Defunding the Police in Sonora, Texas...a Horrible Idea

If people in Austin, Texas tried to disband the Austin Police Department, Greg Abbott would be threatening to take over with state troopers. Oh wait, that happened not long ago. It was a controversy made into a circus by the media and politicians. But if the same thing happens in a small west Texas town, does it matter?

No. Not if it's done by pseudo-conservatives bent on snatching defeat from the jaws of victory as they have for over a century in Sonora, Texas. Here in the People's Republic of Sonorastan, we believe progress is best served by preventing it at all costs. We've strangled every new opportunity in its crib since at least the 1980s without batting an eye.

With I-27 on the horizon, you'd think Sonora would be looking at a bright future. On paper, this area has everything it needs to succeed. Instead, this community is voluntarily looking at a future of stagnation and decay. Why? We don't like change. We're happy with the status quo...poverty and an ability to blame the "lefties" for self-induced failure.

It's a sad state of affairs, but that's the way it is in Sonora, Texas. We're stuck in a cycle of decline and decay, and it's all because of the people who run this town. I'm not talking about those who get elected, but the 50% of this town that does the electing and the other 50% who are too damned lazy to give a damn what happens in their community, beyond their own self-interest, gossip and complaining on Facebook about trivialities.

When I was a kid, this down was FOUR TIMES the size it is today. It had business leaders like Leroy Valliant and Jimmy Cahill who built things, trying to turn around the sinking ship of an oil-and-gas dependent economy. They sat in the Fiddler restaurant and talked about how we didn't just need to buy local, we needed to bring in more business. We needed to GROW not act like insular, closed-minded nitwits. It was, I now admit, a fool's errand to talk like that in a town that loses the brightest and most talented of its population each year when the kids graduate from high school and do the smart thing...LEAVE! But the problem has only gotten worse. That generation is now in the cemetery, and they have been replaced by a generation of people who inherited and squandered those opportunities. They are the ones who are now in charge. Most of them seem to operate tax deductions, not actual functioning businesses. Their goal is not to build a prosperous community but to just ride the gravy train they were given until its gone. This is the layer of leeches and mooches you'd expect to find in an Ayn Rand novel, not reality. But here it is.

Now those nitwits, led by recently appointed (not elected) city councilman Todd Munn, think it is a good idea to defund the police. Munn wants to disband the Sonora, Texas police department (allegedly to save money), but neither he nor any other city council member I've ever heard speak has ever had any vision for where this town is going. They seem only to be concerned with how to carve down the budget and services to the minimum while they fleece this town.

Our police department does it's job. I see them stopping traffic on a regular basis on my security cameras. They are closely involved in our school safety. They are out there constantly patrolling in a town that supports them about as much as the rotting struts of some of our town's structures. It's a town, with a good group of professional police officers who have reformed a department that used to be anything but professional. I remember those years when I was a kid and only certain folks got law and order...others were ignored.

I doubt writing this will sway any opinions. I'm increasingly convinced that most of this town can't read more than three sentences without losing their attention span. Nonetheless, it will be a tragic mistake if this town does something so dumb as to defund the police department in Sonora, Texas. I know, we're using language like "disband," but let's call this what it is...defunding. Let's admit our hypocrisy loud and proud and admit that there are three types of people here: Those smart enough to leave, those too dumb to leave and the dumbest among us (like me) who return to this shit-hole town thinking we can change any of it.

I'm still waiting to hear from the Governor's office on this. But apparently "Gimmie Money" Greg doesn't want to apply the same standard he applied in Austin to Sonora.