ustxtxb_obs_2002_09_13_50_00013-00000_000.pdf

8-5-2002 Son or daughter of a Senator or Congressman, Son or daughter of a wealthy American, Young American in college or graduate school, Pro-war columnists or talk-show yakkers, \(Rush Limbaugh, Tucker Carlson, John Fund, Jonah Goldberg, Ann Coulter’s boyfriend, et cetera from the records of the victims. In a public letter released August 15, TABC Executive Director Rolando Garza insisted that, while the agency should “have done things differently,’ race wasn’t a factor. Nonetheless, two TABC agents who participated in the raid were fired. \(They also promised that he would review how the agency conducts “future investigations of this nature.” BAYTOWN BRUISER STRIKES AGAIN On August 30, the Baytown Police Department belatedly announced that not a month after the brutal killing of Luis Torres, Bert Dillow, one of the officers involved, was caught using excessive force in another case. As with Torres \(see “Are You Experienced,” by Jake incident was captured by a camera mounted on the dashboard of a squad car. A police supervisor who reviewed the film of the arrest brought it to the attention of Internal Affairs. After an investigation, Baytown Police Chief Byron Jones suspended Officer Dillow for four days without pay for the February incident, which began as a traffic stop. Dillow and his partner Officer Shawn Fischer had detained Derrick Monroe for an illegal turn and unsafe lane change. When the officers tried to handcuff Monroe, an altercation ensued. According to the Baytown Sun, the officers are accused of striking Monroe with batons after he had been pepper sprayed and had assumed a cowering, defensive position. The investigation found that the officers had not allowed enough time for the pepper spray to take effect before beating Monroe. \(In the Torres case, there were also allegations of Houston Chronicle reported that Dillow urged his partner to shoot Monroe, but fortunately Fischer didn’t comply. Internal Affairs also found Dillow to have committed an illegal search and seizure. According to police reports, Dillow had no justification for detaining Monroe except to write him a traffic ticket. Fischer was suspended for one day without pay for the incident. Both officers are appealing their suspensions. Monroe pled guilty to attempting to take a weapon from a police officer and is currently serving an 18-month jail sentence. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office, which declined to press charges in the Torres case, determined there was insufficient evidence for criminal charges against the officers this time as well. Let’s see… if we do go to war… who will this probably NOT be? 9/13/02 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 13