Watch out Beaumont, Texas, “Cops” is coming to town

Attention all bad boys: What ya gonna do?

The Beaumont (Texas) City Council silently voted to allow the long-running “reality” TV show, “Cops” to film local police for the next eight weeks.

Yes, “Cops” will follow Beaumont police officers around while exposing a few of the more than several dregs of society the city has to offer. Perhaps the show will get a good shot of police flailing the hell out of a “perp.” In case you don’t know, at least here, a perp is a black or Latino between the age of 18 and 60. No, I’m just kidding most of the cops here don’t do that any more. You know them civil lawsuits get expensive the more times they get filed.

I had some hopes for the Beaumont PD leadership when Chief James Singletary took command in October 2011. I have been personally disappointed about a couple of things the police did to my displeasure, but I will not mention them.

A few things do appear somewhat better though. It seems less wrongful use of force has been called to our attention. At least on the outside this police administration also seems to do a good job connecting with the media and the public. They send out news releases which are the very same ones that the local TV and newspaper receive and rewrite verbatim or make the release sound dramatic, somewhat, on TV. The local media has not, at least in the last several years, made any effort to investigate stories on their own. That is unless it is something that the white, wealthy or semi-wealthy, minority are up in arms over. For instance, we have the case of the black electrician who allegedly stole $3 million — I say allegedly even though he was convicted — from the Beaumont school district. I use the form of alleged because it may be more than that amount which was stolen or he might have a successful appeal.

The asshole who shot and killed an elderly woman from Newton County in March 2012 at the Jefferson County Courthouse, Bartholomew Granger, was convicted just this afternoon in Galveston. He also wounded a couple of others including his daughter, whom he also ran over. Sweet guy. He will probably be executed.

I mention that because that was about the biggest crime story around last year, that I can remember. Of course, “Cops” don’t need a big shootout to film. They can watch the Beaumont police bust some knucklehead, with his pants halfway down his ass, for a chunk of crack — cocaine that is. Or they might film some meth heads, all without shirts, being swept up in a commando-style raid in which the meth guy’s 3-year-old daughter ends up going to Child Protective Services. Sad. Yes, we’ve seen all this before. But we have not seen it in Beaumont on national TV.

One sight you will be sure to see is some good ol’ boy with his big belly hanging out from his wife-beater and as well as hanging a ways over his jeans. This ol’ boy might have two teeth at the most and a southern drawl. But what the hell? It’s good publicity for the department and a morale booster for the police officers, says Singletary.

The city has spent a considerable sum of money to spruce up areas of town. Tourists are coveted here by the local convention and visitors bureau to take in our museums, old houses, Gator Country and the birthplace of the oil industry. “Texas With a Little Extra” is the motto du jour. Or maybe that should be “Texas With a Little Extra Crime.”