force.”

The audit also found that no policy exists as to how many times a Taser may be used on an individual.

About 11,500 law enforcement agencies across the country use Tasers, according to the National Institute of Justice.

Tasers, which deliver a 50,000-volt jolt through two barbed darts that can penetrate clothing, are manufactured by Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Taser International.

The audit did not look at whether Tasers are safe to use.

According to a June interim report by the National Institute of Justice, findings indicate there is no conclusive medical evidence that show a high risk of serious injury or death from being hit by a Taser.

New president walks a high wire in turning around troubled TSU

JEANNIE KEVER, Houston Chronicle

- During his first seven months as president of Texas Southern University, John Rudley has been praised for raising admission standards, hiring a new administrative team and producing a $208 million balanced budget.

But the school’s academic programs are still on probation, as are its athletic programs. Students complain of financial hardships caused by a last-minute requirement that everyone in campus housing purchase a meal plan.

Reinventing TSU is a balancing act, teetering between optimism and reminders of all that remains to be done.

“We’re now moving back to being a normal university,” said Rudley, who took office in February and will be formally inaugurated Friday.

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