Look up the crime rates of the other cities that are as large as Houston - NYC, LA, CHI and Dallas and the crime rate is lower, and in come cases by a lot. So yeah, relative to other major metro areas, Houston has a crime problem. Who opposes last meals? A guy on death row demanded a lot of food, and the state spent a lot of money on it - and then the guy didn't touch it and thought it was funny. So several Texas Senators got mad and said the tradition should be shelved, as it wasn't an official law.
Professor Murray has always been extremely kind and good to me, and is a big reason that I got into the law school that I did.
In Texas state politics, definitely solidly in blue territory. But in things relevant to running the City of Houston, he seems to consistently fall to the conservative end of the Democratic spectrum. Which isn't necessarily wrong -- might be good policy and might help reduce the bullying from the governor -- just want to be clear on what to expect. On public safety, his solution is hiring more officers and increasing our partnership with DPS. Most of the candidates wanted to hire more officers. But, partnering with DPS has been criticized for increasing racial bias in policing. Whitmire says it's not true. Other, more progressive tacks by other candidates emphasized community policing and root-cause approaches. Maybe partnering with DPS is smart, but definitely more conservative to invite state law enforcement into the city while downplaying addressing drivers of crime. On the budget, his solution is to coach harder. He wants to just operate better (or otherwise, offer less) so we can reduce the budgeted expenses to be in line with revenues. That's probably the inescapable truth. Gallegos proposed a more classic democratic position -- remove the cap and raise taxes. Jackson Lee also had a more classic democratic position -- hunt for more federal dollars so we don't have to live within our means. Whitmire's focus on cutting expenses is probably right, but again conservative. And Whitmire is bi-partisan, which you kinda have to be to be a Democrat in Texas politics. He's taken a ton of support from Republican voters who don't want to see Jackson Lee as mayor. He's taken money from Republican donors. He's maintained good relationships with Republican leaders and lawmakers even while voting in predictably Democratic ways. Jackson Lee, for an example of contrast, takes a more strident approach of refusing to work with maga-types. Again, I hope it'll mean less bullying from Austin. But, in the spectrum of the Democratic party, it's conservative. Anyway, I hope he has a good stint. I am a conservative democrat in many ways so some of the ways in which I label him conservative, I'm not really disagreeing. Mostly, I'm dismayed with what I consider a benighted approach to law enforcement. I expect he'll end up increasing discrimination while not meaningfully improving our crime rates (though we may continue to fall from our covid-crime-era highs for reasons that have nothing to do with him). I do expect Houston's conservatives to claim victory on crime regardless of the outcomes.
I agree with all of this - except I think that the crime rates will decrease and some of that will be due to more officers on the street. Whether the additional cost is worth the degree of crime decrease is certainly debatable.
Houston has lots of crime and Whitmire ran on reducing crime Shelia Jackson would have made the crime rate go up sure the crime is not out of control but the Houston rap scene didn’t grow out of river oaks
Article on Whitmire's new administration: Mayor John Whitmire takes the reins, focusing on public safety, infrastructure, and city services – Houston Public Media Had I known he'd bend over for Abbott regarding the Death Star bill on his first day, I'd never have voted for him. Oh wait, I didn't. The other thing he conveniently didn't mention until after he was elected, now he's talking about taking an exception to the revenue cap to raise taxes to pay for more police. Of course, money is fungible and so it's a way of paying for the cops and also paying for all the other services we want. I don't have a problem with trying to circumvent this cap and raising taxes. The cap was dumb. But, he should have been honest about it. The one thing I'm actually hopeful about is him fixing permitting. If my recent experience with the permitting department is any indication of its current state of affairs, it needs serious fixes.
Thank goodness LaToya Jackson didn’t win She’s the worst of the Jacksons she ain’t Janet for sure @Os Trigonum
I HATE Whitmire. Killing important federally support projects for no good reason. Every year I become a little less enthusiastic about living in Texas.
Nobody is ****ing talking about ****ing California. Boomer **** conservatives love talking about ****ing California for no reason. Completely unprovoked. Grow up.
