ordinance as discriminating against an entire community of people, especially given that non-sexually oriented after-hours clubs aren’t going to be affected. (He notes that those businesses witness their fair share of violence, yet the hours remain unchanged.) Carlson believes that City Council doesn’t see SOB workers as human beings, adding that so far, the courts haven’t backed them up either. Referencing the mayor’s comments during last week’s meeting, Carlson said the party only stops at 2 a.m. for his industry. But, he continued, they’re a resilient bunch. They’ll figure out a way to make it, somehow. “We always adapt, I’ll say that,” Carlson said. “We always adapt.” ▼ GANG WARFARE Mike Brooks going to pass this, and I’m going to apologize to all the industry workers here because I didn’t do enough.” He said the process was flawed and that this change won’t stop crime in the city. “I think that we have lost our way on this as a council,” he said. “This is the first time I sat back and gave up because the issue became so politicized.” The crowd at City Hall applauded as Narvaez finished speaking. Bazaldua didn’t think the process was rushed or inadequate. He said it has been a robust policy discussion and that it has nothing to do with the kind of work being done at the clubs. To him, it’s about the data, which DPD says shows crime is higher around sexually oriented businesses during those early-morning hours. “Sometimes sausage making isn’t so pretty,” Bazaldua said, arguing that the data shows people’s lives are at risk and restricting the hours of operation at sexually oriented businesses is the way to respond. City Council member Chad West said he wants to support the police chief and DPD in their efforts to fight crime, but he also disapproved of the process, saying it was rushed. Nor did he like the idea that sexually oriented businesses that didn’t pose a crime problem would also have to shut down during the four-hour window. West recommended some kind of appeal process for the businesses. He asked Garcia what criteria the department might consider for an appeal process that would allow the businesses to reopen from 2 a.m. until 6 a.m. Garcia said he wouldn’t support an appeal process and didn’t have any criteria to recommend. Regardless of whether a specific sexually oriented business is causing problems, Garcia said they should be shut down because of problems at other locations, perhaps unintentionally boosting the clubs’ claim that the city’s is regulating these businesses for the nature of their content, not simply to fight crime. The City Attorney wouldn’t provide any recommendations either. So, West went ahead and moved to add an appeal process to the ordinance, getting support from Narvaez. That motion failed. Narvaez later moved to have the 88 ordinance reviewed by the City Council every two years, something the council has Dallas City Council voted sexually oriented businesses to close at 2a.m. done increasingly with other ordinances. That motion passed. What it came to a final vote, the council’s decision was unanimous. Johnson said he feels for the employees who will be financially harmed and will be speaking with the city’s experts to discuss the employment issues. But he said none of the other work the council does matters if people aren’t safe. “We have a solution that’s in front of us today. It’s a simple solution,” Johnson said. “At 2 a.m., the party’s over. That’s what we’re saying.” Within hours of the council’s vote, the Dallas Association of Club Executives filed suit in federal court. The clubs argue the new rules are unconstitutional because they exclusively target sexually oriented businesses. The suit says the change will hit revenue hard and have other trickle down effects. The club owners and those they employ hope a federal judge will halt enforcement of the new hours of operation while they fight in court. XTC’s Colunga said she didn’t think the vote would be unanimous, or that council members actually took the time to hear everyone’s stories. After the ordinance passed, she felt anger and disbelief. Although she believes that City Council made a mistake, Colunga is looking ahead. She’s weighing some bartending job offers, a gig she hopes can help her maintain “some control over [her] life.” Colunga thinks that XTC will update its hours once the ordinance takes effect but notes that they don’t normally get busy until after 2 a.m. She says she plans to continue working there with the new hours, in addition to bartending. She’ll see how the money is at the club, but if it’s too much of a difference, she’ll just tend bar. Carlson said the new ordinance is devastating for Tiger Cabaret. He doesn’t know what he’ll do if the business folds, but as a self-described “old man,” he says he’ll be all right no matter what. It’s the others for whom he worries, including one employee who could soon be evicted. Tiger will do its best to survive the new restrictions, but Carlson says there’s no way it can sustain itself as is; they’ll certainly have to try out some changes. He views the ‘FORGOTTEN NO MORE’ T A FEDERAL RAID TARGETED A GANG CALLED HAMILTON PARK POSSE, THE DOJ IN NORTH TEXAS SAID. BY PATRICK STRICKLAND he way the feds tell it, it was a big haul. On top of arresting 20 al- leged drug dealers that belong to a gang called the Hamilton Park Posse, law enforcement confis- cated dozens of guns, hundreds of dollars’ worth of assets and 220 pounds of cocaine, fentanyl-laced pills, meth and marijuana. Known as “Operation Shut Down Cor- ner,” the raid announced last Wednesday in- cluded more than 150 agents and officers from the North Texas OCDE (Organized Crime Drug Enforcement) Strike Force, the Department of Justice in North Texas said in a press release. Although 21 people were charged, one of the accused individuals was still on the run. The crimes they’re facing are steep: conspir- acy to distribute an array of drugs, maintain- ing drug-involved premises and possession of firearms to further drug trafficking crimes, among others. Some of those charged could end up in prison for up to four decades, the DOJ said. Many of them have long rap sheets, includ- ing making terroristic threats, weapon pos- session, drug possession, aggravated assault and others. Hamilton Park is a historically Black neighborhood in North Dallas with upward of 10,000 residents. The feds say the Hamil- ton Park Posse had “terrorized” the area for years. “This drug trafficking, gun wielding street gang has been terrorizing their neigh- borhood for far too long,” U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham said at a press conference with the Drug Enforcement Agency last Wednesday. DEA Special Agent in Charge Eduardo Chavez said at the press conference: “The Hamilton Park area of Dallas was once de- scribed to me as a ‘Forgotten Neighbor- hood.’ That stops now.” During the early months of the pan- demic, crime surged in Dallas and other cit- ies around the country. In 2021, however, homicides in Dallas slumped by 13%, ac- cording to The Dallas Morning News. Last June, hundreds of FBI agents raided an apartment complex in South Dallas and arrested at least 10 people allegedly affili- ated with a gang called the Park Row Posse. The DOJ later said that nobody lived in the apartment complex, and that law enforce- ment had seized 36 guns, $58,000 in cash, six vehicles and dozens of pounds of drugs. In July, federal agents and local police seized $1.6 million in cash, 14 firearms and large quantities of cocaine and metham- phetamine at a southeast Dallas home. ▼ CRIME A HANDGUN USED FOR HATE H HENRY WILLIAMS ALLEGEDLY SOLD THE HANDGUN TO MALIK FAISAL AKRAM TWO DAYS BEFORE THE HOSTAGE CRISIS AT A COLLEYVILLE SYNAGOGUE. BY PATRICK STRICKLAND enry “Michael” Williams had al- ready been convicted of a felony and wasn’t even supposed to have a gun himself, federal authorities say, but that didn’t stop him from selling a handgun to a man he recalled only as someone with a “British accent.” The man with the accent was Malik Faisal Akram, a 44-year-old United King- dom national who later took hostages at the Congregant Beth Israel synagogue in Col- leyville on Jan. 15. The FBI shot and killed Akram during the hours-long standoff, and the hostages were freed unharmed. Williams had sold Akram the semiauto- matic Taurus G2C pistol in South Dallas two days before the hostage crisis, the U.S. De- partment of Justice in North Texas said in a press release last week. He’s now facing a federal firearms charge. Williams appeared in court last Wednes- day afternoon. According to the criminal complaint, Williams had previously been convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and attempted possession of a controlled substance. Federal investigators say they linked Williams to Akram through a series of phone calls made between the pair over a two-day span. Williams reportedly told federal authori- ties that Akram had explained he needed to weapon to “intimidate” someone who owed him money. “Federal firearm laws are designed to keep guns from falling into dangerous hands,” said U.S. Attorney Chad E. Meacham in the release. “As a convicted felon, Mr. Williams was prohibited from carrying, acquiring, or selling firearms.” Meacham added, “Whether or not he knew of his buyer’s nefarious intent is largely irrelevant — felons cannot have guns, period, and the Justice Department is com- mitted to prosecuting those who do.” In the release, Dallas FBI Special Agent in Charge Matthew DeSarno said agents had worked “around the clock” to uncover how Akram “acquired the weapon he used to ter- rorize worshipers at Colleyville’s Congrega- tion Beth Israel synagogue.” Federal authorities have described the in- cident as a hate crime and an act of terrorism. The FBI has said that Akram traveled from the U.K. to the United States late last year, and that by taking the hostages, he had hoped to MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 FEBRUARY 3–9, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER DALLAS OBSERVER | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | MOVIES | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | SCHUTZE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.com dallasobserver.com
