San Angelo Police Chief, Mayor Respond to Dallas Shootings

Today, San Angelo Police Chief Tim Vasquez responded to the police shootings in Dallas last night. He held a press conference at the Police Department downtown at 2 p.m.

“With everything that’s occurred this last week in Minnesota and Louisiana, and this yesterday in Dallas, I thought it was necessary to have this press conference and address our citizens during this very volatile time,” Vasquez said.  “I think it’s time to come together and not push apart. Blue lives matter. Black lives matter. And not because of blue or black, but because they are lives. It is when I say this: this man has a mother; this man has a father; this man had a sister, or this man was a brother. I’m not telling you how he was different than you, but how he was the same. Our hearts go out today to the families of those officers in Dallas, but we also grieve for the families of the men who lost their lives in Minnesota and Louisiana.”

After Vasquez made his statement, Mayor Dwain Morrison shared his thoughts on the subject.

“We’re very fortunate here in San Angelo,” Morrison said. “We’re fortunate because we have worked as a community to keep harmony and peace amongst our neighbors, our people, our police and our city. The savior made a statement 2000 years ago. He said, ‘If you want to get along in this world, if you want peace and harmony and unity, love God first, and love neighbor as self.’ I have preached this in my three years as being mayor, and I will continue to preach. We have to love each other. We have to care for each other. We have to respect each other. Color lines and culture lines, male or female, [have] no boundaries in God’s eyes. We are the same; we are all God’s children. In San Angelo, Texas, we need to do what the Lord has told us to do, and hopefully, he will keep his strong hand of protection over us so that our city will never have to endure what these other cities are doing. I continue to pray for our city, for our state and our nation. We need to care for each other.”

For more information about yesterday’s events in Dallas, read San Angelo LIVE!’s previous article. Also, click here to check out the governor’s statement on the shooting, or here to take a look at the Abilene Police Department's response.

Keep an eye on San Angelo LIVE! for updates on the press conference. 

UPDATE:

Vasquez took questions from the media after he gave his statement. The first question was “Do you have any message for the black community in San Angelo?”

“Fortunately today, I’m going to participate in a meeting with the leaders of NAACP,” Vasquez said. “I want every group in our community, and specifically the minorities, to feel that they are going to be treated fairly and equally. This morning, when I was on the phone doing that interview, one of the guests was the president for the Black Officers’ Union Association in Dallas. The other one was a retired Lieutenant Colonel from the NYPD. The philosophies from New York were totally different from ours."

Vasquez added, “I think that we have to be patient. We have to lose the aggression. I’m reading too many reports and seeing too many times where people are resisting arrest and escalating it. The officers, number one, have to train and learn to deescalate situations, and that’s what they’re trained to do. But, as citizens, we also need to remember that we need to do our part in not escalating those situation. So, if an officer tells you to do something, by all means do it. If you’re not happy with it, we have ways for you to remedy that. You can come and file a complaint; you can file suit if you need to. But let’s not get it to where what happened in Louisiana in the last couple days. We don’t want that here."

A reporter then asked why we don’t have issues like these shootings in San Angelo.

“I have to go back to 2002 when the racial tensions in the community were very, very high,” Vasquez said. “The city, and the mayor at the time, decided to create a racial task force. When I took office in 2004, I sat on that task force. Even when I got on in 2004, I think the participation from SAPD was very antagonistic; it was very defensive. I can say, honestly, when I walked in, I was also quite defensive and very protective of the organization. But I think that it was those relationships that were built; it was the willingness to work with NAACP. I wish Garland [Freeze] was here. I didn’t think about getting him here, but I think he would tell you that we, as the PD, have done a phenomenal job in building those relationships.”

A journalist asked Vasquez about what needs to happen in order for the police to stop people from attacking police officers.

“I was sitting with a group of people last night, and we were discussing a lot of that,” Vasquez said. “I would say that there’s so much less racism in law enforcement today than there was in the 50s and the 60s. There’s probably thousands less incidents than were occurring back then. But we have 24 hour news; we have social media; everybody’s got camera phones, and it makes things very real."

He continued, “Those situations are not representative of the majority of police officers throughout the country. Unfortunately, it’s easy to say that guy represents everybody, and it doesn’t. This guy who was the sniper, his hatred, as I stated earlier, started as anger and turned to hate. It was his hatred for police officers in general heightened by white police officers that drove him to doing that.

“Everything I’ve heard, the protest was peaceful; the officers were treating everybody fairly; there wasn’t anything going on. I said this too a little while ago: I don’t want it to become the new normal. Because more and more, day after day, we’re seeing ambushes of police officers throughout the country over and over again. We have to stop that."

Another reporter asked what citizens should do in these dangerous situations to keep themselves as safe as possible, and to make the police’s job as easy as possible.

“Run away from the shooting,” Vasquez said. “Last night, all of those officers were running towards the shooting while everybody was running away. Run away from the shooting, protect yourself, and, by all means, follow all orders that the officers are giving you. Because you have to understand the officers are going into a very high-stress situation. Some people handle stress better than most, and it’s the same thing with officers. So comply with the orders that you’re given; do exactly what you’re told when you’re told to do it; and always keep your hands clear. That’s the main thing.”

Yet another reporter said that she had heard the large crowds were not expected at the protests that night, and asked if that created confusion or affected the events of the evening.

“No, I think they were plenty staffed from what I know and from what I’ve seen,” Vasquez said. “They were prepared for a large group of people. I don’t think a small group or large group [would have] really affected the situation. This person had already made the decision on what they were going to do and how they were going to do it. They found the opportunity with where it was being held.”

The reporter asked if Vasquez had any personal connections to any of the Departments in Dallas.

“I have my cousin, who I got into law enforcement, who’s a detective there,” Vasquez said. “I spoke to him briefly over the phone and over Facebook, and I’ll probably stay with him when I go down for the funeral."

The president for the black officers’ association said ‘Dallas has lost a lot of lives. Officers die yearly in the line of duty and they all hurt. But this hurts a lot more.’ I think it’s hard for anybody other than police officers to understand, to know that the people [who] we are trying to protect are, in the back of their mind, thinking they’re going to ambush us. To lose five officers and have a total of 12 people shot is crazy. So I understand the pain that that president is feeling.”

Another reporter asked what Vasquez hopes people will still be talking about concerning these events next week.

“There’s got to be change,” Vasquez said. “First, I’ll speak from my association’s perspective. The police chief’s association was created to professionalize the profession of being a chief. We hoped to make an impact in police departments throughout the state.

Even today, there’s police departments in the State of Texas that work without policy manuals. It’s our job; it’s my job, as the president, to try to get those people and those organizations to a level of professionalism. I think that that’s going to be our focus: to continue to do that.

It was real quick for the gentleman from New York to start pointing fingers, when we were on the talk show, at President Obama. Granted, I don’t think that President Obama has been very supportive of police and has been quick to point fingers at us. But that being said, the way president Obama feels about me and the San Angelo Police Department does not matter [concerning] how we do our business.

It’s about creating and changing the culture and the environment. It’s about hiring people, regardless of race or religion; it’s about hiring people with a compassionate heart who want to do this job for the right reasons. That’s the start, and that’s what we need to focus on. Obviously, you want your police department to be a mirror image of the ethnic breakdown in your community. But, it’s not always feasible. I’d rather have somebody [who] has a compassionate heart regardless of race.”

One attendee asked how officers of the street can be more aware in order to protect themselves.

“I think the officers, especially in our organization, but all over the country, have been working at a heightened state of awareness because of the things that we’ve seen occurring, and because of the ambushes,” Vasquez said. “I’ve been pushing out a weekly training to our officers, and I think that’s been helpful. I think reminding them weekly, if not daily, about wearing their vest and their seatbelt, staying fit, and being aware of their surroundings is something that is a standard in policing today.”

Another attendee said that he had heard that the officers in Dallas had not worn riot gear in order to be more accessible and less intimidating to the crowd. He asked if officers would be less accessible after this incident.

“You see, some officers in some departments move more towards a tactical type of uniform,” Vasquez said. “It hasn’t been a popular decision, but I’ve always chosen to stay with the uniform that we have because I’ve not wanted to create that sense of militarization, or that sense of separation between us and the citizens [who] we serve, and I think that that’s important.

I certainly think that if an officer is working a protest in full body armor, I think it’s intimidating. I think it sets a negative tone. But, on the [other] hand, we have to understand that there’s risk and there’s dangers. If there’s anything that we learn from this, I would suspect that these types of protests that occur will have much more pre-security, and there will be much more screening of the areas, especially in a city the size of Dallas, before we allow everything to occur. Kind of like they do when the president’s coming in.”

A reporter at the conference said, “During all the shootings of black people, it has created a pressure-cooker environment. What do you think about that?”

“I don’t have all the statistics on the breakdown of how many whites, Hispanics, or blacks have gotten shot,” Vasquez said. “I couldn’t tell you the number. I don’t know. Regardless, I do think that there’s issues with black people being shot by police officers, but it shouldn’t be that issue. There should be issues with any person being shot, period. I think that we have to look at that as a separate situation other than the racial tension that is created. The movements that we’ve seen in this country with Baltimore and Ferguson, I think that we have to gut check ourselves. Sometimes, I feel that sensationalism of the situation has created other issues as well.

My focus is to bring a sense of calmness to our community, and I think that we have that, but it’s just a reminder. I’m looking forward to the meeting this afternoon with NAACP and seeing what comes out of that, and see if we can also get their reinforcement in pushing that message.”