AFS Cinema
Hush Money
RECEIVED Tue., April 5, 2005
Dear Editor,
I certainly hope much attention is being paid to the blatant political chess game going on with Midtown [“Midtown Saga Burns On,” News, April 1]. It is obvious that Baylor is showing the city how generous, how helpful, how supportive, and how much damage control they have done for the city surrounding this incident. Oh – and then, we want money. Oh no, we don't want $400,000. We want $750,000.
This is hush money! City pays, club owners claim to keep a lid on their disbelief and emotional trauma that came from stupid messages sent by a few police officers. (Stupid, not criminal.) Baylor cited one, one incident (of which I am not familiar with) where police apparently failed to respond appropriately to a 911 call. She failed to even mention the number of calls to police since then (most likely hovering around 500 or greater) to which there have been no complaints.
I hope the media zeros in on the statements put out by Futrell and McDonald that “this was the city's idea and we would have given it to the club had the incident not happened.” Lie lie lie. All to appease a family that is connected with Washington.
And finally (trying to keep this short), I hope the media roll over to Mr. Linder – and hold his feet to the fire – who stated on television news that the e-mail and statements in the e-mail were taken out of context and someone has it out for the city manager. I hope people see the irony and hypocrisy of that mindset. Hang and fire police officers for their e-mails that stink of racism (although race was never mentioned), but take a step back and take a look at the big picture when it comes to “his” people sending messages.
I certainly hope much attention is being paid to the blatant political chess game going on with Midtown [“Midtown Saga Burns On,” News, April 1]. It is obvious that Baylor is showing the city how generous, how helpful, how supportive, and how much damage control they have done for the city surrounding this incident. Oh – and then, we want money. Oh no, we don't want $400,000. We want $750,000.
This is hush money! City pays, club owners claim to keep a lid on their disbelief and emotional trauma that came from stupid messages sent by a few police officers. (Stupid, not criminal.) Baylor cited one, one incident (of which I am not familiar with) where police apparently failed to respond appropriately to a 911 call. She failed to even mention the number of calls to police since then (most likely hovering around 500 or greater) to which there have been no complaints.
I hope the media zeros in on the statements put out by Futrell and McDonald that “this was the city's idea and we would have given it to the club had the incident not happened.” Lie lie lie. All to appease a family that is connected with Washington.
And finally (trying to keep this short), I hope the media roll over to Mr. Linder – and hold his feet to the fire – who stated on television news that the e-mail and statements in the e-mail were taken out of context and someone has it out for the city manager. I hope people see the irony and hypocrisy of that mindset. Hang and fire police officers for their e-mails that stink of racism (although race was never mentioned), but take a step back and take a look at the big picture when it comes to “his” people sending messages.
Ryan Herring
