That Brown Noser, aka, Council Member Joaquin Martinez, read the story and ask yourself if you are any different than the uncaring mayor when it comes to the “Immigrant Community.”
I expect that the gabacho, John Whitmire, will do as many of White Protestants did when it came to dealing with the Native Americans: they will speak with a forked tongue. I don’t know where to classify the police chief; he is not a coconut, as his skin is as light or lighter than Whitmire’s, maybe a useful tool for what Whitmire wants, which I believe is to get rid of the large immigrant community. Diaz seems pretty comfortable working with the brown skin people haters.
In the past, I am an old man, people would blame too many illegals for the White community not liking us. If fewer people looked like me, maybe they would accept me. I heard that often enough, especially from the brown skinned people who turned their backs on things Chicana. If we only spoke English and stopped speaking Spanish. They were too stupid to realize that we were treated that way because of the way we look. If nothing else, watch the beginning of the Selena documentary on Netflix to see the No Mexican signs that were posted.
Disgusting
Yes, it is disgusting, John Whitmire. What you and people like Joaquin Martinez are doing is disgusting—lying to the immigrant community, maybe in the hopes that they will call HPD, and you can hand them over to ICE. Perhaps you hope they get a one-way ticket to torture. It is evident from your past remarks that the undocumented have no business in the Galleria; your racism was on display, Whitmire.
“There’s always the rest of the story,” Whitmire told his colleagues. “We have such a tendency to want to believe individuals and their cause. But I knew better.”
Did he know better? Or did Whitmire only hope Maria’s difficult testimony was wrong?
It would be easier if it were wrong.
The mayor expressed frustration that “someone,” for political purposes and to build a following, would stand before them and share something “they know is not true.”
“It increases the paranoia, anxiety, of our immigrant community,” Whitmire said. “To use a crying mother who has extreme exposure – and I won’t go into her status – for political gain, and then leave here after misrepresenting a fine police department….”
He called it “disgusting.”
In Whitmire’s eyes, HPD had done nothing wrong. In fact, the mayor went so far as to claim that “the way HPD handled this young man should become the model for the United States.”
The one who is not being honest for political purposes is John Whitmire, as I have stated before; when it comes to fibs, John Whitmire could give Donald Trump a run for his money.
Those stupid council members who are easily swayed by the words of Whitmire and Diaz should hang their heads in shame.
It’s been a month since HPD’s police chief and Houston’s top elected leader deflected responsibility, and attempted to discredit Emmanuel’s mom. In that time, nobody from the city – not the chief, the mayor, or any council member – has reached out to her.
Maria doesn’t ask much of Whitmire or of HPD. “I may not have a degree or much education, but even I can see the many errors,” she said. She only asks for transparency. For someone to make her feel like she’s not crazy – to finally say, yes, we messed up. Yes, we hurt you.
“We’re all human. We all make mistakes,” Maria said. “But we must also accept when we make those mistakes.” The way her son did, with those two fragile words: Perdón amá. I’m sorry, Mom.
We need both Whitmire and HPD to acknowledge that the system broke down. Only then can they fix what went wrong: a faulty missing persons process that failed one of the most vulnerable among us – and could fail any child who can’t say their name right or remember their mom’s phone number.
We rely on police to do right by all of our city’s most vulnerable: the elderly person who wanders away from home and can’t remember his address; the person unconscious after an accident, medical emergency or psychiatric break; the homeless person whose dead body turns up in a bayou; and yes, even the immigrant child who wasn’t born here.A national model, as the mayor put it, wouldn’t fail people who can’t advocate for themselves.
It’s especially not a model to blame that failure on someone else — particularly a mother who just wants her son back.
Whitmire must demand more from the police department. And we must demand more from the mayor who promised to keep Houstonians safe.
At the end of the day, a mother is still without her son tonight. A scared teen is still without his mom. For no good reason.
Face it, Houston, Mayor John Whitmire does not give a shit about the immigrant community, and it seems that a large number of the council members feel the same. They have more important things like making sure that their campaign contributors get those city contracts or their supporters get those city jobs—politics as usual in Houston, Texas.