Castro’s nod gives Fix SAPD’S campaign a lift

Mike Knuffke stood in Main Plaza, flanked by a coalition of local pastors.

The co-founder of the San Antonio Family Association was orchestrating a Monday afternoon news conference in opposition to Proposition B, a ballot measure which would take collective-bargaining power away from the San Antonio Police Officers Association.

Knuffke wanted to drive home the point that Fix SAPD, the grassroots organization which crafted Proposition B, has attracted a less-than-stellar collection of allies to its cause.

“You don’t see the top-notch organizations that we’re used to seeing in situations like this,” Knuffke said.

“Communists!” someone behind Knuffke shouted.

“Communists, there you go,” Knuffke agreed.

The moment was illuminating for what it said about the PROSAPOA strategy as well as what it ignored about the union’s campaign adversary.

The police union and its allies want to frame Fix SAPD as a fringe group of extremists bent on tearing down the fabric of this community.

That argument, however, took a hit only a few hours before the Main Plaza news conference.

Julián Castro, a former threeterm San Antonio mayor, former federal housing secretary and 2020 presidential candidate, endorsed Proposition B.

Castro made the case that the proposition is not anti-police, but pro-accountability.

“Like you, I have tremendous respect for our men and women of law enforcement,” Castro said in a video posted Monday morning on social media. “They do a tough job and they should be well-compensated for it.

“I also believe that you and your family, that all of us, deserve accountability when bad officers cross the line. Here in San Antonio, we don’t have that. Our system of accountability is broken.”

Castro’s endorsement gives Fix SAPD a major credibility boost only a week before the start of early voting.

Last week, a Bexar FACTS/KSAT/ San Antonio Report poll showed 39 percent of voters opposed to Proposition B, with 34 percent in favor of it.

Even SAPOA sympathizers privately grumble that the union hasn’t exactly run a scintillating campaign.

SAPOA has constructed its case around the dubious notion that Proposition B is a “defund the police” Trojan horse. For good measure, union reps have accused Fix SAPD of misleading voters and stealing PRO-SAPOA campaign signs.

SAPOA could really use the messaging skill of its former consultant, Greg Brockhouse, who launched many of the union’s verbal grenades during its last round of collective bargaining.

As for Brockhouse, he could really use a strong SAPOA campaign this year to elevate his own bid to unseat Mayor Ron Nirenberg.

Local politics often create weird coalitions. That’s certainly true of SAPOA’S battle to kill Proposition B.

On the one hand, you’ve got old-school liberal Democrats with roots in organized labor, who see the need for fundamental reforms in policing, but oppose Fix SAPD’S proposition because they cherish the concept of collective bargaining.

In February, the San Antonio AFL-CIO’S Central Labor Council passed a resolution embracing the Black Lives Matter movement and calling for an end to racial profiling, the elimination of noknock warrants and the “demilitarizing (of ) our police forces.”

At the same time, the Central Labor Council asserted that its concerns “are best addressed through the collective bargaining process.”

If you put the members of the AFL-CIO Central Labor Council in the same room with Knuffke and his fellow members of the San Antonio Family Association, the absence of common ground would be breathtaking.

After all, the Family Association has, over the years, opposed the city’s Nondiscrimination Ordinance, advocated gay conversion therapy, supported a 2017 statewide bathroom bill targeting transgender individuals, campaigned against Pre-k 4 SA and denounced the city’s participation in a federally funded, voluntary, teen-contraception program as the infliction of “chemical abortion” on the poor.

Fix SAPD wants voters to believe police reform is on the ballot.

SAPOA wants voters to believe public safety is on the ballot.

Strictly speaking, the proposition doesn’t guarantee police reform. It would take negotiating leverage away from SAPOA, but the particulars of reform would still need to be negotiated between the city and the union, most likely under a meet-and-confer process.

On the other hand, the defeat of Proposition B doesn’t guarantee that police reforms will get blocked.

In fact, in our current political climate, the City Council will not approve any agreement that doesn’t give the police chief more latitude to impose punishment for officer misconduct.

So, both sides might be exaggerating the urgency of this political battle. That’s what campaigns do.