SAN MARCOS PUBLIC LIBRARY
The criminal justice system has received some scrutiny as of late, and even locally, people are looking at it with a more discerning eye and discussing pathways to reform. Dialogues at the library is hosted by Jo Ann Carson, Texas State University philosophy senior lecturer, and features a variety of interesting discussions held at the San Marcos Public Library at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesdays. One of the topics was criminal justice in Hays County and beyond, and the panel included Scott Bowman — TXST Criminal Justice and Criminology professor, Dwonna Goldstone — TXST African American Studies program director, Sam Benavides — Mano Amiga communications director, Stephanie Korcheck — a member of the San Marcos Police Chief ’s Advisory Panel, and Paul Buntyn — Abundant Life Christian Church pastor emeritus.
Buntyn made a comment that accentuated the importance of these types of open forum discussions among community members. He said he believes that dialogue would be a key factor to making the legal system more equitable.
“I also attend something on Monday, [which is the Lifelong Learning bipartisan political issues discussion at the library]… I just hope our dialog continues to motivate action. I hate to get together just to talk about stuff, and then it stays in the room,” Buntyn said. “If you don't like what's going on, you have got to say something. … But it can't be done alone. You have to find allies in others and talk about it.”
Korcheck wanted to explain what it is that the Chief ’s Advisory Panel does and noted that it recently had a significant policy rewrite in order to ensure that it was fulfilling the mission of representing the voice of San Marcos citizens.
“We are going to implement a very robust community engagement procedure come Jan., where we want to have multiple venues, multiple opportunities, to provide citizens a venue to give us feedback. We are not advocates for the department,” Korcheck said. “Clearly, we all have an interest in the department, but we have very robust, honest – contentious sometimes maybe – discussions about what the department is doing or proposed policies. We don't always agree, but the chief is very receptive to hearing our opinions. There are 10 citizen members, two vacancies. So those of you that are San Marcos citizens that might like to apply for those vacancies, the [San Marcos Police Department] Chief [Stan Standridge] wants to fill them by Jan.”
Goldstone told a story about a time she was pulled over by a police officer, which highlighted the racial injustices that can occur with policing and steered the discussion toward some of the publicly perceived issues with the criminal justice system.
“He said, ‘Why are you so upset? Is there something I need to know about that's in the car?’” Goldstone said. “I said, ‘I am a professor.’ And he said, ‘You'll be surprised at what professors keep in the car.’ And then I said to him, ‘I'm afraid because people who look like you like to shoot people who look like me. And his response to me was, ‘Ma’am, those people who got shot all had weapons.’ Then we wonder why people like me don't trust the police.”
Benavides brought up Malachi Williams, a 22year old mentally ill and unhoused black man that was running from an officer and pulled out two knives and was shot and killed by police during the pursuit that occurred in April, and discussed why she believes that there is a need for an increased emphasis on mental health services and resources instead of addressing mental illness with the carceral system.
“Another way to frame the story is there was a man having a mental health crisis, who was unhoused, who did not get the support that he needed in a county where 60% of the county's budget goes towards the carceral system and 2% goes to public health,” Benavides said. She added that she believes Williams was failed by the system before the shooting occurred because there were no mental health resources provided to a mentally ill, unhoused man that had been previously encountered by SMPD.
Korcheck wanted to point out that Standridge has implemented mental health services into the department.
“The department does have a mental health unit. There's one corporal, two officers specially trained in mental health — the talking down, the redirecting the trying to calm people down, etc, etc. There is a qualified mental health professional in that unit. So anytime dispatch believes that a call is mental health related, that unit gets dispatched if, if they can; it's a small group, so they can't work 24/7,” Korcheck said. “Of course, he would love to have more of those teams, more qualified mental health professionals on staff, but they're trying to move that way. They also utilize other organizations in the community. And then the chief with [Hays County] Commissioner [Debbie] Ingalsbe created a county wide Behavioral Assessment Team, unfortunately called the BAT. They are pulling mental health professionals, social workers or nonprofits and mental health hospitals, and trying to pull it all together countywide.”
The conversation turned to the types of personality traits that are necessary to be a police officer, and Bowman said that is a matter of what one is wanting the police to do.
“What are the characteristics that I want in a typical officer? Doesn't mean inherently that having a military background is bad. It depends on what you want them to do. So if I want you to chase down the worst of the worst, that's what I want, right? Do I want you dealing with homeless people? No,” Bowman said. “But we keep asking them to do more. We keep asking them to interact with the homeless. Realistically — unless you're going to have a separate unit that gets called separately first to address it, and then that unit calls the police — police are going to be the primary person that comes out, and their goal is to neutralize the threat, always, always, always. And that's what happens, that's what's going to happen. If it doesn't happen, that's exceptional, not the other way around.”
Upcoming Dialogues at the Library include what autistic people can teach others about love on Nov. 6 and Epicureans, stoics and skeptics on happiness on Nov. 13.
