Independent Lens - Season 26 Episode 03- Dallas, 2019 - Episode 1
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00:00In 2019, I moved my life to Dallas to document a city with the often overlooked front-line
00:10workers who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of an enduring promise, a government of, by,
00:15and for the people. The sheriff who stays grounded in her faith. The community organizer who guides
00:24others closest to their full potential. The judge who helps people stay out of the justice system.
00:30The coroner who offers deep insight into life as he diagnoses the dead.
00:36This is a five-week portrait of the city and the people who devote themselves to the unfinished work.
00:46Dallas 2019, only on PBS.
01:00The
01:08Dallas
01:22Oh, my God, my God, my God, my God.
01:52Be prepared to exit to the left. Exit now. Be prepared to exit to the right. Exit now.
02:04Show it's about to begin.
02:06Are you ready?
02:12I want to somebody scream!
02:22We may be facing a pretty steep price tag for a recovery here, so I just don't want to
02:51anybody to be in a false sense of security.
02:54We are opening the multi-agency recovery facility.
02:57That's going to be at the Church of...
03:00...Latter-day Saints.
03:02So, things moving along. I think we're in a six-week time period to be fully cleaned up.
03:10Let me ask this. The hurricane or the tornado damaged...
03:16What fire station was that? 1941?
03:19And that's a total rebuild, right?
03:21That's right.
03:22Okay. And this is 1.2, but the other...
03:25I'm hearing $9 million. That's our typical footprint?
03:28Correct.
03:29Yeah, it's an approximate cost. It's 8 to 10, depending on how many bays you have, what kind of service that station provides.
03:38Okay.
03:39Something last night that came up, I don't know if you saw, but there was a vigil that was being held for the shooting in Greenville.
03:45And then there was a drive-by shooting that came, you know, I guess somebody came by to shoot at the people in the vigil.
03:53Luckily, nobody was hurt, and we didn't catch four of the five suspects.
03:58We did?
03:59We did.
04:00Okay.
04:01But one news agency van was hit pretty heavily, and so I know that'll be something that's talked about a lot today.
04:07I just wanted to update you, too, on the equity indicators.
04:10Yes.
04:11Launched this afternoon.
04:12So excited.
04:13Yeah, you know that the mayor is no longer able to attend. He has a conflict, so Mr. Thomas will be jumping in.
04:20All right. Anybody got anything else?
04:31I wouldn't know what I'd do if I wasn't a city manager, quite honestly, if you asked me. I'm like, I don't know.
04:37I like to be in the background, because I think that's where you can get the work done.
04:42I grew up in Topeka, Kansas, my first few years in military housing.
04:54Then, kind of like the Jeffersons, moved on up and moved into the projects, and then moved on up again to another project.
05:03How many of y'all's first day today?
05:08All right. Good, good. Well, welcome.
05:12How many of y'all signed up for these jobs because you love the city of Dallas?
05:18There are more hands got to go up for that. Hold on.
05:22Seriously?
05:23I don't have to tell you anything about the history of Dallas and this north-south divide.
05:29Dallas is about 385 square miles. Big city. Huge. Too big, actually.
05:33The total value of all of the land and wealth is $140 billion.
05:39How much do you think that resides in the southern sector?
05:43My dad and mom, we bought our first home when I was six.
05:47Paid all of $25,000 for it.
05:51When my dad died, he owed $27,000 on that house.
06:01The mortgage rate was 24% from our local and friendly credit union.
06:09So, $25 billion out of $140 billion is south of I-30.
06:18That doesn't seem right, does it? Doesn't seem possible.
06:21Well, you can see it when you look on the ground and you see what's missing.
06:26The predatory nature of what happened to my father is probably why I sit here today.
06:44Where are all the community people at?
06:46Where are our people from Highland Hills?
06:48Where are our people from Highland Hills?
06:50Okay, I'm going to do a switcheroo.
06:51If you're from Highland Hills, go sit next to somebody you don't know.
06:55They're already doing it.
06:57Yeah, you're already. Who are you sitting next to?
06:59Okay, you're sitting with your son.
07:01But I need somebody, if you're from Highland Hills, I need you to go sit with somebody
07:05who might be with somebody from Tramma Crow or from the city of Dallas or a state representative.
07:11I don't want you just sitting with your people.
07:13I want you to sit to somebody that you don't have exposure to every day.
07:16Uh-uh.
07:17So, where's State Representative Tony Rose at?
07:21Raise your hand up, Ms. Rose.
07:23Raise your hand up.
07:24All right, I need somebody from Highland Hills to come sit next to Ms. Rose.
07:28We're going to chop this up.
07:29This is not going to be your normal, everyday thing.
07:32We need some poor people conversation going on.
07:34Uh-oh.
07:35Every day.
07:36Every day.
07:37So they have the big dogs on you, Tony.
07:38That's right.
07:39They have the big dogs on you.
07:40So I need somebody that's going to be talking about what's going on in the community.
07:44And I need somebody right here with Mr. Benny from West Dallas.
07:49So he won't be feeling alone.
07:50Can I get a state official?
07:52Can I get some high muckety muck?
07:53Come sit with him.
07:54Okay, so what I'm getting ready to go right now is the lane plating.
07:58The chrome plating facility operated for 90 years, but it was shut down in 2015 due to numerous environmental violations such as illegal discharge of pollutants.
08:09What I have right here is the water from the creek.
08:12And in this water is cyanide, cadmium, mercury.
08:15And it's not the water, it's the mud that's poisonous.
08:20And it's right behind the Barack Obama boys' school.
08:23And there's a baseball field that leads right back to that school.
08:27So this is highly toxic in this community.
08:39My house flooded in 2007.
08:46I was at home getting ready to go to bed.
08:49And my neighbor called me.
08:52He asked, what about the horses?
08:54I said, what about the horses?
08:57So I looked out and my whole house was, it looked like I was in the middle of a lake.
09:03The water was up to the windows.
09:06The next day I was there and I was wondering what I was going to do.
09:11Red Cross came.
09:14So, you know, I got interested in that because they come out and help me.
09:18I want to go out and help other people.
09:21It's tiresome.
09:23Called me late through the night time, one or two o'clock.
09:27But you give temporary housing to people when you come out.
09:35People tell me all the time, when do you rest? When do you rest?
09:38I don't really rest, you know.
09:41But now I'm kind of beginning to feel it.
09:44I just like to keep my hands busy.
09:51Well, that was a dollar and fifty cents.
09:54We don't want to spend too much money.
09:56But what about the pens?
09:57Since those pens had TRE and the minimum, the order is 500.
10:02Yeah, but they already got pens already down there, that's what I was telling you.
10:08They have the retractable badge holders in.
10:11They have the moved pencils up here.
10:13The neon pencils up here.
10:15We don't have the fitted tablecloth yet, because she said they have to be custom.
10:19I was hired early because my dad was diagnosed with cancer.
10:32Seemed like it was getting better, and then I started working for Dodd.
10:38Two months later we lost him.
10:44Afterwards, my mom died.
10:48If I hadn't really kept myself busy, I probably would have lost my mind.
10:57Yeah.
10:58And it blew over on this side.
11:00Wow.
11:01Remember, the operator basically had to climb out of the front windshield, because the windshield,
11:04you see the side of it?
11:05I just saw it on the news.
11:06You can see some of the scratch marks up there from the wind, where the wind blew it after
11:10it was on the ground.
11:11And then...
11:12Like the top of it.
11:13Yeah.
11:14Yeah.
11:15It just tore it up.
11:16The operator was not injured, and none of the passengers were on it.
11:19So they didn't know it was injured.
11:21My brother...
11:23This is hard for him.
11:28a lot of his problem was when he was here to take care of my dad
11:34you know when you're an alcoholic and when you go through some things you kind of backslide
11:44he was a recovering alcoholic but then when my dad got really really sick he kind of backslid
11:52that's the reason why he's not incarcerated because it's DWIs
11:56got 15 years
11:59it's just heartbreaking to see
12:05I was mad and I really was but he got locked up I quit talking to him
12:14when he got sentenced I think I waited three months and he kept calling me and I finally
12:23talked to him and he called and was telling me he was in another world and he apologized and
12:29my mom's birthday is tomorrow so he called me yesterday he said well you know mama's birthday
12:40it's Wednesday I said yeah I know it's still hard because she wasn't sick she just had a massive
12:51heart attack when they found her she still had her clothes on she was in her bathroom kind of leaning
12:59over to the door she had called me that Sunday because I used to go see her on that Sunday she
13:06said you coming down here I said yeah well she said don't you don't have to because I'm going back to
13:10church I said okay and she was just so jolly that day I just I didn't have closure
13:19and I think that's what's bothering me a lot why I stayed so busy because I didn't have that time myself to greet
13:30the best thing that really kind of get me through she's where my daddy they did everything together
13:47and that's what she wanted because when my dad died she used to go to the cemetery all the time
13:53every day and I used to tell her mama quick going down to the cemetery all the time it's not that healthy
13:59and she'll say I wish I could just dig and move so you know what you're in five months later
14:04everybody say that she's with her Johnny now
14:07there's where it's starting to suck the window out you can see right there
14:19yeah right here split here and down here split all the way across
14:24across there and then the very obvious busted windows that crack that crack crack there that's a big one
14:37we just piled up right there we shut all the doors and just sat right there not a fun experience
14:42we got lucky we got really lucky when you have a catastrophic storm and you show up on the scene
14:52and you look around it never fails you'll see at least one person doing something that's completely
14:59just doesn't make sense it's amazing we're boarding up your windows for instance after this one the next
15:04morning we showed up out here to start cutting limbs off the house one of the residents was in his
15:11front yard with a rake just raking up sticks and acorns meanwhile there's half a house missing down
15:18the street and there's limbs on the house there's all this massive damage was just out there just
15:24with a rake just kind of it's like the shock factor it's just like it's so overwhelming they don't know
15:33where to start so it's common in a severe storm the immediate damage is not the only damage
15:40and a lot of times is you know after the storm's over people like oh well it's not too bad we got
15:44some damage on the outside but it's just fine in here and then you go through and you look at it at
15:50first and it's like okay well not really seeing anything not really seeing anything it looks pretty
15:54good give it a couple days walk through it again oh there's some cracks above these doors at the
16:00corners there's a wet spot right there there's a detached light right there oh didn't notice these
16:05things wait another three or four days walk through it again every single one of those things
16:10is worse and now you find more things takes a while for everything to settle back into place
16:16and as it settles you'll find more and more damage developing we had three large pecan trees
16:23in a row all bigger than that one back there one at the corner of the pool and then one in the very
16:29back by the shed all gone that one fell and took out the transformer the wind was going like this
16:36it just snapped all the branches off about that hot and all of it was in the pool and yeah everything
16:42else and then the fence is laying on the neighbor's carport the only thing holding it up anymore
16:54if you don't like tornadoes and hailstorms where you gonna go
16:56you move out to california that's nice do you like earthquakes you know where you gonna go
17:02there's something everywhere you go anywhere in this world there's something that you can't control
17:14i was born in southeast arkansas and raised just outside of town called monticello
17:21where i'm from is not a very large place so you know it's a small town dynamic
17:26and i couldn't wait to leave because there was nothing to do there
17:33i graduated a year early and then took off from the military
17:40having lived in a world that was so chaotic and tumultuous you come back to something that seems
17:46like a huge problem and it's you just look at it and it's like okay
17:49like i had some business issues that came up a while back and had people that would tell me man
17:58i don't know how you're so calm about all this you know it's like well worse things could be happening
18:03nobody's shooting at me nobody's trying to blow me up so what's the big deal
18:07you can see how this community of west dallas is being gentrified all this used to be public
18:22housing but they tore it down right and so as we go down singleton you could look to the left yes that's
18:31the left this is the left all this used to be public housing too that that little creek over
18:38there it used to flood this whole public housing back in the 80s i used to live here with dallas
18:44used to have a high high rate of infant mortality they babies a lot of times you make it to like two
18:50years old and this community doesn't have a grocery store why is it such a land rate it floods here all
18:58this floods when it rains you can see gentrification slowly moving in and in a minute it's going to
19:03slowly be moving people out 1872 joppy is where the free slaves came you see piles of rocks you see
19:10piles of dirt you see piles of recycled asphalt like just say you come to the light and the light is red
19:16you got your air on it's coming into your car but when you inhale where it go to your lungs the two
19:23properties next to five mile creek that were covered by grass and trees in 2017 are now covered by a 40
19:30foot pile of used shingles by blue star recycling of miss marcia jackson has a 40 foot mountain of used
19:39shingles in her backyard it's 60 now her horses have died her grandchildren have been very sick she has
19:47suffered from some very serious lung ailments the neighbors next door the same thing but a company
19:54declared bankruptcy so they kind of like parasites they go into a community they polluted they do what
20:01they want to do and then they get out this massive mound of round shingles at blue star recycling has
20:06been growing behind marcia jackson's home since january last year neighbors say they've been complaining to
20:11city code inspectors and state environmental agencies for months they've been experiencing air pollution
20:16noise odors and health issues like coughing up dark matter to asthma the city officially labeled
20:22it a health hazard and then two months ago they ordered blue star recycling to get rid of it
20:27last week inspectors found the work hasn't been done how embarrassing has this been for you
20:32it's a great question and it's been pretty embarrassing blue star recycling's co-founder carl
20:37orrell showed up to the hearing without an attorney he claims the business is broke and could
20:41ultimately take more than a year to clear the shingle piles ideally you know i want it to happen as
20:46soon as possible for everyone involved for now blue stars managed to get itself a little more time
20:51and avoid jail as city leaders and the court determine what to do next good afternoon ladies
20:56and gentlemen please be seated i apologize for the delay with new information i was trying to adapt we
21:02are here this afternoon in dc dc 18 18 18 18651 city of dallas versus blue star recycling llc et al the same
21:16three distinct piles of material remain on the properties unprocessed shingles once processed shingle
21:21materials and finished material dependents are recycling reports that there is no material removal currently
21:28ongoing and that is planned for the immediate future carl orrell who is the former ceo of blue star
21:34recycling llc dedicated to us that he was not intending to appear for this do you solemnly swear from the
21:42testimony you're about to give us the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do please be seated
21:46thank you thank you thank you miss jackson would you please state and spell your your name for the
21:52record marcia jackson m-a-r-s-h-a-j-a-c-k-s-o-n thank you miss jackson and where do you live
22:02is that here in dallas texas seven by two four one and is your home located next to the properties on
22:09which blue star recycling has been operating it is and how long have you lived in that home i've been
22:15there for 24 years how long has blue star been there for your knowledge january 2018 and mostly we
22:22called you here today to talk about your health is it true that your health has deteriorated since
22:28blue star has been on that property it is that's true as long as the ground of asphalt is still there
22:33uh i can only be outside for maybe five or ten minutes and then i can actually feel that um my voice
22:39is deteriorating from there uh within the whole week or something sometime i might not even be
22:44able to speak you know now but no it hasn't do you have family that lives with you at the house i do
22:51and who lives with you there i have 11 year old granddaughter and then my 30 year old daughter
22:56will start with me okay and how has your family been affected by the presence of the material there
23:01my granddaughter has um taken more of her uh abuterol because i asked him um now they don't go outside
23:09and play she doesn't she don't can't ride the bicycle because of the asphalt also bother her breathing
23:25is there anything else you'd like to tell the court no that's not i have no further questions
23:31council do you have any questions for this one no question john i will find blue star recycling llc
23:37in contempt of court for failure to comply with this court's temporary injunction i will order it to
23:44pay a um coercive what we call a coercive contempt fine of 500 a day per violation and there were
23:52multiple violations listed um council i will we'll speak in um we can speak after the hearing's over
24:00the order needs to be fine-tuned so it doesn't have the same rules of propriety performing good
24:04conduct applicable to members of the city council any speaker making personal impertinent profane or
24:11slanderous remarks or who becomes boisterous while addressing the city council shall be removed from the
24:17room individuals will be given three minutes to speak you notice the time at the podium when your time is
24:22up please stop address your comments to mayor johnson only also if you have any handouts you can go ahead
24:29and hand it to the officer to my left and your right as it will affect your speaking time i want to ask you
24:36mr mayor to please intervene with your task force or whatever you have at your disposal because it is a
24:43grave injustice when the greatest city in in the u.s dallas texas has this kind of black mark on it
24:50because of a few bad apples within the police department my daughter has now been indicted by
24:54the grand jury and is going to court on january the 7th to face assault of an officer while she's
25:01handcuffed and mr mayor we need to do something because when we live in a great city like dallas and
25:08declining advancements becomes a fight for justice something is wrong i want to thank the dallas police
25:15officers who came to a call that i made for my son who was in the military he suffers from ptsd got out
25:25the military and um on honorable discharge and he was having a milk to break down i thank them for not
25:34killing him i thought that police officers was going to help me nine came out to my home i'm in the
25:41district of casey thomas on the grand prairie side of dallas county they arrested my son and charged
25:48my son with assault he was charged with assault instead of them helping me because he didn't
25:54commit a crime i just needed for them to help me get him in the car i came here to speak about this
25:59item because one of the things i wanted to do is to make sure that when you vote on it you just don't
26:04see the six hundred and ten thousand dollars you see the ten million dollars that you have spent
26:10for police officers misconduct since 2015 and what we do not need is on our taxpayer dollars is for you
26:17to continue to pad the pockets of a law firm like they always do but i ask that you do the right things
26:24by approving this measure and moving forward thank you thank you we'll now move to your consent agenda
26:31your consent agenda consisted of agenda items 2 through 91 and we anticipate that the majority
26:40of the properties that will come through as community land trust properties will be vacant
26:43they'll just be taxed there will be tax revenue that comes in on the structure the land will be taxed
26:48also it's just taxed on the value of the leasehold which will be a very very low value the issue is
26:54people being priced out of their home and i think this program is a preservation technique to allow
27:01for and ensure again that those individuals don't somehow at some point 10 years from now get priced
27:07out of their home so what prices them out of their home uh i think both heights they're high taxes
27:13why not just create exemptions this is just complex to me
27:16i i think it's a layup quite honestly as it relates to what we're doing here today a dunk would
27:24be success and okay can i ask one other yes sir question i i i appreciate you advocating for it
27:30and i mean clearly i'm in the minority in here on this but if the house is not affordable they will never
27:35own a house to place your property in the land trust that's a decision that the property owner makes
27:41their heirs don't get to make that decision and so i think they will do that willfully and when
27:47those heirs call me i'll call tc exactly okay thank you mr mayor were you were you finished with you okay
28:11this work i do and the stress and strain of it i try to work through it myself
28:23we're calling them pods but it doesn't have to be a pod so pod to me means either like a granny pod
28:29or it means a container home we have found some online that are about 39 000 where the city would put
28:36up 50 000 the resident would go through an application process but they would also get to
28:41interview the faith community that they would live at we've talked about how would we unwind it let's
28:46say the faith community said you know i don't think we want to keep doing this or the resident issue
28:52became too complex how would we exit that person and replace them with somebody different we just
28:58sort of laid out a framework for it who is the we so we want to make sure that we foster opera mobility
29:04and break the generational cycle of poverty we also want to support families choices and
29:11locating in certain neighborhoods and finding some type of housing and so we have come up with our own
29:14methodology to account for the severe level of poverty and again the concentration of vouchers in
29:20a neighborhood as we looked at our last year's numbers we have probably had about a 30 success rate
29:25we'll have hundreds of thousands on our waiting list i've learned to be steady because i think people
29:30need that kind of leadership they've been doing um group feedings in the streets which isn't good for
29:37us in terms of trash in terms of hygiene um and number three they've been doing things like blessing
29:44bags right where they give out things but a lot of times they'll have a gift card in there and it
29:50actually is creating crime homeless on homeless crime where people are jumping them to get
29:54that um i believe that i've been doing this kind of work just organically because of who i am and what
30:02i look like this is just normal for me a family may want to move but the reality of the circumstances
30:10for that particular family may be i can't afford moving expenses i can't afford security deposits
30:14and so our board of commissioners approved a three million dollar allocation and if the city's amenable
30:20to this approach we would ask that the city join us in a dollar for dollar match at the end of the
30:25day i think i'm pretty good at what i do when they get tired of me and all of me and who i am
30:32should any place i go not want me anymore okay they just weren't ready to deal with the types of issues
30:41that city managers are challenged to deal with and so if they don't have first and last and all that
30:48they just don't get a place that's right that's not this is why we want to really change the system
30:55we still got a lot of work to do some people don't need a study and and folk to talk about
31:02the inequities and show the disparity they live it there was some positive movement and it went up
31:08they're like well okay thank you for acknowledging my life for the last 10 years but that's what i've been
31:13telling you what do we take away from this when we look at these indicators time and time and time again
31:23people of color in dallas guess what it is do not have the same access to opportunity how many people
31:31are super surprised by these results huge change the timeliness of the machine here is is so slow
31:40so that's how to read this report again there's so much and that is where i spend most of my time
31:47wringing my hands
32:00the frustrating part for me is i can help 100 people 200 people in a year with a program that works
32:10that's 200 people there are 30 000 people behind them
32:24we need to be doing more and getting more accomplished and talking less
32:44people need to see that things are different
32:57i feel like i'm a protector for and a fighter for voiceless and folk who can't stand up to the powers
33:07that is a city organization and i'm their inside man
33:23from the 1930s to 1984 a company called rsr corporation operated a notorious lead car battery
33:31smelter in west dallas a section of the city that became one of the few areas where black people
33:37could live the epa superfund site covers 13.6 we were forced in school to go swimming and to learn to
33:47learn how to swim and when you leave that that building right here which was edison we before we
33:55could get home we vomited we didn't know what was wrong we go to school next day they sent us to
34:00parkland before it was kids dying the power is not being used to change this for those that have the
34:07power why it's not being used here because they're not voting the benefits and burdens of society are not
34:14equally distributed right so when you go to north dallas then it's not because they vote that they don't
34:22have toxic waste it's because they're white it's a lack of power but you don't get the people to
34:27represent you and represent your cause our communities do not have the money in order to get
34:32we have to have people that look like us that care like right other people give them money right right
34:37so then they are beholden to people who are not us they never gonna care about us as long as we ain't
34:52we have to preserve the earth y'all this part of the wetlands you have like ibises and woodstorks and
35:04all the type of things and so we're trying to preserve this but it is hard when we got uh
35:09less melted we got concrete vats plants we got stuff that's killing our forest and this is a great
35:14trendy forest and how does the earth breathe it breeds for trees and as you can see over here this
35:25was fair park and all this when african americans tried to come into this community back in the 1940s
35:30and the 1950s they would blow the houses up the white people would blow the houses up again when
35:37african americans would buy the houses they would get terrorized to the point where they would get paid less
35:44once the city came in or these realtors came in and say they like if you bought the house for 20
35:48thousand after you've been terrorized and people trying to blow up your house you gonna set it for
35:53five thousand so i'm giving you a point of reference you'll understand why south Dallas is the way that it is
36:13so
36:28so
36:39I don't know if you're a doctor, I don't know if you're a doctor, but I don't know if you're
36:57a doctor.
36:58Growing up, I always said I was going to be a doctor.
37:00It just, it was very interesting, the concepts, and also all the men in my family have heart
37:05issues.
37:06We still good for 10 o'clock this morning?
37:08When you're aware of that, that becomes something of interest.
37:11Okay.
37:13I was planning on going to medical school.
37:15Yeah, I'll be out there a little earlier than you.
37:17But then I chose to go to the Marine Corps instead.
37:19Do you know how short on material you are?
37:21No, we'll look here in a bit.
37:25Okay.
37:27My mother was very unhappy about my choice to join the Marine Corps.
37:30She was very much on education.
37:32And so she was very upset when I told her that I was absolutely going to the Marine Corps.
37:39When I joined in 98, there was nothing really going on in the world.
37:43Then, you know, the whole 9-11 thing is like we were pretty much gone all the time.
37:49And in 05, I got shot twice in the knee and that ended my career in the Marine Corps.
37:55I just continued to do my counterintelligence work until 2013.
38:01And I decided that was it.
38:04I'd had enough.
38:05It's time to go back to the real world.
38:07It was easier to live and be happy in a chaotic environment than being in a normal life.
38:26My mind just tried to adjust to the fact that it was going to be here permanently.
38:35And there were struggles, just anger, a lot of drinking.
38:44You know, I was going through treatment with the VA for physical stuff and things were different.
38:52It's inevitable that there's going to be a concept of breaking parts of you down in order to bring you back together as the product that they need.
39:10You're in a different world at that point.
39:15Death didn't even really occur to me at the time.
39:19Every time you leave the gate, you know that there's a possibility.
39:26I mean, when I was shot in the knee, that was a very surreal experience.
39:33Sitting in the bathroom, trying to bandage up the bullet holes.
39:40Just shredded my leg to make me cut out like eight and a half cubic inches of soft tissue.
39:50I didn't realize I got shot at first and I felt a gush of blood under my leg.
39:55I looked back at my interpreter and said, here, take my rifle, give me the pistol.
39:59Anybody that comes in that door that's not dressed like us, shoot them.
40:02So I'm sitting in the floor in this bathroom, in this house, trying to bandage this all up.
40:10There's like a pool of blood on the whole floor of the bathroom.
40:17It's as sticky as slick.
40:19I remember on the helicopter ride to the hospital, the guy above me was bleeding pretty bad.
40:27And he was dripping blood on me.
40:30And there's a little ring that the gurney sits on.
40:34And I was sitting there flicking that ring.
40:37Flicking that ring.
40:40Just trying to keep myself awake.
40:44I reached a point of comfort in death that I felt like, you know, I'd lived life.
40:57I wasn't afraid to die.
41:02I mean, death's like not even in my mind.
41:07I mean, death's never in my mind.
41:12Something all of a sudden, surprise happens.
41:15Bad medical news.
41:16Okay.
41:17Death is never the thought.
41:21I mean, it inevitably could be the final result of any situation.
41:30But nothing you can do about it if that's the case.
41:35Everybody has their own sacrifices.
41:42I think the room, you know, knocked out now.
41:43There's only 2,000 square feet and it wasn't a very good quality and they didn't have replacement
41:44cover.
41:45So the insurance company is willing to write him a check.
41:47A lot of those older, smaller homes that got wiped out.
41:48They're elderly.
41:49They're senior citizens.
41:51Pretty much everyone that I encounter will continually tell me they're always praying
42:10for me.
42:11I do believe that there is a higher being that's looking out for me given my path in life.
42:31My biggest worry is being around to watch my kids succeed and have families and
42:40all the things that my parents didn't get to see me do.
42:44Now, for the man of the hour, T.C. Broadnax began serving as Dallas City Manager on February
42:511st, 2017.
42:54Previously, he served as City Manager of Tacoma, Washington.
42:58He also served as Assistant City Manager of the City of San Antonio.
43:02Broadnax has more than 25 years of local government management experience.
43:07He resides over an annual budget of $3.1 billion, billion with a B. He is also responsible
43:16for 39 city departments and nearly 13,000 employees.
43:20He is married and has four children.
43:24So will you please welcome the City of Dallas Manager, T.C. Broadnax.
43:29I think right now is a blip in time, and I don't want to get political with stuff, but my kids,
43:41eight, nine, and 12, grew up with a different president and a different seeing and teaching.
43:55They can sense and see that something's different, something's not the same,
43:59and people are feeling a little anxious about life and where this country's going.
44:07And you know what I mean? Like, my younger son is just now
44:11identifying and recognizing people are treated differently based on the color of their skin.
44:17And those are some awkward conversations.
44:29Just some of the stuff that's going on in society today and my overprotective nature.
44:37I'm a little worried about them being able to manage.
44:55How are you feeling since we last saw you?
45:03I'm doing a little better. I was sick.
45:05Oh, you're sick.
45:06I had a real bad acute sinus infection.
45:09Will you hang that up there for me, please, ma'am?
45:13And it's getting better.
45:16Um, any cough?
45:17Yes, I was doing a lot of cough.
45:20But then, uh, a lot of it was like because of my acute sinus anyway.
45:25Okay.
45:25Has the cough gotten better?
45:28It was getting better until I got sick.
45:30Okay.
45:31Um, how's your swallowing?
45:34It's, it's, it's about the same, I guess.
45:36Swallowing is the same.
45:39And a frequent throat clearing.
45:42I noticed you doing it.
45:44Still doing it, okay.
45:46Any sore throat?
45:47Yeah, today it is.
45:49And it might be because I'm just still hoarse.
45:51Okay.
45:51Um, and I was going to tell, um, Dr. Pandit, when I had my, my, uh, acute sinusitis.
45:57Mm-hmm.
45:58All of this was just swole.
46:00Okay.
46:00All of it was real swole.
46:01Did you have facial pressure?
46:02Yes.
46:02And then, um, my nostrils, both of them just almost closed.
46:07Okay.
46:11How are your headaches?
46:13They're getting a little better.
46:15It was worse last week, probably because of the sinus pressure.
46:17Headaches were worse.
46:17Okay, so it sounds like all your symptoms were a little worse.
46:20Mm-hmm.
46:20Okay.
46:21Yeah.
46:21See those pills that are sticking up in there?
46:23So one of them she gave me for nausea.
46:26Okay.
46:26And that's the one I'm still taking.
46:27I guess that's the antibiotic.
46:28The antibiotic.
46:29Mm-hmm.
46:29Okay, so you were placed on antibiotic.
46:31I took that and I had got a, they gave me a, um, steroid injection.
46:35Okay.
46:35And then you still have a couple more days left?
46:38Mm-hmm.
46:40When people tell me I'm sorry, that's a slap in my face.
46:45That sorry is not helping me when I'm constantly going to the doctor.
46:52I'm tired of medication.
46:54All that medication is only just blowing me up more and more.
46:58You know, the city of Dallas, what they doing to us, I'm hurt.
47:08The shingles, you know, not only do you get that black suit in your lungs, that's really fine.
47:16Um, it also has, um, these, what's called PAHs.
47:21So polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
47:24Mm-hmm.
47:24And those PAHs, uh, some of them can cause problems.
47:28They've been linked to cancer, um, and, uh, as well as poor pulmonary performance.
47:34And so clearing that, the source of it is going to be important for the health of the community.
47:38Where Shinga Mountain is, that's right across the street from the landfill.
47:42I know darn well some of those city people saw that Shinga Mountain growing up.
47:49Why they didn't say nothing?
47:50Why they didn't stop it?
47:53The best thing you can do is prevent breathing this as much as you can,
47:57which means having an air purifier at night, sleeping with an air filter,
48:01washing your nose out, wearing a mask when you're outside.
48:04So protecting you as much as possible.
48:07They've never started a cleanup process for that yet?
48:09Not one thing.
48:10Mm-mm.
48:11Okay.
48:11And see, the judge had said that the asphalt, uh,
48:15the ground up asphalt was too heavy to move, and that's not true.
48:18It just seemed like it strained so much.
48:21You know, it just pulled so much in my throat.
48:23Yes.
48:24You just have to continue doing it.
48:26The irrigations to clean out your nose.
48:28The steam inhaler to moisturize your vocal cords.
48:31The voice therapy to use your lung power
48:34to create a voice instead of straining this from all the dryness that's over there.
48:40I can't say they don't care about all the citizens,
48:44but to me it does look like they really don't care about the southern sector.
48:48I've always heard people talking about racial discrimination,
48:54black and brown community, and I'm believing that's the case.
49:00I work in a community, trying to give back.
49:02So why would you just pick people?
49:06What are you doing?
49:07Just waiting for us to die?
49:08What we're looking at is your windpipe down there,
49:10your vocal cords here, and your...
49:12Why would they do us like that?
49:14You know, that's my first thing.
49:15Why?
49:18I've been here in Dallas since 79.
49:21We suffer when they can go home every day,
49:24and they don't have to worry about what we're going through.
49:26And that looks good.
49:28The tissues are a little swollen is what we see right there.
49:31You can see they're a little swollen.
49:35It's like we don't even matter.
49:41It's like they don't care.
49:51It's like they don't care.
49:53You can see they're a little swollen.
49:54You can see they're in the middle of a car.
49:58And if they just went home, you can see they were on the other side.
50:00There's a little bit of a wall that can go home.
50:03That's great.
50:11Oh, God, what's right.
50:12And if they're in the middle of a road that we're looking to get in the middle of a road.
50:14And they're basically trying to get it right up.
50:15And then if they want to get home,
50:17you can see they're coming home every day.
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