Challenges to local control
Don’t interfere
Regarding “HPD joins state anti-gang effort” (Page A3, Thursday), on Monday, Gov. Greg Abbott announced that he will establish a tactical center in Houston to curb violent gangs in Houston. Gov. Abbott apparently formed this new tactical center without consulting with the Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo or Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner. How can he expect the new tactical center to understand the problems if they are not even talking to our police? And how arrogant to proclaim a solution without giving our mayor or police chief the courtesy of letting them know?
On the other hand, he has threatened to withhold funds from so-called sanctuary cities in order to force local police to spend more time on immigration issues (and less time on real crimes). Houston police have worked hard to develop a rapport with immigrant neighborhoods on which they rely for information about criminal activity. Who will report MS-13 gang activity if the police are required to act as immigration officers?
This is an alarming continuation of efforts by Abbott and the state Legislature to interfere with our local government. Under the bathroom bill the Legislature wants to tell transsexuals which bathrooms to use; it would like to prohibit local governments from banning or reducing the use of plastic bags, just to name a few of the pending bills in Austin that would undo the will of local elected officials or voters. The needs of Houston and Dallas are different from the needs of Lufkin or Brownsville. We have our own elected officials who understand our problems. We neither want nor need the politicians in Austin to tell us how to run our city. Mary Grace Greenwood,
Houston