Last night Dallas City Manager A.C. Gonzalez issued an official statement about the death of Antoinette Brown, who was mauled by a pack of loose dogs last week. Gonzalez’s 463-word statement was drafted in bureaucratese, a language in which he is fluent.
I’ve taken the liberty of revising the text. He is free to adopt any of my suggested changes as his own, royalty free:
City Manager A.C. Gonzalez statement on dog attack
Holy hell! Dallas is the — let me double-check — yes, Dallas is the ninth-largest city in the United States of America, the richest nation on Earth, and a not-insignificant portion of its citizens must live in fear of confronting roving gangs of aggressive dogs whenever they walk outside their own homes? A woman has died as a result? In the 21st century?
Screw giving $3 million to Costco and its extortionist corporate ilk. Let’s put that money to better use and marshal a force to round up and remove all loose dogs from the street. Owners will forfeit their rights to any animal found on its own more than once. I might even be with Schutze on this one: let’s shoot the dogs we can’t control.
Yes, of course, the dogs are just a symptom of the real problem: Portions of our city so neglected and economically depressed that they’ve become overrun by vacant lots and absent property owners and are left to project the false impression that no one gives a damn about the community. If we really want this to stop, we’ve got to stop trying to “GrowSouth” by doing things like building fancy golf courses.
And can you flipping believe that the Dallas Police Department didn’t tell Animal Services about the mauling of Antoinette Brown until a few days after it happened? We’re just now putting a policy in place requiring the cops to immediately notify Animal Services about any dog attacks? How was that not already a thing? How has our city functioned to this point? Who’s in charge here?
A.C. out.
