Convicted heroin dealer on police board?

[Gen5Dallas]

Will the Dallas City Council vote to confirm the nomination of Al Lipscomb -- a convicted heroin dealer -- to the Police Review Board? The debate's going on right now on WRR (101.1 FM).
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Councilman Fantroy just made a not-so-veiled threat of a race riot -- 12:43p.
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Councilman Oakley's voting for. He's citing the technicality that caused the judge to toss out Lipscomb's bribery conviction, ignoring, like most, Lipscomb's conviction for selling & distributing heroin in California when he was younger. -- 12:48p.
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Councilman Salazar's voting for Lipscomb's appointment -- 12:53p.
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The African-American councilmembers (earlier it was Fantroy, now Thornton-Reese) are arguing FOR ward politics -- "Everybody must respect YOUR decision for YOUR district." -- 12:55p.
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Councilwoman Grayson is voting against -- 12:59p.
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Coucilwoman Forsythe-Lill is ponderously recommending that everyone pick up some ethnic newspapers to get a handle on the other guy's point of view. She respects ward politics because, hey, it's not a powerful commission anyway! In closing, she urges Lipscomb to do right by Dallas -- 1:03p.
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Councilwoman Finkelman tells us she's spent "hours agonizing over this position." She says she's for ward politics, too, as long as the city bureaucracy approves -- 1:06p.
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The vote, which is really about removing Lipscomb's name from the entire slate of nominees for all the different City commissions:

AGAINST removing Lipscomb from the slate, and giving separate consideration to the idea of appointing a convicted heroin dealer to the Dallas Police Review Board:

Don Hill
Leo Chaney
Veletta Forsythe-Lill
Lois Finkelman
James Fantroy
Dr. Maxine Thornton-Reese
Steve Salazar
Dr. Elba Garcia
Ed Oakley

FOR removing Lipscomb from the slate, and giving separate consideration to the idea of appointing a convicted heroin dealer to the Dallas Police Review Board:

Mayor Laura Miller
John Loza
Sandy Grayson
Gary Griffith
Mitchell Rasansky
Bill Blaydes
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Councilman Chaney accuses Mayor Miller of "turning her back against that community that sent him down here over and over and over." Big yells and applause -- 1:13p.
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1:14p -- The Council votes to approve the entire slate of nominees to city boards and commissions, and Al Lipscomb, a convicted heroin dealer whose later conviction by a jury on bribery charges was overturned on a technicality, is a new member of the Dallas Police Review Board.

[boozo]

heroin dealer?

I thought he was busted for bribery? Later overturned or dismissed or something?

[boozo]

Thanks for the heads up.

Last time I vote for Ed Oakley.

[Gen5Dallas]

He lived in California when he was younger, and while out there he was convicted of sale and distribution of heroin. Also of being a pimp.

Within the past week or so, the city attorney ruled that since Lipscomb opted to serve his time in a county jail, rather than the California State Penitentiary, he is somehow qualified to serve on the police review board despite his convictions on these charges.

[rantanamo]

so what now? A purpose of jail debate? Rehabilitation or Punishment?

[Gen5Dallas]

The Snooze is already playing the final 11-4 vote for ALL nominated commissioners as the vote for Lipscomb:

From www.dallasnews.com :

"Former Dallas City Councilman Al Lipscomb confirmed to the Dallas Police Review Board by an 11-4 vote. Details to come." -- (2:20p)

[rantanamo]

OK

[Gen5Dallas]

Sounds like things got a little hairy before I started listening in:
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YELLING AT THE HORSESHOE
I was just driving in to work, listening to WRR, and I wondered why they were playing music, instead of the City Council meeting, WRR's usual Wednesday fare. Then I get this from a sweet, civic-minded FrontBurnervian:

Hey man, the City Council meeting just dropped off the air quite abruptly in the midst of a bunch of hollering. Most distressing.
Anyone know what's shaking out? -- posted at 11:34a
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THE HORSESHOE
From our friend with the radio:

Well I think they kicked Lee Alcorn out of the chambers. Anyway, the meeting has resumed. Apparently KKDA has called for folks to come downtown at 1. The council will be discussing zoning at that time per their agenda, and Laura Miller has agreed to entertain their concerns in turn. -- posted at 12:05p

[Gen5Dallas]

To satisfy all the K104 listeners who've come down to speak in council chambers, the Council's decided to interrupt the meeting and allow -- right now -- two minutes each for 30 speakers who would normally make their statements at the end of the meeting.

They're really piling on the Mayor over Bolton's termination. One lady just called Mayor Miller a "slimy journalist" and said City Manager Benavides would "burn in Hell."
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One speaker -- a minister -- asked Benavides "Who is your Judas? Is it the woman sitting to your right?" [presumably the Mayor]

The head of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance announced a recall campaign against the Mayor, and said they'd also make a complaint against WFAA's broadcast license. "We don't need a media lapdog; we need a media watchdog." [Where's the petition? I agree with that!]

Marvin Crenshaw said if there was a race riot, he hopes it won't start around Malcolm X Blvd., specifically the $800,000 DART station that's going in there.

[Gen5Dallas]

Former councilwoman Sandra Crenshaw was next in line to make a statement, but someone I only heard identified as "Reverend" took the microphone out of turn and -- rather nicely -- told Mayor Miller she ought to answer questions put forth by the assemblage, even though that would be outside the ground rules. The Mayor kept saying "Ms. Crenshaw has the podium," but the Reverend just kept on. Then the chamber started echoing with "No justice! No peace!" and the Mayor ordered the microphone turned off.

A British guy just came on WRR and said the Council is taking a 10-minute recess, so there's a bit of a lull while we listen to Beethoven's Symphony #7...

[JaeTex]

http://www.dallascityhall.org/dallas/eng/html/contact_mcc.html

Take the time to email the mayor and your council person and let them know you support them and the firing of Bolton. It takes 2 minutes at the link above.

I occassionally think I'd like to be a politician, but I know I don't have the temperament for it...if I were Miller I would have told all those people yelling, insulting and calling her a racist to go f*** themselves...which would probably hurt my chances for reelection.

[boozo]

HA!

Wrong JaeTex! You would get my vote for voicing what everyone is thinking!!

[Gen5Dallas]

Ms. Crenshaw said she wanted to talk about the R's -- not riots, but respect. John Wiley Price, as an elected official, was allowed a chance to speak at the end, but he was kind of a dud.

Now they've moved on to the zoning agenda...

[mikedsjr]

Now how did i know Racism was going to come to the forefront.

[Gen5Dallas]

Is this about racism, or is it more of a desperate grasp for continuing political relevance?

I had forgotten about this:
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From Jim Schutze's column in the Dallas Observer, Aug. 28, 2003 --

"I know that John Wiley Price will never get over his loathing of the mayor. When she was a journalist, she wrote an article for D Magazine reporting accusations of rape against Commissioner Price, and he cannot and will not ever get around that."
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The group down at City Hall yesterday was the same tired crowd that's had a stranglehold on African-American political leadership in Dallas for 25 years now:
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From Jim Schutze's column in the Dallas Observer, Aug. 28, 2003 --

"All last week as this was obviously building, black council members and the chief himself made veiled references to racial violence the city would suffer if the chief lost his job. It's almost beyond ironic to observe black leaders in a city that didn't have a riot back when it should have threatening one now over the police chief's job. Obviously those threats didn't stick...

What's next? We're supposed to have a riot now, aren't we? What happens after that doesn't happen?"
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Watching Bolton's press conference, I thought it was pretty appalling that they had to go so far as firing him, as opposed to forcing his resignation and/or finding him a big-bucks job in the private sector. He seemed like a pretty good guy -- certainly more human than the bloodless types that usually serve as police chief.