Well, OK, he didn’t quite say it like that. But here’s what Dallas Police Association president Glenn White did say to WFAA-TV: “Because we choose to live outside the city so that we may have what we consider a better life, our children don’t have to go to DISD, we don’t have the monetary funds to send our children to private schools.”
All of this wisdom was being dispensed after Channel 8 reporter Brad Watson noted, rightly, that it seems just a little curious that some Dallas police officers are actively encouraging the city manager to sidestep the city’s budget problems and provide police pay boosts by raising property taxes — something that won’t affect 80 percent of DPD officers since they live outside Dallas.
Watson also pointed out that of the city’s 1,700 firefighters, 85 percent don’t live in Dallas.
I don’t begrudge any city employee for living wherever they want to live and for sending their kids to any schools they want (other than that ratty old DISD, of course). In fact, years ago I even recommended that the city set up some tax breaks for police (instead of every developer who darkens city hall’s door) to make it more affordable for cops and their families to live in the city; I guess that idea got lost in the city manager’s SPAM filter. After all, these people are protecting us, so why can’t we help them live closer to their jobs and, by living in the city, provide a little more protection to the rest of us simply by being good neighbors.
And I know that White doesn’t speak for all police officers when he trashes the lifestyle in Dallas and DISD schools. But it’s still pretty disappointing that a guy whose job is to be a spokesman can’t control his mouth a little better than that. Even if he really believes it.