Craig Watkins: Da Gangsta's DA?

Watch: Channel 8 Exposes Watkins dubious financial history 

"Look... when you attack one of us, you attack all of us," sounds like the credo for a street gang. So imagine how surprised I was to hear it roll off the lips of Craig Watkins, candidate for Dallas County District Attorney.

The day was Saturday, August 13. 

"IKOJA" is a word derived from the West African dialect, Yoruba, which translates roughly to mean "move" or "transition."  A local group of young, educated, politically-active men and women from the Southern parts of Dallas County has adopted it as the name for their organization.

Many of the younger crowd's goal is to bring about change in Southern Dallas because Southern Dallas, you see, is the key to Dallas' future.  There's a historically fearful concept many of these young leaders have learned about--and they're trying to teach the rest of us about it.

Diversity.

A lot of people fear the "D" word.  But that's because they don't understand the "D" word.

There are striking differences in backgrounds all across this city.  There are areas in Dallas that range from prosperous to impoverished over a relatively small distance.   Dallas hosts citizens from all walks of life, all socio-economic levels, and all educational backgrounds.  We, like people everywhere, differ on politics and philosophy.

But one thing (political and philosophical) I haven't found is a desire from anyone that Dallas "go down the tubes." 

For instance, I haven't found anyone who believes that Dallas' rating as number 1 in violent crime is a good thing.

I haven't found anyone who believes drug-infested communities are good for the city.

So why bring up "diversity?"  I've come to the conclusion that most of us misunderstand the "D" word.  If you ask 3 people at random to define it, you'll get 3 different answers.

We're all different in some way or another.  But rather than using these differences to create little "fifedoms" of differences (put another way: small areas of "different" people you then try to go and make "all the same"), Dallas should be celebrating its differences.

People's differences come from people's different life experiences.  Not all of us are experts in rocket science.  Not all of us are experts in law.  Not all of us are experts in medicine.  Not all of us are experts in sports.

But one thing we are all experts in is "how we got to be the way we are."  Each of us has valuable experience that can be shared for the benefit of all. 

So diversity, you see, is not celebrating our differences in order to separate us and keep us apart.  Diversity, rather, is celebrating our differences, and using our differences to bring us closer together.

That nice elderly gentleman who always smiles and never talks much, but has been sitting out front of the barber shop every morning for the past 20 years, might just provide the gem of wisdom we've been looking for--that "new approach" to lowering the truancy rate at the nearby junior high school.  Too bad we're too stuck on ourselves to ask him. 

Diversity is sharing our differences and using them to move us forward as a team.

Diversity is leveraging our collective wisdom--whether or not we think our neighbor is smarter than we are!

Diversity spells the end of our problems in Dallas. 

Sorry for the sermon.  It's Sunday.

So what does all of this have to do with District Attorney candidate Craig Watkins?

Many who read this website know I have "a little thing" (to borrow someone else's words) for Dallas School Board member Ron Price!

Ron and I have a difference of opinion. 

I feel, for instance, it is inappropriate for a domestic violence convict (which Ron is) to serve on a school board--or hold any other elected office for that matter (see Ron Price's police record: arrest report, complaint, conviction 1, and conviction 2).

I feel it is inappropriate for a school board member to lie to the kids he serves telling them at their graduation that he "grew up in Spanish Harlem" and "didn't speak English" until he was "11 years old" when he "moved to the State of Texas" (watch the video of Ron saying this).

Ron has supporters who disagree, and I respect that.

But when I heard that Ron was going to speak at a major political forum on August 13, I wanted to go and hear what he had to say.

Everyone who is anyone in South Dallas politics (and Dallas politics, I might add) was there including Craig Watkins.

Craig Watkins is an interesting guy. He's a pleasant, good-looking, well-educated, soft-spoken attorney. 

I was very close to voting for him last election.  The Craig Watkins I'd come to believe in was an honest, fair, hardworking individual who wanted to move Dallas forward as its top elected law enforcement officer.

Or so I thought.

I found an opportunity to meet Craig Watkins, introduced myself (he already knew who I was for which I was truly flattered), and struck up a pleasant conversation.  The subject eventually turned to Ron Price as we walked out the door to the parking lot.  I remember listing numerous concerns and then saying, "Craig, you're a law-and-order sort of guy. This can't possibly sit right with you."

I'll never forget his reply.  He lowered his voice and said: "Look, when you attack one of us, you attack all of us."  Then he walked away.

I was completely taken aback.  He could have hit me with a baseball bat and left less of an impression.

It was then I realized that I had completely misread Craig Watkins.

Instead of the impressive law-and-order guy that I believed he was for the last few years, he turned out to be nothing more than a "gangster"--willing to excuse behavior for membership in "the gang."

In a few months, we're going to the polls to decide who will become our next chief law enforcement officer.  For IKOJA and other young, hardworking African American Dallasites, this answer may end up closing a critical chapter.

Will an outspoken young man or woman find himself or herself in hot water with "Gangsta Craig" if something he/she says or does runs counter to Craig Watkins' gang?

As to the Dallas City Council, will "non-gang" members soon find themselves in Craig Watkins' hot water bath?

As I write this article, another Craig Watkins controversy is unfolding.  At issue is a claim by the Allied Printing Union that Watkins distributed campaign literature with a phony union logo on it--a crime.

According to a CBS-11 TV news story Dale Bedford, Secretary-Treasurer for the Texas Allied Printing Trades Council sent Watkins a letter saying he was amazed "that someone running for District Attorney would violate the law."

Will the rest of Dallas be amazed should Craig Watkins end up being the law?