The state emergency director in Texas recently told the Houston Chronicle that Texans who board emergency vehicles will now have to submit to a criminal background check first. Anyone who boards an emergency bus would have to give their name and officials would have the right to ask for identification.
In 2000, 11 percent of the state’s population and 44 percent of the prison population was African American.
The Texas Division of Emergency Management is trying to frame the policy as an innocuous attempt to protect vulnerable sectors of society during an emergency. In reality, it is a blatant attempt to further attack sectors of the working class. This is especially true in light of the experience of emergency response on the Gulf Coast in Katrina’s aftermath.
