Justice has been denied in San Antonio at the hands of bad cops for many years. People that claim we are “not like other cities” in terms of police abuse are either liars, ignorant, or have been fooled by the police association. We can go all the way back to 1968 and the brutal killing of Bobby Joe Phillips at the hands of San Antonio police officers. Phillips was beaten to death on an East Side street ,and even after the Medical Examiner ruled it was murder (homicide) the police officers involved got off. This incident made the news but even then white racists saw to it that nothing would be done. There were other horrible cases even before this one as it was a common occurrence for black and brown people to be taken to the graveyard next to St, Gerard High School and beaten by two well-known SAPD officers, both of whom escaped justice. “Bill” Wheilbacher was never brought up on charges for the horrible crimes he committed.
The officer involved in the Marquise Jones case in 2014 had been involved in another officer involved death and data shows that San Antonio has a well kept secret of officers killing many unarmed individuals, many of whom are shot in the back. We are of course reminded of an SAPD officer that called a black man the “N” word multiple times only for the San Antonio Police Officer’s Association to get a racist arbitrator to overturn that officer’s termination. What kind of contract allows for this kind of horror to exist? The answer to that question lies with a police association collective bargaining contract that allows civil and human rights violations to disappear with money being given to political candidates at various levels. There have even been Black police officers that have been subjected to racial stops and abuse over the years.
One SAPD officer tried to feed a dog poop sandwich to a homeless man. Officer Matthew Luckhurst would not be fired for that because of the anti-community contract that allows a statue of limitations clause. At last report he is working in another town and many consider him a menace to society. Another officer was fired multiple times for domestic abuse and assault on other officers. Another one was fired for lying to investigators about covering up his body camera during traffic stop—another menace to our community. On and on the menacing continues, making our community unsafe, not just from general crime but from criminal police officers.
Bad cops are protected by a corrupt contract that allows criminal behavior by bad officers to go unpunished, which threatens the community, but also a threat to good officers who may hampered by the “code of silence” that is buried in the union contract. This is why over 20,000 people have no faith in this abusive, racist, and inhuman contract that allows our streets to be unsafe. If the so-called union wanted to get rid of bad cops why are some of the worst still roaming the streets? The police association has developed a warped war mental ideology were communities of color are looked at like war zones. As a result, old ladies can be stopped, black doctors, black and brown lawyers, or other professionals and treated like criminals in their own community. One thing people are learning is that collective bargaining is not always people friendly. We are going to a vote my friends and we all know what must be done on May 1, 2021.
