Friday, Unfair Park's love/hate feelings about state Representative Jonathan Stickland took another turn. The Bedford Republican introduced a couple of bills on the last day of filing, one to cut off utilities to any National Security Agency facility in Texas and another, to make so-called "no knock" warrants illegal in the state, that has us leaning towards love.
Of course, the guy also replaced his office sign with one designating him a "former fetus" and called Planned Parenthood "child murderers" early last week and wants to legalize the licensed open carry of handguns. D Magazine has called him one of the three worst North Texas state legislators.
So we have a sort of Ike-and-Tina thing going on here.
See also: Bedford State Rep. Calls Himself a "Former Fetus," Accuses Planned Parenthood of Murder Still, let's give credit where credit is due. In addition to the two bills introduced Friday, Stickland is also trying to get red-light cameras banned. He actually means it when he talks about protecting privacy and the Fourth Amendment.
"Every person has the constitutional right to be served a warrant and notified before their door is kicked down," Stickland said in a press release about ending no-knock warrants. "These people have not been convicted of a crime and are likely to fight back if their door is broken down unannounced."
It's a totally reasonable sentiment; no-knock warrants lead to dogs getting shot, people getting shot and unnecessary danger for people on both sides of the door. Like the bill to cut off power to Texas NSA facilities -- the bill doesn't name any facilities -- the move to cut off no-knock warrants is extremely unlikely to even get a floor vote. As with unlicensed open carry, Stickland is tilting at windmills. When he's tilting at the right ones -- or at least the ones you think are the right ones -- it seems (slightly) more romantic than obnoxious.
Considering we first became familiar with the guy when he made statements that sounded like he supported arming fetuses, that's pretty amazing.
