There’s a lot of chatter about the Austin City Council rejecting the Sanders family settlement, and I think that Karie’s article today did a good job capturing my own feelings on the subject. Satisfaction that the issue of police conduct on the East Side won’t die away just yet, sadness at the continued suffering of the Sander’s family, and relief that I won’t have to dig too hard to find article topics. So instead of trumpeting my own opinions yet again, I would like to focus on local media’s reporting of the events down at city hall, along with some words from local leaders.

The Chronicle’s Daily Hustle has a riveting summary of the back and forth Austin City Council debate. You would never see politicians on the national stage hashing out these sort of issues in public with unscripted dialogue. It’s either representative democracy at its best, or a complete failure of governmental process. Sheryl Cole hits the nail on the head when she says, “Not only have we never negotiated or put out there a counteroffer in a litigation case, we've never done that in real estate transactions. Are we all of a sudden going to be re-evaluating what we gave staff instructions to do?”

Mayor Leffingwell’s blog post repeats the dominant meme of this whole affair, the idea that we really need to sort out in federal court what happened when Nathaniel Sanders was killed. I think it is more likely that a federal court case will focus our attentions on the specifics of the incident, when we should be addressing how Nathaniel Sander’s death was a symptom of greater problems. On the other hand, by keeping this particular wound open and raw, the upcoming police monitor selection process will be very interesting. Mayor Leffingwell’s blog post also acknowledges the suffering of the Sanders family, which is proper etiquette if nothing else.

Both KUT and the Daily Texan go a little further than reporting on the drama behind the Austin City Council bench, and go out to the East Side to confirm that a lot of people think the council is indeed a bunch of racists. They particularly have their eye on Randi Shade and Chris “Bicycle Man” Riley who tried to shortchange the settlement by $250,000.

I would be remiss if I didn’t point out the irony that just prior to trying to trim $250,000 off the settlement offer, Randi Shade and Chris “Bicycle Man” Riley both voted to buy the APD a couple of bomb-handling robots from a military contractor for almost exactly $250,000. These robots, expensive and redundant toys whose primary function is to poke at unattended packages, do the same job as a very long stick. Maybe that isn’t technically irony. Maybe it’s just an insult.

Austin’s NAACP spokesman Nelson Linder was widely quoted as saying, “Remember Randi Shade. Remember bicycle man Chris Riley; he thinks bicycles are more important than black people.” Now, while it may be technically true that Chris Riley is a “bicycle man” and that he supports bicycle politics more than he does issues that benefit black people, I nevertheless take umbrage at the suggestion that bicycle programs are impeding Austin’s slow ascent toward racial and social equality. The latter should have priority, but considering how much easier it is to build a bicycle lane, there’s no reason why Austin can’t pursue both goals.

Related Posts:

The City Council’s Lesser Agenda

The Right Way to Heal

Key Facts Exposed in Sanders Case: We Don’t Need a Trial to See How Deep this Cover Up Goes

Unsettling Settlement: City of Austin Still Hides from Accountability, but Sanders Family is Vindicated Nonetheless