Gallagher announced yesterday that he will broadcast from Farmers Branch on December 20th. His intent is to raise money for the city to defend itself against lawsuits brought by “hispanic activists.” He also said something about having T-shirts available with the slogan “you’re in America, speak English” or some such nonsense.
I’d find this amusing if it weren’t so very sad, uninformed and self-serving. (Gallagher is constantly trying to make himself relevent by pulling stunts. He claims that he single-handedly stopped the Westboro Baptist Church nuts from protesting the funerals of the Amish girls who were murdered earlier this year.)
I have two points to make about this. First, while the Farmers Branch city council passed a basically pointless English only ordinance and imposed law enforcement responsibilities (federal law enforcement at that) on landlords, they tabled a measure targeting employers. Of course, employers already have the responsibility to verify their employees’ legal status, and the fed’s failure to enforce those laws is a huge part of the problem. If the leaders of Farmers Branch were serious, they would have cracked down on employers first.
Second, while I’ve read about LULAC and ACLU plans to sue Farmers Branch, there is a third party who has already. A real estate broker filed suit, complaining that Farmers Branch violated the Texas Open Meetings Act. I wonder if Gallagher’s fund raising effort will help the city to defend against that actual lawsuit in addition to the possible “hispanic” one that he chose to single out.
Lastly, I found this blog entry yesterday. It offers some personal insights concerning the motivations of the primary instigator behind the ordinances on the Farmers Branch city council, namely Tim O’Hare. Angel Reyes states:
Someone’s got to put a stop to this “invasion.” Tim O’Hare has believed he’s the man to do it for some time now. Indeed, when we met many months ago in my office, Tim O’Hare specfically told me his plan to get ever more big injury cases: 1) run for City Council; 2) either wait his turn or hope for something politically bad to happen to the current mayor of Farmers Branch; 3) get elected Mayor of Farmers Branch; and 4) when he was done with his term in the Mayor’s office, he would sit back and get “all the good cases” in Farmers Branch and beyond. Why? Because his political fame would ensure he was the “go to guy” in Farmers Branch.
Reyes also makes some good points about the demographics of Farmers Branch, comparing it to other Dallas suburbs. It’s an interesting read.
Update: The T-shirt reads: This is AMERICA, please speak English. I also sent Mikey an email.
Update 2: Now Gallagher’s got December 21st as the date.
calle viena 