The rally for police accountability exposed a lot of lies being put out by the police association leadership (SAPOA). The event took place with over 200 participants that heard from the families who lost their love ones at the hands of police violence. The rally organizers urged citizens to vote yes for Proposition B and also made the public aware of the list of lies being spread about by SAPOA which include; saying that proposition B would cause police officers their jobs, claims that the efforts to rid our city of bad cops was being anti-police, and claims that the effort is to “defund” the police.
The lies by SAPOA also include claiming that San Antonio is not like other cities in terms of police abuse. We have seen data that shows dozens of acts of police violence that includes shooting unarmed suspects. These SAPOA lies are going to further erode the reputation of the police in the black and brown community. The election on the Proposition B ballot measure on May 1 is about police accountability and this is why many people are voting yes. The police association is not about accountability as shown by their defense of an officer calling a black man the “N” word over and over, and using a corrupt contract to get an officer off the hook after he tried to feed a homeless man a dog poop sandwich. Officer Tim Garcia used the “N” while aggressively confronting a young black man, while Matthew Luckhurst was involved in the dog crap fiasco. Both of these officers are still lurking around as a result of a racist and abusive contract the police association uses to hammer residents.
State Representative Barbara Hawkins is supporting the George Floyd Act at the state level and is presenting HB Bill 1087 to “eliminate the 180-Day Loophole relating to acts for which a police officer in may be subject to disciplinary procedures.” The bill highlights the fact that Officer Matthew Luckhurst, a San Antonio police officer admitted to giving a sandwich consisting of dog feces to a homeless man, won by using a corrupt rule in the police contract. “The officer’s termination was overturned because the incident occurred outside of the 180-day window from the date of the incident.” This is why the racist and abusive SAPOA contract that allows this to happen must be overturned. The police association has abused the power of collective bargaining and must now pay the consequences.
Additionally, many of these bad cops have connections to racist and extremist organizations and have long histories of abuse. There is a perk in the union’s contract that allows officers to basically avoid suspensions by paying them off with unused vacation or holiday time. According to news reports, “Officer Encina, the officer who shot Marquise Jones, didn’t actually miss any work when, in 2010, he was handed a 45-day suspension for a drunken tirade through a northwest side restaurant where he sometimes worked security. According to court records, Encina harassed kitchen staff, hurled insults and obscenities at customers, and even antagonized one group of black customers, calling himself a “baller” from the East Side. Some of his off-duty buddies had to force him outside the restaurant. Attorneys for the Jones family have seized on the incident as sign Encina was a problem officer the department failed to properly supervise and discipline.” The corrupt and racist SAPOA contract even allows for white officers to abuse black officers and little or nothing is done about it.
