Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 (Agenda)
Citizens Communication
Citizens Communication is next.
actually citizens communication should have been before the consent items. Citizens communication gives us an opportunity to listen to residents for up to three minutes.
ronnie reeferseed is next followed by rick luna followed by nelson linder.
and if I could get those three individuals to come forth.
mr. Reeferseed.
>> get situated here.
>> thank you, sir.
I'm ronnie reeferseed.
begging please let's stop the killing.
yes, there's something we can all most agree on.
obviously death should be -- should be avoided not celebrated across the board, in my humble opinion, but now both demublicans and democrats, only one little nation israel that proudly promotes bigotry and blatant butcherry of civilians.
63 dead as of last night.
it's getting support and praise in our zionist controlled media.
need more proof?
fact, 63 dead protesters mowed down like weeds by israeli big got playing their nazi cards.
because the nazis were so awful and they killed so many jews and gypsies and homosexuals and handicapped and on and on, now we still have to forever just look the other way as biggotted israeli armed forces continually execute palestinian men, women and children who are guilty only of trying to live on the land that those biggotted delusional cooks decided they want to occupy.
in the bible no way justifies truly killing anyone.
no more, no more precious u.s.
taxpayer dollars should pay for killing people.
especially palestinians for peaceful demonstrations.
using our bullets, our guns, our money to pay for the ongoing biggotted israeli death squads.
we all just have so say please stop the killing on my behalf.
let's liberate each other.
live, love, learn and worship with absolutely freedom as it is in our precious u.s.
constitution that each and every one of them swear to uphold and they take the oath and systematically attempt to destroy our constitution.
we're just saying no.
is a no to the legislative so-called leadership, to our delusional dictatorial banker stooge.
ineligible so-called barack obama, our u.s.
constitution is the law of the land.
so as senator rand paul observed, time's up for the so-called president to continually kill libyans without the approval of congress.
executive power gone haywire.
stop the madness.
impeach the bankster stooge imposter now to help save our republic.
call for weekly updates from dr. Ron paul and info wars.com is a great source of information as is lew rockwell.com.
>> [buzzer sounding] call for ideas.
free pot now at gmail.com.
look forward to your feedback.
thanks.
>> thank you, mr. Reeferseed.
rick luna is next.
>> judge Biscoe and Commissioners.
I have a problem.
my son is on probation and pending violations probation by talking to
>> [inaudible] which he has been in contact with her.
which the d.a.
doesn't understand he is bipolar with post-traumatic stress syndrome.
they put him back on probation.
they give him medication.
this medication that they give him is a medication that caused him to go back into jail.
and instead of working with him with mhmr, finding the right medication, they are incarcerating him.
judge, I did this, I don't know if you remember when you brought mhmr judges and all that to the Commissioners court -- to the court, well, I'm asking you to -- y'all to help my son and to --
>> [inaudible] is a good judge, but he doesn't know how to bring these people together and say you know what, enough is enough with y'all.
you all have kids, are you all going to be together, you have to work something out with a parent because he's not worth going to prison for this.
it's a rinky dink.
but they want to send him to prison for me fighting.
you know what happened there judge.
probation is not willing to work with them and knowing that he has a disability.
this is locking him up, all y'all are doing is making him more aware of being in jail and learning things that he -- gangs and all that.
instead of working with him with mhmr, he can get on the bus and give change out.
25 years old.
have you ever had anybody that said left behind, well, he was left behind.
he's having problems. He's in house arrest.
she calls him, this medication gets him aggravated.
she calls him back and the police record him.
to me it's entrapment.
they set him up.
she knew what she was doing.
she is always calling him to get in the car and let him drive a car and enough is enough.
I ask the judge mike lynch would get this woman and my son in the court, his court and say whoever calls first is going to go to jail.
put some kind of restrictions on these people because he's only looking at one side and that's my son.
and he's only -- he does not need to be in jail.
enough is enough.
swat came into my house, my apartment and tasered him.
what kind of -- eight men getting tending him to put his shoes on.
he's trying to put his shoes on and they taser him.
what kind of sheriff are we having to protect us.
we're scared to call them because they are going to hurt us.
>> [buzzer sounding] all I'm asking y'all is see if y'all can help me get this situation to a win situation.
plus, judge, one more thing.
judge evans, I opposed for him to be a court appointed lawyer for him because we didn't work it out.
now they've appointed him again after I wrote to the bar and told them we didn't want him and they are still doing it.
it's not right.
they are railroading him.
thank you.
>> thank you, mr. Luna.
nelson linder is next followed by gus pena.
>> good morning, judge and the court as well.
thank you for this opportunity.
I visited court in 2010 twice talking about the issue of police brutality.
at a time we had witnessed the death of a young african-american.
we are trying to hide this in this city and county and we're not addressing -- because we are limited by the Texas state penal code and the federal government.
for the record, the department of justice concluded an investigation about a week and a half ago in Travis County based on our request.
and what they said was that they found no constitutional violations among apd in the county or city.
they also said in the second sentence, I'm interesting, I'm going to read, it says during the course of our investigation, we did identify concerns that could lead to violations of law.
and there's about eight specific things.
the point is you didn't find any pattern of inappropriate behavior, but at the same time you didn't find concerns that -- did find concerns that could be violations.
that was misinterpreted by the police department locally.
the police chief called a press conference said they had been vindicated and brought back the john coffee
>> [indiscernible].
less than six hours later, another young black man was killed downtown.
and here's kind of my point.
when you look at these shootings, the problem is not in the result, it's in the process.
in many cases it sounds like racial profiling.
you cite somebody you look suspicious, things can escalate.
these things keep happening.
the problem is both the federal government and their conclusion cited a problem but didn't do anything legally and locally we have the same problem.
but why don't grand jury address it from a different standpoint.
but I want to thank you for the work you've done.
since I left last time in 2010, Commissioner Davis sent my a my package about the grand jury process and we're using those to make sure young folks know if you registered to vote you can be on the grand jury as well and they found this helpful.
how --
>> [indiscernible] continue to do nothing about it.
very clearly if there's a pattern here, and I'm going to close by a harsh quote.
there's a book, what she said was when you first started the lynching
>> [indiscernible] she worked and crusaded for a long time that were anti-lynching in nature and the lynchings stop.
until we cite these in our criminal justice system they are going to continue.
we're saying the police should be the judge and jury too and to the court look, these shootings are suspicious and unnecessary.
they are going to continue.
I hope you would engage me and join me and make sure our public --
>> [buzzer sounding] -- is proper educated.
maybe reexamine what they are looking at in terms of
>> [indiscernible].
I know this is one-way street this morning.
thank you and during the future I'll come back and have a more extensive conversation about this serious problem in this city and nation.
thank you very much.
>> thank you, mr. Lender.
mr. Pena.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners.
gus pena, native east Austinite, proud united states marine corps veteran.
number one, the recent session at the legislature has been very sometimes amusing, very sorrowful, very sad the way certain legislators vote on important issues that deal with education, redistricting, crime and funding for social service agencies.
it is not acceptable.
I leave it to the good lord for him to mete out justice.
number 1, vote city council position is randy shade and kathy toble.
vote for your candidate.
vote period.
this right is given to you under a -- as a united states citizen.
vote.
get out and vote.
affordable housing.
judge and Commissioners, I have many times appeared before this elected body, also at the city council to ask elected officials to clearly define what is affordable housing.
the last of affordable housing was torn down near oltorf and congress.
there isn't any more affordable housing out here in Austin.
I don't know what criteria they use other than the mfi.
it is not affordable, a lot of families becoming homeless.
the suburban motel which housed or rented out to a lot of families was sold to walter merle and his foundation.
where these families went, I don't know.
a lot of homeless families.
it's becoming more prevalent in Austin.
a lot of families are becoming homeless.
they cannot afford housing is not affordable.
the third is social service agencies have approached the committee at the city of Austin to request funding for $28 million for the r.f.p.
process.
13 million at the city council is not going to get it so the social service agency is going to be hurting.
number 4, please continue to fund and fund more positions for summer jobs for the youth.
keep the youth active out of the streets away from problems. Job creation.
when you mention job creation, livable wage benefits.
my last is this.
please show your support and thank our military personnel who are out there in harm's way.
especially our female veterans who do not get the recognition or credit that they deserve.
it is about time we showed the female veterans we appreciate their efforts alongside our male counterparts.
and last item is this.
if you disagree with your property taxes are too high, you just don't agree with it, protest.
request a hearing at tcad, Travis County appraisal district.
call your county Commissioner and they will help out.
>> [buzzer sounding] a society's worth is measured by its treatment of the less fortunate.
thank you, you all have a good day.
>> thank you, mr. Pena.
those are the four persons signed in to speak under citizens communication.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
