Grits for Breakfast 7/3/2020
San Antonio can't fire cops who use the N-word or feed homeless people feces: Accountability systems in Texas civil-service cities broken
In San Antonio, recently, a fired police officer was
reinstated by an arbitrator after repeatedly using the N-word to address a black suspect while handcuffing him. The head of the police union said it was
no more offensive than the mayor publicly using the word, "g--damn." I suspect that's a minority viewpoint.
San Antonio has emerged as the premier case study demonstrating that Texas' civil-service system is broken:
70% of police officers fired by the chief end up back on the force. The city's union-friendly police contract is
being touted nationally as an example not to be followed.
The city thought it'd gotten a monkey off its back when it
finally was able to fire Matthew Luckhurst and make it stick. They'd done so once after he fed dog feces in between two pieces of bread to a homeless man, but an arbitrator let him back on the force. Later, he was fired again for shit-themed misconduct after spreading a brown substance around a women's restroom to harass a pregnant colleague. This time, just last month, the arbitrator upheld his firing.
But no sooner was Luckhurst off the force than Officer Tim Garcia gets put back on after using the N-word. SAPD appears doomed to remain the state's poster child for the broken police disciplinary system in Chapter 143 of Texas Local Government Code. (See suggestions here for fixing that chapter.)
More:
https://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2020/07/san-antonio-cant-fire-cops-who-use-n.html
