I am unsurprised that Whitmire will lie to promote his agenda. He never has struck me as a man of much intelligence. Just a White man puffs his chest, believing that a White male has superior intelligence.
“The narrative that we’re paid protesters didn’t play out because it’s cartoonishly stupid, and so he’s deferring to this racist trope as a cop-out when, in reality, he doesn’t have the votes or the popularity to push his vendetta ordinance against us,” Siddique said.
In August, Houston Mayor John Whitmire cited “intelligence reports” from his Office of Public Safety and Homeland Security as evidence that some pro-Palestinian protesters who had repeatedly targeted his home were “being paid by Iran.” But after Houston Public Media submitted a public records request for those intelligence reports, the City of Houston said “there are no responsive documents” related to the claim.
Nishu Siddique is an organizer with Houston for Palestinian Liberation, part of a coalition of groups calling for the city to pass a ceasefire resolution and to divest from Israeli bonds. Siddique said Whitmire “made this remark, not only maliciously and intentionally, but without consequences.”
“He knows there is no evidence, but the damage is done to Palestinian, Arab and broadly Muslim communities,” Siddique said.
A spokesperson for Whitmire previously said, “The City of Houston Homeland Security and others briefed the mayor on this.” A spokesperson within the Office of Public Safety and Homeland Security did not comment on the lack of documentation or confirm a briefing took place.
“There is intelligence reports, and I’m not going to go through it in public, that they are being paid by Iran,” Whitmire said in August. “It’s dangerous if it’s true, and I think I have a duty to protect all the neighborhoods of Houston.”