Good Officers Don’t Need These Laws: Chapters 174 and 143
According to Police Chief William McManus, “There’s two laws that pertain to collective bargaining . . . (174 and 143) those need to go.” This quote that appeared in the San Antonio Express News speaks to the fact that over 103 people have died while in police custody over a ten year period and more than 70% of the police officers terminated as a result of these abuses of power have been rehired through a set-up that the San Antonio Police Officers Association (SAPOA) calls“Arbitration.” This set-up allows the police association to by-pass the civilian advisory board and the legal system to have officers rehired after the police chief fires them. Police Chief McManus went on to say that, “Accountability is dissolved through arbitration.”
He is right, and as our police chief he knows that his ability to fire bad cops is limited by the SAPOA that will try at every turn to protect a bad cop. The ability to protect a cop that beats his wife or tries to feed dog feces to a homeless man must end. This is why petitions are being collected to remove the power of the association to protect bad cops and slip and slide around the legal system. Please sign them and become a circulator by going to FIXSAPD.ORG and get the training every Sunday at 5:00 PM and every Thursday at 6:30 PM. The community will need to collect over 100,000 signatures to remove the power of SAPOA from protecting BAD COPS. We now have dozens of cases, where police have under very questionable circumstances, have shot, strangled, tasered people to death and have gotten away with it. The SAPOA has made our streets unsafe. This is especially true for black and brown people but whites have also been victims of this rampaging behavior, including women that are abused and sexually assaulted by police.
Good police officers have nothing to worry about changes in the law or going to arbitration—only the bad ones have that problem. Police Chief William McManus made it clear when he said, “Good officers don’t need these laws.” SAPD has a long history of police abuse from dozens of years ago including taking people up to the graveyard on New Braunfels Street or near the railroad tracks and beating them up. The murder of Bobby Joe Phillips by SAPD officers, a case that is fifty-two years old, has never seen justice. The FBI could still look at reopening this case. By elimination of Chapters 174 and 143 bad cops fired by the police chief STAY FIRED. The sheriff, Javier Salazar, said that, “When he fires a bad deputy that stay fired.” The SAPOA has another opinion—rehire the worst cops and keep them on the force.
The petition campaign has begun and members of the community are being warned that the SAPOA will launch a propaganda campaign to claim they are acting in our best interest when in fact that are acting to protect BAD POLICE OFFICERS. Watch out for the lies and misinformation that will jump out of a box as the signatures are being collected. The residents of San Antonio want good police practices, not strangle holds, excessive use of force, and officers that disrespect their oath to the United States Constitution. When police officers graduate from the academy they swear an oath to the Constitution not to the SAPOA. This association is making news across the country as people are now considering if they want to visit a city that has allowed abusive officers free reign to ruin people’s lives. The streets are unsafe in San Antonio from legalized criminals.
