Coleman wrongly took focus away from real problems with police

People who doubted bias had anything to do with a state trooper’s behavior during Sandra Bland’s traffic stop in Waller County were looking for an out — some way to undercut such claims or some way to change the subject.

They have found both, thanks to state Rep. Garnet Coleman.

Last month, as the longtime Democratic lawmaker from Houston grilled the Texas Department of Public Safety director in a legislative hearing on the Bland case, Coleman told a story about his own recent traffic stop in Austin County. Coleman, who is black, described the white deputy sheriff who stopped him as being “rude and nasty” and treating him like a boy.

This week, KHOU followed up with dash-cam video of the July 14 encounter. It shows the deputy lecturing Coleman for speeding in a personal car with state official license plates.

“You’re going 94 miles an hour in a state vehicle,” the officer says. “It looked real bad on the highway.”

The deputy lets Coleman off with a warning but explains that previous stops for speeding could have led to him losing his license. He preaches again about setting a good example: “Stop speeding in a state car,” he says.

Coleman says he understands but takes issue with the officer’s tone: “I am not a child.”

The officer becomes more casual: “Just slow down some, all right?”

Coleman’s feeling that the officer was condescending was what he was relaying in the hearing, so it’s not that he in- vented it out of whole cloth. But it’s clear Coleman embellished his story. The deputy’s tone is nowhere near rude and nasty.

The officer seems genuinely concerned about public safety, and the longtime state representative clearly is not used to being preached at.

Coleman said in an interview that previous experiences with law enforcement made him sensitive to an officer’s tone. He wondered whether the officer

would have talked to him the same way if he were a white lawmaker.

Digging in heels

That question moved me to go back and watch the dash-cam video of former Gov. Rick Perry’s infamous traffic stop. I had forgotten how egregious Perry’s behavior was. From the beginning, there’s a sense of entitlement as his staffer hops out of the driver’s seat and heads toward the state trooper. She has to tell him to stop.

Then Perry gets out of the vehicle not once, but twice.

“Do you need to see my ID?” Perry demands.

“No, sir,” the trooper replies.

“Are you writing him a ticket?”

“No, sir.”

“Well, what’s the holdup here?”

“I’m writing him a warning, sir.”

“Why don’t you just let us get on down the road?”

“When I’m done with my warning, sir, I’ll let you down the road, please.”

Please. She almost seems to ask permission of the governor to do her job.

Now, there is a difference between a governor and a state rep — not that anyone should get special treatment — and officers’ personalities vary.

It’s not unreasonable of Coleman to have questioned the officer’s tone.

What was unreasonable, and irresponsible, is for Coleman to have blown it up into something it wasn’t.

After KHOU’s story aired, Coleman didn’t budge. That digging in of heels prompted law enforcement organizations, including the 5,200-member Houston Police Officers’ Union, to call for Coleman’s apology, and in lieu of that, to announce “we have no choice but to discontinue our support of him.” HPOU President Ray Hunt told me another organization had called on House Speaker Joe Straus to yank Coleman’s chairmanship. ‘Atrocious’ platform

What Hunt found “incredibly ironic,” he said, was Coleman’s demeanor in the legislative hearing: “The only person who treats anybody nasty and disrespectful and like a boy is Garnet Coleman to the head of DPS.”

Coleman, 53, has a reputation as a hardworking legislator with deep knowledge of health policy. He also has a reputation for losing his cool, and he has been open about his battle with bipolar disorder and, more recently, serious illness.

Mark Clark, HPOU executive director, said Coleman had always been a friend to his organization, but his words in committee contribute to negative perceptions about police officers at a sensitive time.

“We can’t keep getting beat up and demonized over stuff that we shouldn’t be beat up and demonized over,” Clark said.

He said Coleman expects law enforcement to be honest and own up to mistakes.

“I wish he’d hold himself to that same standard,” Clark said.

Not only does Coleman’s mischaracterization hurt cops, it hurts those trying to raise awareness of bias after Bland’s arrest and apparent suicide days later in a Waller County jail.

That is inexcusable in the eyes of All D. Freeman, a black radio show host and comedian in Houston who used to work for former state Rep. Ron Wilson as a legislative consultant. He admonished Coleman on his Friday night show and joined police groups in calling for an apology.

“He outright lied is what he did,” Freeman told me Friday afternoon. “Are we surprised that a politician lied? No. I’m surprised that he used the platform of the atrocious Sandra Bland issue to try and make himself look good.” amount of courtesy” to Coleman that the rest of us may not have gotten.

“The most important thing we need to do is improve relationships between white police officers and African-American citizens. The trust is totally eroded,” he said. “Now, a white police officer can say ‘see what they’ll do? They’ll just outright lie.’ ”

Dash cams can help us get at the truth, but they’re useless at reading perceptions. And perceptions are important — both those of police and those of their critics.

What we can agree on is the need to focus on the cases where police misconduct is clear. This wasn’t one of those times.

Some people are looking for a reason to disregard Sandra Bland. Why help them?