Galveston City Council meeting 4-22-2010

[seamusTX]

I'm watching the Galveston City Council meeting on TV right now.

A man appeared before the council to complain about an arrest. Everything from here on is my paraphrasing from memory.

He is an older, clean-cut white guy who lives in town. He was visiting someone in the area north of Broadway in the 30s or 40s, which is the traditional black neighborhood and is where public housing was located before it was Iked. This area has a reputation for drug activity.

He said he was pulled over by two officers in a Galveston Police Department cruiser and questioned about where he had been, where he was going, whether he had drugs or weapons, and other matters. The police asked him to get out of the vehicle, frisked him, and put him in the cruiser.

When he asked why he was stopped, the officer said that he had stopped his vehicle in the crosswalk.

He was then arrested and booked into jail.

He referred to the racial breakdown of the prisoners in holding cells, being mostly "Mexican" or black.

He said this was a "pretense stop," racial profiling, a violation of his "2nd amendment" [sic] rights, and had to stop.

One of the council members asked him what he had been arrested for. He pulled out a yellow slip of paper that looked like a citation and said that "receipt" was all he had.

The mayor then asked him to speak privately to the police chief, and the meeting went into a scheduled recess.

The police chief was present, as this item was on the agenda.

This will be on the web eventually. I will post the URL for those who may be interested.

- Jim

[puma guy]

I'm watching the Galveston City Council meeting on TV right now.

A man appeared before the council to complain about an arrest. Everything from here on is my paraphrasing from memory.

He is an older, clean-cut white guy who lives in town. He was visiting someone in the area north of Broadway in the 30s or 40s, which is the traditional black neighborhood and is where public housing was located before it was Iked. This area has a reputation for drug activity.

He said he was pulled over by two officers in a Galveston Police Department cruiser and questioned about where he had been, where he was going, whether he had drugs or weapons, and other matters. The police asked him to get out of the vehicle, frisked him, and put him in the cruiser.

When he asked why he was stopped, the officer said that he had stopped his vehicle in the crosswalk.

He was then arrested and booked into jail.

He referred to the racial breakdown of the prisoners in holding cells, being mostly "Mexican" or black.

He said this was a "pretense stop," racial profiling, a violation of his "2nd amendment" [sic] rights, and had to stop.

One of the council members asked him what he had been arrested for. He pulled out a yellow slip of paper that looked like a citation and said that "receipt" was all he had.

The mayor then asked him to speak privately to the police chief, and the meeting went into a scheduled recess.

The police chief was present, as this item was on the agenda.

This will be on the web eventually. I will post the URL for those who may be interested.

- Jim

Just curious re: meeting rules for addressing council. Can a citizen have a dialogue with a member or the mayor? Is there a time limit? Ours is 3 minutes.

[seamusTX]

The meetings are pretty open.

They might have a time limit that can be enforced at the discretion of the presiding officer, in case some nut wants to make a speech about alien abductions or something like that. I can't recall it being enforced, but I don't pay close attention.

In a small city like this, officials are not insulated from the public. They shop and go to church like everyone else. I'm confident that I could talk to the city manager or police chief within the next 24 hours if I wanted to.

- Jim

[puma guy]

The meetings are pretty open.

They might have a time limit that can be enforced at the discretion of the presiding officer, in case some nut wants to make a speech about alien abductions or something like that. I can't recall it being enforced, but I don't pay close attention.

In a small city like this, officials are not insulated from the public. They shop and go to church like everyone else. I'm confident that I could talk to the city manager or police chief within the next 24 hours if I wanted to.

- Jim

Pasadena at one point made a rule you could only address council regarding agenda items. That Mayor is gone! You still can have no discourse with the members or mayor

[seamusTX]

Pasadena at one point made a rule you could only address council regarding agenda items.

The Texas Open Meetings Act requires strict conformance to the agenda. However, the agenda can and usually does include a period for comments from the public.

Whatever the government body, they can't take action on an issue that is not on the agenda, but they can discuss it.

It sounds like that mayor needed a good dose of Ex-Lax.

- Jim

[seamusTX]

The Daily News posted a story about the this meeting: http://www.galvnews.com/story/155537" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The video is available at http://www.guidrynews.com/default.aspx? ... ilMeetings" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You have to click "April 22 City Council Meeting," then "part 2" in the scrolling box. The discussion that I am referring to starts around 22 minutes into the video, but the discussion before that is on the same subject, namely, traffic stops by police officers who are working security for private property owners.

The tall white guy in the dark suit is the police chief.

The police department provided a report that concludes that custodial arrests for traffic violations correspond roughly to the racial or ethnic population of the city: http://www.galvnews.com/story/155904" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

However, most of those arrests were for driving without a license. They don't explain why this guy was arrested for stopping in a crosswalk or failing to stop, whichever it was.

In my daily experience, he must have the only person given a ticket for stopping in a crosswalk in the last ten years. I see people stopping halfway into the cross street every time I drive.

- Jim