The Houston Police Officers’ Union is not shy in expressing how they really feel about Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s order that all residents of Harris County must wear a mask under the threat of fines and prison. Governor Abbot began to lift restrictions across Texas earlier this week. Hildalgo seems to be full of authoritarian glee and is giving Gretchen Whitmer competition for her status as the most hated woman in America.
Hildalgo swept into power by accident, having the good fortune to be on the same side of the ticket as Beto O’Rourke. With no experience, and still a grad school student, Hildalgo was elected to the county’s most powerful seat. The title “county judge” in Texas counties refers to the county executive and not a judge on a bench who presides over cases.
Hidalgo has been doing her best to unleash chaos in her county by trying to release 4,000 convicted criminals from the county jails. That hair-brained idea was blocked by a federal judge earlier this month.
Hidalgo announced her newest edict on Wednesday. It includes $1000 fines and up to 180 days in jail for anyone who will not wear a mask in public even though the infection numbers are flattening out according to Governor Abbot and his medical experts enough to relax some lockdown restrictions. To clarify this insanity, Hidalgo wants to release criminals from prisons so she can fill them up with political dissidents and people who want their liberties respected.
Houston Police Officers’ Union wasted no time telling the public where Hidalgo can shove her order hours before she issued it. The letter should be read in its entirety but the best parts are as follows.
It has come to our attention that County Judge Lina Hidalgo will issue an order this afternoon for all of Harris County, making it mandatory for anyone over the age of 10 to wear a mask in public. Now, we want to be very clear, the Houston Police Officers’ Union believes everyone should be wearing a mask in public….However, we draw the line at the draconian measures Hidalgo has decided to engage in. Our officers work every single day to bridge the gap with our community and earn their trust, we will not stand idly by and allow Hidalgo to tear that bridge down with her horrific leadership and echo chamber decision making.
The HPOU has made contact with the Attorney General’s Office seeking an opinion on the legality of imposing a criminal penalty/fine for anyone not wearing a mask in public. While we wait for that opinion, we are reminding and informing our officers that they have DISCRETION, DISCRETION, DISCRETION in matters such as these. It is clear the so-called leader of Harris County lacks any critical thinking skills, but let me assure the pubic, our officers do! The last thing any of us need to do is kick our community while they are down.
Houston Police Officers are already stretched entirely too thin…Violent crime is up this year (murders up by 35%), property crime is up, (burglaries by nearly 30%), and HPD officers are staffing testing centers across the city. We do not have time to be pawns in Hidalgo’s game of attempting to control the actions of law abiding, tax paying individuals of our community. Especially since this idiotic order is possibly an unconstitutional one from the County Judge.
Well, then. At least we know how they really feel! The HPOU deserves a lot of praise for having the guts to say no to Hidalgo’s highly questionable and seemingly political edicts without any consideration for the rights of American citizens. We need a whole lot more police unions across the nation joining in the cause to stop the encroaching police state in which mothers and fathers are arrested for playing in parks with their children.
HPOU's response to Judge Hidalgo's draconian mask order:"Now we want to be very clear, the Houston Police Officers’…
Posted by Houston Police Officers' Union on Wednesday, April 22, 2020
Hidalgo has also been recently embarrassed by the obscene waste of 60 million dollars on a pop-up hospital that went completely unused. Local media dug into the costs and found a lot of waste and graft involved in the project’s contracting.
Channel 2 Investigated obtained the full contract between the county and Garner Environmental Services.
Among some of the items in it, we found highly compensated personnel ranging from:
-Various safety officers receiving day rates of $2,875, $2,300 and $2,012
-A finance section chief at $2,875 a day
-Two public information officers at $2012 a day, even though the contract states “contact with the news media, citizens of Harris County or governmental agencies shall be the responsibility of the county.”
The one positive development of these strict lockdown orders is that the lunatics are really outing themselves all over the country. Their willingness to show America exactly what their intentions are for police states and total authority over our lives should help voters make better decisions next time. Maybe the voters in Harris County will pay closer attention to the candidates running for offices instead of blindly voting Democrat, unless they like being ripped off and ordered around by a near teenager with no real-world experience. I’m wondering how Hidalgo thinks she will win the next election if her county is the only county with draconian edicts still in place while the surrounding counties are relaxing. Whoever runs against her in 2022 should start working on their campaign ads right now. Talk about low-hanging fruit.
You can watch this child tyrant give out her draconian edict below.
Megan Fox is the author of “Believe Evidence; The Death of Due Process from Salome to #MeToo,” and host of The Fringe podcast. Follow on Twitter @MeganFoxWriter
Editor’s Note: Want to support PJ Media so we can keep telling the truth about China and the virus they unleashed on the world? Join PJ Media VIP and use the promo code WUHAN to get 25% off your VIP membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member