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Dallas mayor has ‘deep concerns’ about planning lapses, miscommunication noted in DPD protest report

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson on Saturday expressed “deep concerns” about failed planning and leadership during the Dallas Police Department’s response to chaotic downtown protests in late May and early June — responses highlighted in a long-awaited final “after-action” report.

The agency’s 85-page report — overseen by Chief U. Reneé Hall and delivered to City Hall officials late Friday night — found that mistakes were made but that the agency had learned from its handling of protests that took place from May 29-June 1 in the wake of George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis. The department promised and outlined specific changes ahead.

“I have deep concerns about the lack of leadership, the failure of planning, and the miscommunication detailed in the after-action report,” Johnson said Saturday in a statement. “It raises further questions about police commanders’ decision-making and contains at least one statement that I personally know to be false.”

Johnson did not elaborate on the “false” statement to which he was referring.

“The peaceful protesters, affected business owners and people of Dallas deserve clear and thorough answers regarding the ‘errors, miscalculations and shortcomings’ in the report” released by Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall (left) and the Police Department on Friday, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson (seated) said Saturday.

Hall had acknowledged in an interview with The Dallas Morning News Friday morning and in the report that her agency had inappropriately fired projectiles into crowds of demonstrators and used tear gas for crowd control. Her report said that going forward her officers will no longer fire less-than-lethal projectiles like pepper balls indiscriminately into crowds or use tear gas on protesters who aren’t a threat.

The mayor, City Council member Adam Bazaldua, who represents District 7, and several community activists contacted Saturday said they are not convinced by the report’s promises and want assurances that the latest talks of reform are real and lasting.

Council members are scheduled to question Hall about her report during a scheduled public safety committee meeting Tuesday.

Johnson said Hall’s findings — as well as her report’s inaccuracies and omissions — deserve “significant scrutiny” from the committee.

“We must have accountability,” the mayor said. “The peaceful protesters, affected business owners, and people of Dallas deserve clear and thorough answers regarding the ‘errors, miscalculations and shortcomings’ in the report.”

Other council members either could not be reached or declined to comment because they hadn’t yet read the entire report. Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Adam McGough has said he will not comment on it until the public meeting.

Photos and video from the initial days and nights of protests downtown showed bloodied and bruised demonstrators who had been shot by police with projectiles.

John Fullinwider
John Fullinwider(Shaban Athuman / Staff Photographer)

One local community activist, John Fullinwider, a co-founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality and a veteran Dallas activist, said the DPD’s heavy-handed crowd control tactics must stop. All across the country, police used flash grenades, pepper balls and tear gas, but it was so bad in Dallas that a federal judge had to order the city to stop using such tactics, he said, referring to U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay’s temporary injunction in June.

“The way the police handled the protests showed a department in disarray,” Fullinwider said.

Hall’s report also addressed communication and command structure problems that led to confusion among police as fast-moving crowds splintered and spread out across downtown, leaving top commanders powerless to keep track of their movements and coordinate an adequate response.

“There were simply not enough SWAT personnel or uniformed personnel to maintain control even after order was restored to an area,” the report said.

Fullinwider said the police response was puzzling and backward.

“They didn’t provide any protection for the property owners downtown,” he said about the first night of protests. “And on the [Margaret Hunt Hill] bridge two nights later, they go full military on peaceful protesters who aren’t breaking any law.”

Police officials have defended their actions that night, saying protesters broke the law when they marched on the bridge. In the report released Friday, police also said protesters threw water bottles at the officers. Officials decided later not to file charges against the protesters.

Fullinwider said the agency couldn’t even get straight whether or not tear gas was used on marchers on June 1 on the bridge – and who gave the order. Hall told council members in June that smoke, not gas, was deployed on the bridge. Days later, a SWAT lieutenant informed her in a memo that gas was in fact used along with smoke grenades, according to the after-action report.

But Hall never corrected the record for the council.

Adam Bazaldua
Adam Bazaldua(Lynda M. Gonzalez / Staff Photographer)

Bazaldua, whose district includes East and South Dallas, said police inappropriately used pepper balls and gas to “regulate crowd control.”

“That should be the absolute last measure taken,” he said.

Bazaldua said he and other council members would like to see such less-than-lethal munitions permanently banned. He said that when a gunman opened fire during a July 2016 protest march in downtown Dallas, killing five officers, the department did not use such tactics on the crowds even though a much bigger threat existed.

“We didn’t see any of these military tactics used as crowd control,” Bazaldua said.

He questioned whether officers were bad shots or whether they intentionally shot directly at citizens with “rubber bullets” during the most recent protests months ago. Bazaldua said any officer found to have violated policy should be dealt with as soon as possible.

The council member also questioned why Hall took so long to release her report. He said he wants “an increase in transparency” from her agency, so the public can know what’s going on.

Fullinwider said he’d like to see other council members follow Bazaldua’s example and “shake off their normally timid role” and “cross-examine” the police chief on Tuesday about how things went so wrong during the initial response to protests downtown.

“We have always had the high rhetoric of reform in Dallas coupled with ongoing police brutality and misconduct,” he said. “And that’s what we still have today.”

The report did not mention an incident that The Dallas Morning News reported on in which police Sgt. Roger Rudloff, a 25-year veteran of the department, stormed and arrested some protesters near Interstate 35 as well as the photographer who captured the scuffle.

Hall on Friday said that Rudloff was under investigation by the department’s internal affairs division. According to the report, the department is investigating about 50 use-of-force complaints during the four days and nights of civil unrest with help from the Office of Community Police Oversight.

Megan Nordyke
Megan Nordyke(Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer)

The report details that officers for the first two days of protests did not have clear rules of engagement, which are guidelines for police on when to make arrests. But it does not mention the arrests of Megan Nordyke and others who told The News in a separate investigative report that they were detained while peacefully and lawfully demonstrating on the first weekend of protests.

Nordyke, a 35-year-old Dallas lawyer who represents battered women, was charged with riot participation. She said on Saturday that the chief’s report should have addressed the fact that she and others were arrested without cause for exercising their First Amendment rights. She said the police falsely accused her of throwing rocks, which she called “absurd.” The real reason, she said, was the sign she held that said: “The Eyes of Justice are Watching” on one side and “I’m Not The Only Lawyer Here,” on the other.

Police, she said, were arresting people on that day – May 30 – who were easy targets and who didn’t run from officers. The intent, she said was obvious: “to shut down the protests because they objected to the message.” Her charges have not yet been sent to the DA’s Office, nor have they been officially dropped, she said.

Nordyke said “It’s not surprising to me at all” that Hall’s report did not address those “political arrests.”

Alison Grinter
Alison Grinter(File)

Alison Grinter, a civil rights lawyer who practices criminal law, was advising protesters of their rights and helped many who were arrested bail out of jail. She said Hall’s report minimized police conduct at the downtown demonstrations.

“The police are portraying themselves as victims here,” she said.

The narration, she said, leaves out a lot of detail about police interactions with protesters and is unwilling to acknowledge that some officers were “aggressive and provocative.”

“We can’t move forward until the department is willing to look at its own toxic culture,” she said.

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