Keep your money, ICE
Re: “Council members oppose ICE program — Despite push from mayor, some say partnership will erode community’s trust,” Tuesday Metro & Business story.
ICE and the Dallas Police Department do important work, and in normal times, cooperation and $25 million could be a good idea. But we don’t live in normal times.
Masked agents, raids in schools, churches and courthouses, and reckless aggression — this is not the Dallas I want to live in.
I applaud our City Council members and police Chief Daniel Comeaux, who have stood up for the Police Department’s independence. The offer of federal funding isn’t worth turning our police force into a police state.
Opinion
Robert Wiley, Dallas
Don’t destroy trust
While sharing a duplex with a friend in Waco some years ago, our home was burglarized. A police officer arrived, dutifully scattered some fingerprint dust and filled out a report. We resigned ourselves to the likelihood that our property was gone for good.
Some days later, a neighborhood police officer invited us to a meeting with the family across the street. They had seen a young man carrying items out of our house and recognized him as a neighbor. Yet, despite the officer’s and our own pleas, the immigrant family wouldn’t provide a written statement.
From childhood, I was taught that the police officer is my friend. As an adult, I understand this is not a view universally shared — especially within minority and immigrant communities.
In recent years, I’ve served on the board of our neighborhood association, where we worked closely with a talented and compassionate neighborhood police officer who succeeded in building trust with immigrants in a nearby apartment complex.
Trust is fragile and hard-won. So while $25 million may sound tempting, I recommend a split approach. Let federal immigration access suspects once in custody, but focus local police patrols on state and local law.
Ken Duble, Dallas/The Cedars
City should team with ICE
The decision by the Dallas police chief not to participate in the federal 287(g) program to assist ICE in the enforcement of the immigration laws was disappointing.
- Acceptance would have done several things to help Dallas. It would reconfirm that Dallas is a law and order city.
- Dallas would be supporting the view of most Americans that immigration laws should be enforced and that deportations are a vital part of it.
- With the assistance of ICE and its resources, Dallas police could have cleared a few criminal cases where illegal immigrants were involved.
- An agreement with the federal government would be a part of the chief’s effort to improve all phases of enforcement in Dallas, not just 911 response times.
- The city of Dallas could use the money.
Jack Chandler Myers, Dallas
City Hall has no charm
Re: “Save City Hall,” by Mark Lamster, Oct. 19 Arts & Life column.
Lamster’s call for preservation of the current Dallas City Hall is interesting. A trip to Dallas City Hall is neither pleasant nor desirable, as the structure has all the warmth and charm of a fortification on the Normandy coast with a bleak, windswept fronting plaza that rushes you along back to your parking spot as quickly as possible.
Dallas once built enduring and aesthetically pleasing structures such as the Old Red Courthouse, which still stands and is maintained. Structures that are beautiful (symmetric, proportioned, detailed, harmonious) tend to be cared for and last beyond their original intended purpose. Good examples are La Grand-Place in Brussels, Vienna’s Rathaus on the Ringstrasse or Siena’s Palazzo Pubblico on the Piazza del Campo. Each of these buildings is hundreds of years old.
Meanwhile, I.M. Pei’s “masterpiece” might not last 70 years. It’s difficult to make an argument to preserve something that brutal.
Steven Monserrate, Far North Dallas
No new Dallas arenas
So, here we go again. Another pro sports team, in this case two teams, are going to hold Dallas hostage for new sports arenas. Not only arenas, but entertainment complexes.
Tell one of them to tear down Choctaw Stadium in Arlington and build it there. Tell the other one to go find a better deal in the suburbs.
Is Dallas really serious about tearing down City Hall and building it there? When all the other issues, like amenities for South Dallas and the public schools are fixed, maybe then we can address replacing a 25-year-old arena.
Am I the only one reading the news these days? It seems that every edition is filled with injustices done to minority communities — not enough money to keep libraries open, fix pools or repair streets.
Mark Austill, Plano
New Testament lessons
I wonder if MAGA-supporting Christians ever read and understand the New Testament. If they did, they’d realize that Jesus was the poster boy for DEI. His entire life was devoted to preaching and living it.
This point was made by a poster left at the door of First Baptist Church Dallas during the “No Kings” rally. It asked, “Who Would Jesus Deport?” Amen.
Frederick C. Moss, Dallas
Our fault, not Colombia’s
Re: “Trump, leader at odds — Comments about Colombian president further fray relations,” Monday news story.
As long as Americans demand illegal drugs, someone will supply them. I have friends and business associates in Colombia. They opened my eyes to the fact that American citizens buy the drugs from Colombia while the American government wages war against the Colombian drug suppliers.
Our war on drugs in Colombia is not the country’s fault, it’s ours.
Joseph Hunter Betts, Plano