Dominique Alexander, the head of Next Generation Action Network and one of the people behind the protest that preceded July 7 police shootings in downtown Dallas, is not wasting much time. The group’s next protest, he announced Monday afternoon, is going to go on Thursday night, two weeks to the…
About this time of year, one of my summer rituals has been to pack up a bottle of water, a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich and a can of bug spray and hike to the Trinity River bottoms to do my annual piece on “Stupid Dallas Fake Kayak Rapids Still There, Still Stupid.”…
Dallas’ police department has received intense scrutiny since Micah Johnson ambushed Dallas police following a march against police brutality on July 7. Our city has a complex history with law enforcement that the Observer has extensively covered. Here’s a quick list of reading material that can help explain the dynamic between the…
As Dallas was hit with rain Friday morning, the Dallas Public Library moved to save the memorial that sprung up at police headquarters in the immediate aftermath of July 7’s police ambush. Everything hand-written or non-perishable from the memorial will be saved. Thousands of items left by people from around…
This week of compelling events in the real world here in Dallas has kept me away from a world I confess I sometimes prefer, the one depicted on a Bravo TV reality show called Southern Charm, set in Charleston, South Carolina. I feel guilty about it, but all week long…
Last Thursday’s police ambush in downtown Dallas was a perfect storm for confusion. A big, participatory event (the protest against police-involved shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota) with media in place on the ground. Mix in social live-streaming through Facebook live and apps like Periscope. Add a violent act meant to…
As was inevitable. The conspiracy theories about last week’s police shooting in Dallas are sprouting. According to YouTube user WhoCares, who crafted the intricate video seen below from footage shot by Central Track intern Sidney Johnson, the bystanders who witnessed Thursday night’s ambush in Dallas weren’t bystanders at all. They…
When the Texas Legislature decided to allow the licensed, concealed carry of handguns on the state’s public university campuses, it gave the state’s schools until the beginning of the 2016-2017 academic year to get things figured out. On Wednesday, the University of Texas at Austin finalized what campus carry will…
When grief and profound mistrust swirl together in a threatening cloud above our heads as they have this past week, we should be forgiven the occasional lapse into fear and even despair. But even one moment of fear and despair may mask a more important reality: There are specific pragmatic…
It’s official: Mack Rhoades is Baylor University’s new athletic director. The former athletic director at the University of Houston and, most recently, the University of Missouri, Rhoades has to rebuild a program reeling with accusations of sexual assaults by players. The task he faces is hard to underestimate, and…
Over the past six years, Lower Greenville has undergone a transformation. Thanks to a few million in city bond funds, the street itself has gone from a potholed obstacle course (like the typical Dallas street) to a pedestrian-friendly avenue with space to sit and stroll. Dive bars have given way…
Rev. Jeff Hood is a man under fire. He gained national attention as a lead organizer of the Black Lives Matters protest in Dallas and eagerly embraced the media’s interest after a gunman killed five officers. But ever since he appeared on Fox News Channel’s Megyn Kelly’s show, he’s received dozens of…
As typically happens when the president of the United States goes anywhere, there were cops everywhere. Cops directing traffic around the Arts District and the rest of downtown. Cops with rifles stationed at the barricades keeping pedestrians from getting anywhere near the Meyerson Symphony Center before, during and after Dallas’…
Between 1,500 and 2,000 people gather in front of City Hall to light candles, offer prayers and listen to testimonials to the five Dallas police officers murdered by a gunman last Thursday after a Black Lives Matter march in downtown Dallas. The crowd is about 80 percent white. Everyone is here to express…
Dallas Police Chief David Brown has been talking a lot over the last few days about community policing, a combination of strategies designed to build trust between the police and the people whose lives they patrol. What he doesn’t say in public is something that I know he knows. I…
The doctors and nurses of Dallas’ Parkland Hospital Emergency Room didn’t expect the mass shooting that rocked downtown Dallas on Thursday night, but they were prepared for the influx of patients. Emotionally, however, the incident has taken a toll. There were more surgeons on duty throughout the night than…
Downtown Dallas is known for tragic landmarks. Now it has one more. On Thursday night, a group of protesters gathered by the Dallas County Courthouse, itself a scene of community tragedy, although one not as well known as Dealey Plaza and other places related to the Kennedy assassination. Here, in…
Texas advocates for the open carrying of firearms are accusing Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and President Obama of political opportunism, criticizing the pair for suggesting that the number of civilians walking around with guns downtown as Micah Xavier Johnson rained gunfire on Dallas police officers might have added to the confusion…
The wail is the same. It doesn’t matter which side the wail comes from. Wail of loss. Wail of pain. It’s all the same wail. We don’t have cell phone video of the moments in Dallas when wives and husbands, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, brothers, sisters, lovers, dear…
In every fight, whether a gun battle or a boxing match, there’s something called initiative. It’s not easy to describe, but it exists. Loosely put, it means one side is reacting to the other and therefore can predict their opponent’s moves. Those who have the initiative, win. Those who…
Dallas Police Chief David Brown today told CNN his rationale when approving the use of a robot to deliver an explosive to kill police shooter Micah Johnson during Thursday’s rampage at a protest march. He says negotiations failed and that trying to get a sniper to shoot him would expose…
Major Max Geron is a 24-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department. He’s served as the voice of the department, leading the media relations unit, and is now assigned to the crimes against persons unit. Thursday night, as Micah Xavier Johnson began shooting, Geron was sitting down to dinner. He…
