Tarrant County Republican DA Sharen Wilson Sends Message to Cops, Thugs
The Republican District Attorney for Tarrant County has a message for cops and thugs: To stay out of jail, cops should stand down, and thugs should get riled up. This is the message that we take from the news that a Tarrant County grand jury has indicted Blake Shimanek, formerly of the Keller Police Department, on charges of “official oppression.”
You can watch the video of the incident and Monday morning quarterback Shimanek’s conduct if you’d like. But if you think cops are going to do their job if they face criminal charges for stuff like this, you’re crazy. We have already been hearing stories from white flight refuges like Keller where the refuge isn’t working so well. Police are opting to take the path of “de-escalation” instead of arresting black suspects if the suspects or they family are “worked up” and have a cell phone camera on. This weak-kneed reaction is only causing suspects to get more “worked up.” If you are unfamiliar with the concept of anarcho-tyranny, you might want to look into it.
Maybe you watched that video and you think it is right that Blake Shimanek should be demoted, cowed into resigning, and sent to jail for a year. If that’s the case, you should probably put the two-minute clip you watched into the two-year context from which it came.
Dillon Puente, Riding Dirty in 2019
The relevant events actually began on May 22, 2019, when Dillon Puente was jailed in Wise County on charges of Driving Under the Influence, Possession of a Controlled Substance, and Possession of Marijuana. While those charges were yet pending, on August 15, 2020, Puente was driving in Keller.
It was a very hot day, but Puente was riding with his windows down. Most people rely on their AC systems on such hot days and keep their windows up. People who are smoking illegal drugs tend to keep their windows down for obvious reasons. Puente would later claim that his AC was broken, but, it rightly looked suspicious to Officer Shimanek. Shimanek’s suspicions were furthered when he observed Puente make a wide right turn. He pulled Puente over.
Citizens of Tarrant County should be glad that Shimanek was out there that day, looking for suspicious activity and pulling over suspicious drivers like Puente. Despite traffic being down, nationwide, traffic fatalities were actually significantly up in 2020 (and continue to be high). Drug use also increased dramatically in 2020 (and continues to be high). A pedestrian was recently killed by a car while walking on the grass near his home in Keller. This is hardly the time to take a softer “live and let live” approach to law enforcement.
Dillon Puente during the 2020 traffic stop
As Shimanek approached Puente’s vehicle, Puente rolled his window up. There is no good reason to roll your window up when police approach. The only reason to do that is to conceal what is in your car from the police. It is the kind of thing that someone who has been previously arrested for DUI and possession of controlled substances would do. Shimanek ordered Puente out of the car and gave him a hard time about rolling the window up. Puente did not have any insightful responses.
We don’t know what Shimanek would have discovered about Puente if he had not been interrupted. An “inventory” of the car later disclosed a large wad of cash, but no contraband; however, the car was never searched. Shimanek was interrupted by Puente’s father and this was surely a boon for young Puente.
Marco Puente, the father of Dillon, pulled up in his truck and began a shouting conversation with his son about the situation. Shimanek, who was now outnumbered, ordered Marco Puente to keep moving. Puente eventually moved his car. In Shimanek’s mind, Puente was blocking traffic. If you look from his body camera, that is a reasonable assessment. When viewed from the triangulating patrol car camera, you can see that traffic was not blocked. It is easy to be right about things like this when watching a video. Making decisions based on present moment perceptions is a lot harder and sometimes people make mistakes. Ask Dak Prescott.
When Marco Puente returned to the scene, Shimanek directed another officer to arrest him and Shimanek assisted in that effort. Puente resisted the officers’ attempts. Although he did not strike out at them, he clearly resisted them. He can be seen in the video clutching his phone as law enforcement officers attempt to handcuff him. The officers used pepper spray to force compliance and eventually succeeded in subduing Puente.
Shimanek was demoted. Then the Puentes sued Keller and were given $200,000 to settle their case. Then Shimanek resigned. Now, he has been indicted by a Tarrant County DA. Next year, he can likely expect to be indicted on attempted murder, unauthorized kneeling and hate think charges by the Department of Justice.
Got $200,000 for resisting arrest
The crime of unauthorized kneeling will have retroactive application
So, who is this stalwart conservative, this Republican DA who authorized the indictment and how did we get her?
Voters get the DA they deserve
That would be Sharen Wilson. As far as we can tell, she began her career by doing poorly as a prosecutor of low level crimes. She was nick-named “Ms. Trial” because rather than getting convictions on layup cases, she frequently caught mistrials. So much so that she apparently resigned because of it.
Star Telegram, January 20, 1988
Being a bad trial lawyer didn’t stop her though. She had enough connections to become a bad judge.
Star Telegram, March 10, 1996
Her big break came when the sitting DA, and those around him, got caught up in a sexual harassment scandal. For some odd reason, she wasn’t involved in that scandal and ended up working her way into the opening.
Star Telegram, October 2, 2013
Now Tarrant County has her, but can it afford to keep her much longer?
It’s time to start paying attention to local races and to make sure that everyone, from DA to Dogcatcher, understands the stakes and is ready to resist what the Left is throwing at us.