Unfair Park from p4 Price family, condemned the not-guilty ver- dict on Twitter the next day. “Shaun Lucas was acquitted in rural Hunt County Texas by an all white jury. At the time of his murder he was unarmed and did not pose a threat to any one,” Merritt wrote. “Every law enforcement professional that reviewed the facts concluded Lucas’ use of force was unjustified.” He added that the family intended to call on the U.S. Department of Justice “to inter- vene and bring federal criminal charges.” Price’s death came just months after a Minneapolis police officer killed a 46-year- old George Floyd, whose death sparked Black Lives Matter protests in cities around the nation. ▼ POLITICS TEXAS REPUBLICANS ARE PILING ON SHERIFF JAVIER SALAZAR OVER HIS INVESTIGATION INTO RON DESANTIS’ MIGRANT PLANE STUNT. BY PATRICK STRICKLAND SUPPORT YOUR SHERIFF? W hen the Bexar County sheriff held a livestream press confer- ence last Monday, he didn’t hold back from letting everyone know he was an- gry. In fact, he said he was “furious” over a stunt earlier this month that saw dozens of migrants recruited from Texas and shipped to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. The sheriff’s office opened an investiga- tion into the incident. Now, Republican poli- ticians and conservative media figures around the country, including many in Texas, are lashing out at Bexar County Sher- iff Javier Salazar. The stunt had been orchestrated on be- half of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who later boasted that he’d had 48 migrants flown to his state and then on to Martha’s Vineyard. “Immigrants have been more than will- ing to leave Bexar County after being aban- doned, homeless and ‘left to fend for themselves,’” the governor’s spokesperson said in a statement. The spokesperson said Florida had af- forded the migrants “an opportunity to seek greener pastures in a sanctuary jurisdiction that offered greater resources for them, as we expected.” When Salazar announced his office had opened an investigation into the incident, he said he believed the migrants had been “preyed upon” and “hoodwinked” for the sake of “political posturing.” In short, the migrants had been misled, explained Salazar, who is a Democrat. Last Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton kicked off a wave of anger di- rected at Salazar, accusing him of “political grandstanding” and suggesting the investi- gation itself was “unlawful.” Paxton didn’t explain how or why such an investigation would violate the law. But it wasn’t just Paxton. Last Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson, a former White House physician and hardline Republican, called Salazar a “disgrace” on Twitter. In his typically unhinged posting style, 66 Jackson continued: “Crime is rampant at our southern border, and his number one concern is trying to get his name in the press by going after Ron DeSantis. Democrats think GOP governors are a bigger THREAT than the cartels. Salazar should RESIGN!!” Speaking to Glenn Beck on BlazeTV, U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, a Republican repre- senting Texas’ 21st congressional district, called Salazar’s investigation “an absolute abomination.” “This is nothing more than Sheriff Salazar playing politics and doing so in a way that would endanger Texans,” Roy claimed, al- though he failed to explain how conducting an investigation would put anyone in danger. Roy added, “He should be challenged for it. He should be, you know, removed from office, and someone needs to go take him down in terms of his political career. And we should replace him with someone else. It’s absurd.” Matt Rinaldi, chairman of the Texas GOP, went as far as to claim that the probe was part of a broader trend of Democrats “rou- tinely criminally investigating Republicans for policy disagreements.” In a Twitter post last week, Rinaldi added that Republicans in the state Legis- lature “should stop appointing Democrats as committee chairs who want to put them and their voters in jail.” (Rinaldi didn’t bother to say which voters the sheriff was trying to jail.) Given the about-face in recent months by many Republicans’ on how they perceive certain law enforcement agencies, the angry response isn’t much of a surprise. When the FBI carried out a search war- rant at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resi- dence last month, Texas Republicans jumped to the former president’s defense. The U.S. Department of Justice said Trump had failed to return classified docu- ments after he left the White House, but the Texas GOP’s official Twitter account quickly claimed the DOJ had been “weaponized against political threats to the regime, as it would in a banana republic.” Gov. Greg Abbott described the search as “next-level Nixonian,” while U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz claimed it marked “an abuse of power” by the bureau and President Joe Biden. For his part, Cruz has also backed DeSan- tis’ migrant plane to Martha’s Vineyard. Jordan Vonderhaar/Getty Images Undocumented imigrants in San Antonio became a political stunt. Speaking on Fox News, Cruz said there’s “nothing illegal about offering to fly illegal aliens voluntarily to a billionaire’s play- ground like Martha’s Vineyard.” In his press conference last week, though, Sheriff Salazar said that the migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard were not “illegal.” “They are here legally in our country at that point,” he said. “They have every right to be where they are. I believe that they were preyed upon.” He added that they’d been “lured with promises of a better life.” DeSantis’ plane operation comes as Texas Gov. Abbott continues to send buses carrying migrants to sanctuary cities including Chi- cago, Washington, D.C., and New York City. Rights group have accused Abbott of “politi- cal stunts” and using migrants as “pawns.” ▼ GUN CONTROL CEASE FIRE Texans overwhelmingly support tighter gun control. Eight of 10 people surveyed said they supported a ban on gun ownership by any- one under a restraining order for stalking or domestic violence. About 78% of people said they were in favor of criminal background checks of gun buyers with no exception for gun shows or private sales. Most people sur- veyed, 74%, also said judges should be able to take guns away from people who are a threat to themselves or others. About 71% of people said they’d support raising the legal age for purchasing an assault rifle to 21, in- stead of the current age requirement of 18. It also didn’t seem to matter whether the A participant was a Republican, Democrat or independent. “Despite Texas’ reputation as a gun lov- ing state, Texans across the board support gun safety proposals at the state level as A NEW SURVEY FOUND “OVERWHELMING” BIPARTISAN SUPPORT FOR MORE GUN CONTROL MEASURES IN TEXAS. BY JACOB VAUGHN recent survey conducted by the University of Houston and Texas Southern University found that well as many of the main provisions passed through the federal Bipartisan Safer Com- munities Act,” René Cross, one of the re- port’s researchers, said in a press release. “While debates about the balance between Second Amendment rights and gun safety will continue to flare, the survey provides no doubt there are areas of consensus.” The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act was passed in the Senate and signed into law in June. It was passed in response to school mass shootings, like the one in Uvalde ear- lier this year. Among other things, it pro- vides $1 billion in funding to improve safety at schools across the country. The month be- fore the law was passed, an 18-year-old who legally bought two assault rifles and more than 1,600 rounds of ammunition shot up Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, killing 19 students and two teachers in the South Texas town. People were a little more divided when it came to waiting periods for assault rifle pur- chases, as well as complete bans on the sale and ownership of the weapons. About 69% said they supported the waiting periods. This included 85% of the survey’s Demo- crats, 62% of independents and 54% of the surveyed Republicans. A little more than half of the people sur- veyed, 55%, said they supported a complete ban on the sale of assault rifles. Most of the people who supported the sales ban were Democrats. A more stark political divide can be seen in who supports a total ban on own- ing assault rifles. About 29% of surveyed Re- publicans said they supported the ban, compared with 81% of Democrats and 49% of independents in support. But there was a bigger divide in opinion when it came to gender. Texas women were “significantly more likely” to support the gun control measures when compared with men in the state. The two universities responsible for the report surveyed more than 2,100 Texans late last month. The report is part of a five-year project called Texas Trends that is meant to track changes in opinions and policy prefer- ences as the state’s population changes. ▼ CONSPIRACY THEORIES MIND CONTROL vatives are still spreading wild conspiracy theories about the vaccine. In a recent Twitter post, the Washington, A D.C.-based watchdog media outlet Right Wing Watch published a video of Texas- based doctor, right-wing activist and GOP donor Steven Hotze claiming that the CO- VID-19 vaccine could make you vulnerable to – wait for it – mind control. If you received the vaccine, Hotze claims in the clip, you “become connected to the in- ternet of things and you can be mind-con- trolled by artificial intelligence through maybe 5G.” Although the video isn’t time stamped, it appears to have been filmed late last >> p8 GOP DONOR STEVEN HOTZE IS SPREADING BIZARRE COVID-19 VACCINE CONSPIRACY THEORIES. BY PATRICK STRICKLAND year and a half since COVID-19 first hit and shuttered much of the world, some hardline Texas conser- SEPTEMBER 29–OCTOBER 5, 2022 MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 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
