Unfair Park from p4 the Republic of Texas. He said there should still be alligators at the preserve. “From the road there, I’ve seen an alligator before,” Sandifer said. “In that vicinity there are a number of alligators that live in the Trinity River Bottoms there, in old gravel pits, swampy areas.” One was inadvertently run over just a couple of miles to the west of the preserve. “There are alligators in that area, but they’re very secretive,” Sandifer said. “You only re- ally see them around dawn or dusk and they don’t make themselves very evident.” Sometimes, on the banks of the Trinity River, Sandifer said you can find alligator tracks. But, most of the alligators he’s seen in the area are only about three-four feet long. “So, unless you’re a fish or some sort of wa- terfowl, they’re not going to bother you,” Sandifer said. There are also venomous snakes. “It’s a snakey, alligator-ey area,” Sandifer said. Mia Brown, an administrator with the Dallas County Planning and Development Department, said they intend to update the Park and Open Space Plan in the next year or so. The last one was written in 1991. “The updated plan will focus on incorpo- rated and unincorporated parts of the county to identify and prioritize manage- ment best-practices, development needs, and balance equitable use and access with conservation,” Brown said. So, maybe one day the public will have some sort of access to the Palmetto Preserve. But, before then, Sandifer said other invest- ments are needed in the area. For example, Sandbranch, an unincorporated part of Dal- las County, doesn’t have utilities or running water. “In order to approach this question of opening up the Palmetto Alligator Slough Preserve, what needs to happen before we do that is address the needs of people who live in abject poverty across the street,” San- difer said. “If people are going to put public money into something in that area, the first thing that needs to be on the punch list there needs to be coming up with a positive solu- tion to the community of Sandbranch.” But Sandifer said opening up the pre- serve could be a unique opportunity for peo- ple to connect with nature. ▼ POLITICS LET FREEDOM HONK T 66 TEXAS REPUBLICANS LIKE SEN. TED CRUZ ARE SHOWING SUPPORT FOR CANADIAN TRUCK DRIVERS. BY SIMONE CARTER exas Sen. Ted Cruz is a steadfast de- fender of freedom — also known as liberté to some of our Canadian neighbors. But while the Republican politi- cian has so far remained silent on his home state’s crackdown on school libraries, he’s more than happy to give Canadian truck drivers a political assist. In case you’ve taken a break from the re- lentless 24-hour news cycle, truck drivers have been protesting vaccine mandates in cities and towns across Canada. The so- called “Freedom Convoy” was sparked in January in response to a requirement that border-crossing drivers be fully vaxxed or they face testing and quarantine protocols. Before long, meek beeps began to cre- scendo to prolonged honks as other Canadian citizens joined the movement to banish pan- demic restrictions. But GoFundMe recently removed a fundraising page for the truckers, claiming it breached the site’s terms of service. Initially, GoFundMe said it would return money to donors who requested a refund but would dole the remaining change to “credible and established charities.” Swift backlash prompted the company to refund donors automatically. Here’s where our boy Cruz comes in. The senator appeared on FOX to heap praises on these supposed Canadian freedom fighters. “Let me say, the Canadian truckers are heroes,” Cruz gushed. “They are patriots, and they are marching for your freedom and for my freedom. “Those truck drivers — God bless them — they’re defending Canada but they’re de- fending America as well,” he continued. (Hope they’re prepared for a new forever war, then.) Next, Cruz explained that the “thieves in Silicon Valley” were effectively discriminat- ing against these road warriors over their politics. Cruz added that he’d sent a letter asking the Federal Trade Commission to in- vestigate whether GoFundMe had commit- ted deceptive trade practices by redirecting donations to other causes. Cruz has also killed time picking internet fights with foreign leaders. Over the week- end, he slammed Vancouver Mayor Ken- nedy Stewart on Twitter for saying the city didn’t “want” the truck drivers there. The Texas politician said people “might feel dif- ferently with empty shelves.” “Can someone tell @tedcruz our store shelves are fine thanks to the 90% of Cana- dian truckers who are fully vaccinated,” Stewart responded. “Too busy high-fiving all the awesome folks in #Vancouver that are helping push back against the #hateconvoy.” This comes months after a high-ranking Australian official blasted the Texas senator over his critique of that country’s coronavi- rus vaccine mandates. (Probably a good thing that Cruz isn’t a diplomat.) Yet Texas’ junior senator isn’t the only Palmetto Preserve may be home to alligators. Aldric Rivat/Unsplash Lone-Star Republican who’s showing soli- darity with the truckers’ cause. In a tweet late last month, comedian Chad Prather, who’s running for governor, said he “identif[ies] as a Canadian trucker.” Then, on Feb. 5, Prather unloaded another creative spin on a COVID-era saying: “We only needed 18 wheels to flatten the curve.” Dang, that one warrants a good ol’-fash- ioned trucker salute. ▼ STRIP CLUBS DELAYED ENFORCEMENT the move would spark a lawsuit. Just hours af- ter the City Council unanimously passed an ordinance closing the businesses from 2 a.m.-6 a.m. last month, the city faced a lawsuit. Now, a judge has bought a little more time for the businesses and their employees, who say the new rules threaten their livelihood. The Dallas Police Department and sev- A eral city council members said the busi- nesses were responsible for a rise in crime, draining city and police resources. The ordinance said the new hours would take place immediately, but last week, a judge ordered the city to provide evidence linking the sexually oriented businesses to crime. Both parties agreed it would take about a month to gather the evidence, and the city said it won’t enforce the rule until then. The suit was filed by the Dallas Associa- tion of Club Executives, the members of which have repeatedly spoken out about the proposed hours of operation. The busi- nesses named in the suit include four strip clubs and one 24-hour adult store that sells lingerie and other novelty items. Roger Albright, an attorney representing the Dallas Association of Club Executives, told City Council members in November that they would lose in court because the or- dinance is content-based. COURTS ARE STALLING DALLAS’ ENFORCEMENT OF NEW HOURS OF OPERATION FOR SEXUALLY ORIENTED BUSINESSES. BY JACOB VAUGHN s Dallas officials worked to restrict hours for sexually oriented busi- nesses, people in the industry warned Now, the judge is asking for more infor- mation about the DPD data supporting slic- ing the clubs’ hours of operation. Dallas Police showed city officials data that suggested crime and the number of ser- vice calls were higher near sexually oriented businesses between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. But the data also included statistics within a 500- foot radius of the businesses. Some have suggested this could have swayed the data. Dozens of people in the industry turned out to City Hall to oppose the ordinance on the day of the vote. Many said working at sexually oriented businesses provides them the income and flexibility they need that other jobs may not be able to provide. If the new hours are enforced, violators could have their licenses suspended for up to 30 days. They could also get stuck with a fine up to $4,000 and a year-long jail sentence. ▼ COURTS B BEFORE FEDS ARRESTED HIM, STEWART RHODES HAD BUILT A NETWORK OF FOLLOWERS WITHIN LAW ENFORCEMENT AND FAR-RIGHT GROUPS. BY MICHAEL MURNEY MILITIA MADNESS efore he landed in a North Texas jail last month on seditious conspiracy charges for allegedly trying to over- throw the U.S. government, then Oath Keep- ers leader Stewart Rhodes pushed a dark and apocalyptic vision of what lay in store for the U.S. According to Rhodes, it’s only a matter of time before the federal government imposes martial law, herds dissenters into concentra- tion camps, and then joins up with a coali- tion of other global elites to form a sinister “New World Order,” an old conspiracy the- ory with anti-Semitic undertones. The way Rhodes sees it, it’s the righ- teous duty of groups like his to defend America against this looming tyrannical threat. For years before he allegedly helped orchestrate the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Rhodes prophesized “an ongoing war on the West to flood us with Third World people and then overwhelm us,” as he described it in December 2019. Rhodes’ now-estranged ex-wife says Rhodes took extraordinary measures to plan for the impending government crackdown, including building a tunnel from their fam- ily home in Montana to a nearby forest if au- thorities launched a surprise attack, and leaving an unregistered car at the other end to flee the feds. Even Rhodes’ defense attorney, James Lee Bright, admits that the steps Rhodes and his followers took to prepare themselves for the supposedly coming doom are beyond his understanding. “Look, these guys are surviv- alists. And I’m not saying I understand it, and I’m not saying it’s anything I’m inter- ested in,” Bright told the Observer. There were at least 169 active antigovern- ment militias in the U.S. in 2020, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intel- ligence Project. These groups are united by their opposition to the unfounded notion of an impending “New World Order” con- trolled by transnational global elites. The movement ballooned in the 1990s, then gained additional steam after >> p8 MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 FEBRUARY 17–23, 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.comdallasobserver.com
