The Body Camera War
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Watch as a city council member threatens to go to war with the cops, all because her son got busted! We don’t think that’s right. And claiming racism when you’re exposed doesn’t explain what we found on police body cameras down in La Marque.
Haven’t you noticed politicians seem to run from us a lot? Take Kimberley Yancy, a controversial member of the La Marque city council.
She’s faced an unsuccessful recall and almost constant allegations of corruption.
The Galveston County district attorney has just released more body camera video of the night Yancy tried to interfere with the arrest of her son by the city’s police department for drunk driving.
“I’m about to go to war with y’all. I’m just telling you,” threatened Yancy.
On social media Yancy has bitterly complained about the release of video the night her son got arrested on July 4th of 2022.
When the D.A. released the first video in October, Yancy called it “plantation politics”.
The D.A. responded publicly. We had legitimately requested the video under state law after details of that night were leaked to us.
She’s also gone to Galveston County commissioners court, asking for a committee to investigate the ongoing ugly social media war in La Marque.
“Since 2021 some of our elected leaders, particularly some of our African American leaders and our citizens have been brutally terrorized by a small group of individuals,” said Yancy at commissioners’ court.
We wanted to approach Yancy before the latest city council meeting started. But since our last visit to la marque, things inside the city hall chambers have changed a lot.
The mayor has literally built a blockade in front of the dais where the city council members sit.
There are tables blocking the entire thing, and as you can also see, there is no one sitting there. But they clearly are sending a message. It’s not the lesson we hoped they would learn after our other visits to la marque.
Almost one hundred thousand people have already watched our video of the police chief threatening folks to support the mayor or else. A shocking misuse of police power.
“You need to jump on board and support your police department and not talk bad about us because we’re the only game in town,” said the police chief in a meeting.
This is a town where you can face arrest simply for asking questions.
((police chief… 267 i don’t want to talk to you so you got to leave me alone or ill charge you with harassment…
Alright you charge me with harassment chief, go for it.))
Maybe the siege at city hall now is all our fault. Last year we busted the mayor for his false campaign reporting. He had failed to disclose thousands of dollars in contributions.
“I love you Mr. Dolcefino I’m not going to answer any questions,” said Keith Bell.
Joseph Lowry is the La Marque resident who’s led the unsuccessful effort to recall Yancy and Mayor Keith Bell.
And his comments on social media have evolved into the Lowry News Network and a possible run for mayor. He often complains now about crime in the city.
After Lowry posted part of the Yancy body camera video in October, he went to confront Yancy at city council about her allegations of racism in the release of the video.
“This ridiculous claim of lynch mobs and all this nonsense about racism in the community, because its coming from one person in the community and that’s you. And you’re heading it Yancy,” said Joseph Lowry.
Watch as the police chief tries to intimidate Lowry. It’s another example of the growing inability to challenge public officials at legitimate government meetings.
Look at Yancy’s face as the mayor tries to shut Lowery down.
“Joseph. Joseph, I’m going to ask you to not – I’m going the ask you to address the council as a whole. Address the council as a whole per the city attorney. I understand how you feel. Address the council as a whole,” said Keith Bell.
Seconds before Lowry repeated his call for the mayor to resign. Hidden camera video we obtained showed Bell wasn’t even living in the city of La Marque.
“Mr. Bell I want to give you the opportunity to step down and resign for not living in city of law marque as per the charter,” said Joseph Lowry.
Even the night of the latest council meeting we went to, the war of words continued. After Yancy said this after two African American La Marque police officers left the department to work elsewhere in Galveston County.
“We make up 31%of this population but less than 4% on the police staff. My constituents will ask, what are we doing to improve that number,” said Yancy.
“What the hell is wrong with that woman? She’s nuts. She’s a basket case. Her constituents demand someone that’s African American to police the street,” said Lowry.
“I don’t give a shit what color a police officer is when they show up at my house. Who cares? Who cares? That is a racist, disgusting, despicable thing to even bring up,” continued Lowery.
Ms. Yancy may not like the release of all those body camera videos, but let’s be honest, no one would have cared if she hadn’t gone to the scene to interfere in the first place. Making sure cops on the scene know she’s a public official.
It’s just another example of why we argue all body camera video (with some exception) of police interactions should be made public. We pay for the cameras; we should be able to see what they show.
Here’s what the bodycam video just released in the DWI case shows.
It’s July 4th 2022, near McGaffey park and city Councilwoman Yancy’s 28-year-old son Joshua is being arrested for driving while intoxicated.
He had crashed into the park gate with an open bottle of tequila inside his car.
But as officers are making the arrest, Councilwoman Yancy shows up at the scene.
Just listen as she makes it clear to officers just who she is and why she’s there.
The office asked, “can I help you ma’am?”
Yancey replied, “This is Councilwoman Yancy, how you doing? I’m coming to get my boy.”
The officer tells her to stay in her car, but Yancy gets out and walks right up to the scene of the arrest.
And then she wants to know why officers didn’t alert her to what was going on.
“Can I get you to stand back over here,” said the officer.
“But why was he in this car? They said he was sitting down at the pavilion,” said Yancy.
“Come over here and I’ll talk to you,” said the officer.
“Why didn’t y’all call me,” asked Yancy.
“Well first of all I had no idea it was your son,” replied the officer.
But Yancy really loses it when the handcuffs come out and her son is about to be taken off to jail.
“My boy ain’t never been handcuffed. It’s real hard to see my boy get handcuffed especially with the shit I’m going through right now with your officers,” expressed Yancy.
And that’s when Yancy ups the pressure. Threatening in her words, to go to war with the very police department that she oversees as a member of city council.
“I’m about to go to war with y’all because I was here. And I’ve seen – I used to work for people. I used to work for the government, I know how this rolls,” said Yancy.
But despite her pleas, these officers stick to their guns and don’t back off of making the arrest just because it’s the son of a councilmember.
“My boys ain’t never been in trouble until we moved to La Marque. Til I became a councilmember. That’s alright, I’m good,” said Yancy.
“This has nothing to do with your status as a councilwoman,” explained the officer.
“No, you wouldn’t know that because you’re not doing anything. I’m talking about the stress, the unnecessary stress that my families have to go through. And you don’t understand because you’re not going through it,” expressed Yancy.
Yancy then starts to explain to the police officer about what she claims is rampant racism in La Marque and the impact all that stress is having on her and her family.
“And we stressed out because of all this shit that they going through and I’m going through, being called thugs. All that for 11 months,” said Yancy.
And Yancy tells officers Joseph Lowry, he is to blame for her stress.
“This is the shit why I’m saying, when joseph is saying all of this stuff about my kids calling them thugs and stuff, that stuff begins to manifest. You understand what I’m saying? When you begin to say it in the air. Because everybody don’t know how to deal with racism like we having to deal with,” said Yancy.
Once Yancy realizes she’s not going to stop the arrest, she wants to know how quickly she can bond her son out of jail. But then she takes a swipe at the condition of the jail that she helps oversee as a councilmember.
“Tell me what I need to do to get him out. Because I know how your jail looks. It’s horrible,” said Yancy.
And after her son was taken off to jail, Yancy had a warning for la marque police. Clearly worried news of the arrest could reach her political enemy. One name in particular.
“If Joseph Lowry gets wind of this, I want a meeting with all of LM-PD for real. They better not say a goddam word to that shit. Because I’m telling you that man finds out stuff before it even hit the street from somebody in the La Marque PD,” warns Yancy.
The supervisor who handled her on that body camera video was later fired. And word of the arrest and Yancy’s attempt to stop it, well did leak out. Is she going to war with La Marque PD?
She won’t talk to us, but we’ll be watching, all taxpayers should.
“Kimberley, can we talk to you for just a second about the bodycam video of your son? The DWI arrest,” asked Brian Collister.
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