Dallas faith leaders and community activists on Tuesday called on Mayor Eric Johnson and Gov. Greg Abbott to reverse the decision to send state troopers to help solve crimes in the city, arguing that more law enforcement will not curb most of the violence that happens inside homes among relatives.
Instead, the government should be focused on finding resources to support traditionally underserved communities of Black and Latino Dallasites who have been set back even further by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, they said.
“The governor and the mayor think the best way to meet the needs of people is to disperse law enforcement,” said Brittany White at a virtual news conference. White is a leader at the LIVE FREE campaign, a faith-based nonprofit that works to end mass incarceration. “We need to release emergency funds to meet the needs of the community. We do not want state troopers law enforcement and artillery in our backyard.”
Last week Abbott, at the request of the Dallas Police Department, agreed to send troopers from the Texas Department of Public Safety to help local police investigate crimes. The agency will also deploy special agents to support gang and drug investigative operations, and a team of intelligence analysts, according to state and local authorities.
Dallas, like most other major cities, has seen a sharp increase in violent crime in recent months. The Dallas Morning News this year has recorded 235 homicides, which unlike official city numbers include deaths police consider justifiable homicides. With more than a month left in 2020, the number of deaths has already surpassed last year’s total of 211.
Johnson, in a statement following the coalition’s news conference, said he is focused on both short- and long-term solutions to improve neighborhoods and reduce crime.
“My focus is on the people affected by the unacceptable increases in violent crime in our city,” he said. “Victims of violence in Dallas are disproportionately people of color who live in historically underserved neighborhoods like the ones where I grew up. All of our residents deserve to live in safe communities, and I welcome any help we can get on their behalf.
He added: “Make no mistake: we must have robust, responsible, and accountable community policing to help keep all the people of Dallas safe.”
The governor’s office did not respond to The News’ request for comment.
The coalition of faith and community leaders on Tuesday did not dispute that crime is up. Rather, they said the increase was to be expected due in large part to the economic hardship people are experiencing after the coronavirus slowed down the economy.
“The stressors of ill health, bad housing, low-paying jobs — these are things that do drive people to desperate acts,” said John Fullinwider, the co-founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality, adding that the governor’s response to the coronavirus and failing to expand health insurance coverage in Texas has done more harm to poor communities.
This is not the first time this coalition of leaders has come together. In the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minnesota and massive protests in downtown Dallas calling for police reform, the same group wrote a list of 10 demands they believe would both end crime and police violence against Black people.
The group later worked with Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins and a cadre of city officials to identify strategies to better respond to mental health emergencies. The county pledged more than $5 million to help fund more mental health professionals, a jail alternative for homeless people arrested for loitering and other programs.
The city of Dallas — while rejecting the coalition’s pitch to divest the police department by $200 million — funded an $800,000 program to hire community members as violence interrupters and other nonpolicing alternatives such as cleaning up blighted and vacant lots. Several of these alternatives were put forth by a task force organized by the mayor in 2019.
On the same day the governor announced that he was sending troops to Dallas, Johnson, announced his request for data tracking the progress on those initiatives. According to the first report obtained by The News on Tuesday, not a single violence interrupter had been hired by Oct. 31, one month after the city’s budget was approved.
This will be the second time Abbott sends troopers to Dallas in as many years. The governor sent troopers last summer to help Dallas police patrol South Dallas, home to mostly Black and Latino families. The results included more than 500 felony arrests, 400 gang contacts, 161 weapons seized and 700 drug seizures, according to police data.
Black people were disproportionately arrested. Two out of every three of the people arrested were black, despite Dallas’ Black population only being 24%, according to data reported by the Texas Tribune. And troopers killed Schaston Hodge, 27, as they chased the South Dallas man after he failed to signal a turn and he pointed a gun at them.
“Unfortunately we continue to play this horror film over and over and over again, without addressing the root causes,” said Rev. Michael Waters, who said the real violence in Dallas was socioeconomic and racial segregation. “We are a community that is constantly bombarded by violent systems. And until we address the systems we cannot change our realities.”
