----- Forwarded Message -----
From: John McMillan <mcmillanj@att.net>
To: State Senator Sarah Eckhardt 2020 <sarah.eckhardt@senate.texas.gov>
Sent: Friday, August 7, 2020, 12:49:18 AM CDT
Subject: 8-7-20 tentative public-policy ideas from a constituent
Dear State Senator Eckhardt,
Best Wishes to you again in your great new role as State Senator from the Greater Austin area.
Some very tentative, very hastily-written public-policy suggestions I would like to offer you in your new role as my duly-elected State Senator:
(1) There may be a need for strengthening of the state penal code to assign greater emphasis than at present to the investigation and solving of reported continuous-and-continuing-personal-injury-crimes involving actual physical contact with the victim.
I sense that currently the City of Austin and Austin Police Department may not have adequate guidance from our Texas Legislature on whether to assign very high priority to investigating and solving CONTINUOUS-AND-CONTINUING alleged-personal-injury-crimes cases.
(1a) I feel there should be some type of state board that accepts complaints from Texans (myself, for instance) who have been repeatedly over a multi-year period denied the opportunity for ANY of the numerous forensic medical exams on themselves that they (myself, for instance) had specifically requested from their local police department or, in the case of Austin, their local SAFE Austin Alliance holding quasi-governmental authority over whether any given self-identified crime victim (myself, for instance) can actually obtain a rape-evidence exam on himself or herself in the current year.
(2) Possibly it could help if the Texas Legislature were to approve enabling legislation that would make it easier than ever for a non-profit local police foundation to be established at the local level that helps to protect funding levels for investigation of violent crimes and personal-injury crimes, for insance.
I found an interesting blog that refers to success stories around the U.S. in which a police foundation has been established that boosts funding levels for local police departments.
I should mention that I myself am not sure whether the Greater Austin Crime Commission is also a foundation that helps to significantly increase funding levels for some or several of the programs or services offered by the Austin Police Department.
(3) I am very uncomfortable with the current system in which a white Anglo Saxon male person can COMMIT a hate crime, but with rare exceptions he cannot successfully complain to a law-enforcement agency that he was a VICTIM of a hate crime.
Possibly state law in Texas should be revised to state that any crime committed with malice toward the victim's religious identity, ethnic identity, ancestral identity, racial identity, sexual identity, or gender identity, regardless of what that identity might be, is deplored and denounced by government.
This can be problematic, though, such as if a cited crime victim has a "sexual identity" that includes pederastic and flagrantly illegal exploitation and subjugation of minors. In a circumstance of that type, a hate crime committed against a person who had been identified correctly by the actual perpetrator as an alleged violator of the law who allegedly committed pederasty, could not be included in the scope of hate-crimes protection.
I personally support a principled approach to human rights issues, and it would be nice if our state penal code had language that reflected that type of outlook.
(4) I personally feel that under-reporting of workers' comp cases by the vast majority of employers in Texas undermines our workers' comp system. If our state government could offer increased incentives for employers, including any and all restaurant-industry employers, to be very diligent about reporting any and all workers' comp cases, this could increase the effectiveness of the workers' comp system in our state.
At the very least, I hope that you as State Senator will please insist on the sponsorship of a new study to obtain an estimate on the current incidence of under-reporting of workers' comp cases by employers in a variety of industries in our state.
(5) There appears to be a need for greater State of Texas involvement in identification of street intersections in our state that are dangerous to the point of lethal, and in sponsorship of traffic-pattern studies and engineering studies on how to redesign those street intersections in order to significantly reduce the accident rate and the injury rate and fatality rate at those intersections.
(6) It would be nice if our State Legislature would significantly increase the number of State of Texas-owned buildings that make use of solar panels or wind power as a way to achieve long-term reduction in utility costs.
If our state government sets a fine and inspirational example for our entire state by increasing use of renewable energy sources for State of Texas buildings, this could help to effectively promote to our entire state the wisdom of "going solar" or the wisdom of "going wind power", or, at the very least, having solar power and wind power as ONE of the energy sources being harnessed on a year-round basis by State of Texas-owned institutions or agencies.
(7) I would like to see the Texas Legislature do more than at present to adequately honor those Texans who immigrated to the United States in full compliance with the law and who have pursued a consistently law-abiding lifestyle as authorized residents or citizens of the United States.
(8) I would love to see State of Texas-imposed restrictions on the number of tattoo parlors that are doing business in any given city or county. I am appalled by tattoo parlors and the unsightliness and depravity and flagrant damage to Texans' skin that they inflict.
I also feel sure that many Texans identify heavily-tattooed Texans as "members of the criminal element", and this significantly undermines the tattooed persons' reputation and ability to lead a law-abiding and honorable lifestyle. It also undermines other Texans' ability to trust the heavily-tattooed Texans.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to review these very tentative public-policy-related suggestions. I hope this is helpful to you.
Best Wishes,
John Kevin McMillan.
Home address ever since June 21, 2019:
Pebble Creek Apartments, 8805 North Plaza Drive, Apt. 2418, Austin, TX 78753.
Home phone: (512) 342-2295.
Cell phone: (512) 993-7305.
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John Kevin McMillan
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