Posted on 10/16/2020 6:18:18 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Some people go to jail because they break the law. Sylvia Gonzalez landed in a Texas slammer because she criticized her local government. Now the 74-year-old retiree is fighting back, trying to bring accountability to a system that too often lets public officials off the hook when they violate people’s civil rights.
Gonzalez’s ordeal started with a simple desire to help her community by serving on the Castle Hills City Council near San Antonio. She knocked on doors and talked to more than 500 neighbors during her campaign, and what she heard strengthened her resolve to make a difference. “They complained bitterly about the city,” Gonzalez says.
After winning her 2019 election and becoming the first Hispanic councilwoman in city history, Gonzalez went to work. Her first act in office was to champion a nonbinding citizens petition calling for the city manager’s removal. Rather than taking notice of the public discontent, however, the mayor and other political insiders attacked the messenger. They had Gonzalez arrested, handcuffed, and jailed as part of a prolonged intimidation campaign.
The supposed crime, which Bexar County officials refused to prosecute because the allegations were so far-fetched, involved a simple mix-up at a public meeting. After a resident submitted the petition with more than 300 signatures, Gonzalez inadvertently collected it with other papers on the dais and put it in her personal binder. The error was quickly discovered and corrected, but the mayor accused her of theft and filed a misdemeanor complaint two days later.
SNIP
City officials, including the mayor and police chief, not only manufactured a criminal charge, they did everything they could to ensure that Gonzalez spent the day in jail. Among other tactics, they circumvented the county’s district attorney and secured an arrest warrant instead of a summons.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
They say don’t mess with city hall.
Ping.
Sometimes with small town politicians you have to fight fire with fire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_McElroy
SA City Govt - Crooked to the core.
We used to be city attorneys for Leon Valley (years ago). Even back then, the city leaders were arrogant, antagonistic and self-serving. The perfect example of big-fish-little-pond syndrome. It surprises me not a whit that they did this to an “upstart”.
What about the small minded ones that are more like vipers than anything?
I never have seen a snake that did not deserve a good killing.
BTW, they eventually fired us because we continued to say, “We don’t do politics, we do legal advice.”
Well, I don’t believe in murder. But in the case I posted, the whole down had to remove a serious bully when the law refused to do its job. I don’t see that case as murder. But it is also so rare as to be, to the best of my knowledge, the only case of its kind in modern history.
It is when an individual acts out on his own to kill someone they see as “bad” that there is a problem.
This is why local elections are very important to participate in.
Small community in the SA area
Castle Hills is a city located in Bexar County, Texas, United States. As
of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 4,116. It is an enclave
of San Antonio and is part of the San Antonio Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Bingo. You can find petty tyrants just as easily in a small town government as you can in a bloated federal bureaucracy.
Good ol’ Leon Valley - I have been through there many times.
Good ol’ Leon Valley - I have been through there many times.
No one went to jail it seems, but crowd had to fork over $17k each to quell the wife’s wrongful death suit (if I read it correctly).
At one time San Antonio, Texas, was a somewhat backwater city, trailing behind its sister Texas cities of Houston and Dallas with pre-war populations in the 2-300k area for all. Its touchstones were the Alamo and being a military home, at one time considered for the US Air Force Academy. Now it is far from small, ranking #7 (1.5million) in US Cities by population with only Houston as larger in Texas by population #4 (2.3million).
So, this is a case of a big city power structure going after a classic “Mr Smith Goes to Washington” amateur. Also remember that this is ALSO the same City that went to deny Chik-fil-A a store at the Airport for the founder’s charities and implied views. As a former resident of Alamo Heights, a separate and sovereign city surrounded by San Antonio, I am ashamed at this behavior!
Even in a city as large as Plano, the corruption runs pretty deep.
The mayor wants to urbanize the city. He’s encouraged the homeless to move in, wants to destroy residential areas with high density development, male access to ladies rest rooms (pandering to Toyota on that one), etc. In short, he wants a city that reminds him of Brooklyn. His cronies on the city council of course, go along with him. That, in itself, isn’t inappropriate.
Where ‘they’ showed their hand was when the citizens petitioned to overturn the new land use/zoning plan. The city staff and city attorney conspired with the mayor and his backers to make sure that the Constitutional right to petition for redress was suppressed. After 4 years of litigation and court defeats, and a few of the cronies being voted off the city council, the plan was finally withdrawn, but much of the damage had been done - out of town developers had a big chunk of high density constructed.
On the other hand, when the cabal started a petition to remove one of the mayor’s opponents from the city council, the city staff and city attorney pushed it forward at full speed. They were again blocked in their efforts until the councilman in question termed out.
Yep, I remember my dad talking about how bad Cisneros was back in the day.
Oops, my bad, Castle Hills, not San Antonio itself.
Yes, the city has had its share of crappy politicians. Do you remember US Rep. Bustamante? He made Henry B. Gonzales seem ethical.
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