07/21/2005
Michelle Malkin’s Immigration Blog points to this story from the blog Rhymes With Right, about Chief Harold Hurtt, the Chief of the Houston Police Department, who seems to be planning to thwart the activities of the Minutemen, when they commence operations in Texas.
"Law enforcement officials in Houston began meeting today to discuss strategies for keeping the peace when the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps sends observers to the city in October to patrol for illegal immigrants.
"'The city of Houston is a very diverse city,' said Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt. 'There is a great deal of harmony here, and we are not going to stand by and let some outside agency or organization come in and disrupt that harmony. We will do whatever is necessary to keep the peace in the city of Houston.' [Local officials talk over Minutemen strategies, By Melanie Markley, Houston Chronicle, July 9, 2005]
Chief Hurtt is an African-American who was appointed Chief of Police, after a search which, I strongly suspect, was limited to African-American police executives. ("I want a police chief who understands our diverse community." — Houston Mayor Bill White). Hurtt, who had been chief of police in Phoenix, Arizona, replaced Houston’s previous African-American Police Chief, who left more or less in disgrace.
On the podium during the change of command ceremony was the acting Police Chief, Joe Breshears, a "30-year veteran" of the Houston Police Department. I wonder how he felt about the appointment of an out-of-town police chief who couldn’t find Police Headquarters without a roadmap.
(Hiring out-of-towners has its problems — for about a year, Chief Hurtt was unable to wear an HPD Uniform because he hadn’t passed the Texas state certification exam for law enforcement officers.)
Now the problem of hiring your Chief of Police on the basis of ethnopolitics is that you may get an ethnopolitician rather than a policeman.
Former LAPD police chief Bernard Parks, who was fired by LA Mayor James Hahn in 2002 after sending LAPD morale plummeting, resurfaced to run against Hahn for mayor. Chief Hurtt is already being spoken of as possible mayoral material.
Hurtt’s statements about the "harmony" and "peace" in the City of Houston may therefore be taken as referring to the Hispanic vote, and even the illegal alien vote.
You'd think that someone who spent years policing Phoenix, Arizona would know how dangerous alien smuggling is to the "peace" and "harmony" of local residents.
And in fact, Hurtt does know.
On Nov. 10, 2003, when Chief Hurtt was still in Phoenix, CBS news’s Sandra Hughes quoted him as saying
"'When you have shootouts on your freeways and in your neighborhoods and your shopping areas, things are definitely out of control'…
"Arizona authorities say this happens about once a week in the lucrative and ruthless world of people smuggling — in this case, one set of smugglers had stolen all the illegal immigrants from another set of smugglers. So they chased and shot up the car on the freeway, trying to get back their human cargo.
"'If you look at slavery at any other time, people were bought and sold and fought over, and that’s what’s happening right now on the southwest border,' Hurtt said." [Immigrant Smuggling Out Of Control]
Has anything changed since 2003?
Yes, Chief Hurtt has changed. And the ethnopolitical angle from which he views the border crossers has changed.
Either way, the real victim is going to be America.
[VDARE.COM note: Neither Mayor White nor Chief Hurtt provide email addresses, but no doubt the police department’s webmaster will be happy to pass on any questions or comments.]
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