Human Rights

ExxonMobil, the Leader in Backward LGBT Policies and Cultural Tone Deafness

It's almost tradition by now. Every year at Exxon's annual shareholder's meeting, New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who oversees state employees' retirement dollars, introduces a resolution calling for the company to ban discrimination against gay and transgendered employees. And every year, it ... More >>

Six Activists Are Suing Dallas In Federal Court, Claiming They're Being Illegally Barred From Protesting George W. Bush Center Dedication

Six long-time progressive activists have filed suit against the city of Dallas, claiming they're being illegally barred from protesting the April 25 dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Center. The group says they were threatened with arrest if they show up at the dedication; the suit was f ... More >>

Colleagues of Rick Halperin, SMU Human Rights Professor, Don't Buy Nazi Accusations

A former student of Rick Halperin says she isn't buying accusations outlined in a federal lawsuit that he slept with students or secretly loved Hitler. SMU student Moumita Rahman, who graduated in 2004 and now runs her own law practice in New York focusing on immigration and political asylum, had Ha ... More >>

An SMU Professor Claims She Was Fired for Blowing the Whistle on Sex and Nazi Fetishism in the Human Rights Program

In 2006, with the controversy over its ultimately successful bid to house the Bush Presidential Center very much brewing, SMU set to work establishing the Embrey Human Rights Program. It was a pioneering effort that aimed to raise awareness of global social justice issues and perhaps inspire studen ... More >>

Arlington PD Answers All Your Questions About Its "Aviation Unit," Which Consists Entirely of Two Drones

The Arlington Police Department recently got permission from the FAA to use the two small, battery-operated drones they purchased last year using grant money from Homeland Security. Presumably, the drones will mostly be used to hover over Jerry Jones while he's at work, clipping him in the head with ... More >>

Russian Government Accuses a Texas Mother of Drugging and Murdering Her Adopted Son

In December Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a measure banning the adoption of Russian children to American families. The move was widely considered, and tacitly acknowledged as, a retaliation against a new U.S. law targeting accused Russian human rights abusers. Russian officials portrayed ... More >>

Dallas Police Will Soon Have License Plate Scanners

Dallas police will soon be able to run your license plate through state and federal crime databases without ever lifting a finger. This morning, the City Council approved DPD's $3.2 million plan to equip some of its squad cars with automated license plate scanners, which can check up to 1,800 plate ... More >>

Human Rights, As Told By Hagman’s Eyebrows

Mexicans Pay in Blood for America's War on Drugs

When Arizona's Immigration Law is Upheld, the Floodgates of Hate Will Swing Open

The U.S. Supreme Court and President Obama leave the undocumented and their allies no choice but to escalate civil disobedience.

Refugee Writers Means an Outlet for Refugees and Awareness for the Rest of Us

The other day, Unfair Park chatted with filmmaker Bentley Brown about his film Faisal Goes West, the tale of a Sudanese family moving to America and settling in Dallas' Vickery Meadow neighborhood. Brown mentioned his friend who convinced him to film in Dallas (and acted as script supervisor) starte ... More >>

The Gay Selma

Schools ignore gay bullying at their own peril

The Remaking of Vickery Meadow

They fled some of the world's most dangerous places, only to land in one of Dallas'. Slowly and unsurely, they're making it their own.

Before Mayor Mike's Meeting With LGBT Leaders, A Rally Outside City Hall Last Night

Mayor Mike Rawlings has a closed-door, no-press-allowed meeting this morning with 25 LGBT community leaders to discuss something that's become, say, a small issue for him in the last week: his refusal to sign the "Mayors For Freedom To Marry" Pledge. Earlier this week Rawlings also elected to back ... More >>

Friend of Unfair Park Bill Holston to Take the Reins at the Human Rights Initiative

​There's no need to introduce Bill Holston -- attorney, KERA contributor, nature-trekker -- to longtime Friends of Unfair Park; he's one of the good ones, and has been for a long, long while. But Bill's about to disappear from these virtual pages, at least for a little while; he writes, "I promis ... More >>

Like His Pastor Friends, Perry Thinks Hanging Gay People is a "Traditional American Value"

"Dear Lord, please put your hands on those gay people, and then just, you know, twist at the neck."​Here's the president yesterday, decrying not-minor human-rights violations against gays overseas (from the Washington Times):"I am deeply concerned by the violence and discrimination targeting [ ... More >>

Wake-Up Call

Eddie V's Chef Brad Albers on His Suddenly Burmese Kitchen Staff

​In Part 1 of our interview with Chef Brad Albers of Eddie V's, we talked about his time in a Swiss kitchen. In Part 2 he discussed the social-driven food scene in Dallas. Today we'll learn about his passion for hunting and political refugees from Burma who are learning a little Spanish back i ... More >>

"That Could Have Been Me:" An Evening With Five Innocent Men Nearly Executed

Photo by Leslie MinoraFive innocent men who were nearly put to death for others' crimes.​Imagine spending five years in a Nebraska prison for having brutally murdered a teenage honor student but knowing that the real killer is at large. Or rolling over in the middle of the night to put your ar ... More >>

As Seen on German TV, the Story of a Young Boy's Journey From Iraq to Syria to Dallas

ZDF/Tomas HaldaAhmed and his classmates at Sam Tasby as seen in the made-for-German-TV short Von Bagdad nach Dallas​Dallas Independent School District spokesman Jon Dahlander, back from summer break, shot me a note this morning about a short film called Von Bagdad nach Dallas. "At some point, you ... More >>

Rais Bhuiyan Goes International In His Attempt to Save the Life of Man Who Tried to Kill Him

Rais Bhuiyan​Twice we've written about Rais Bhuiyan, who, on September 21, 2001, was working behind the counter of a Pleasant Grove Texaco station when a man with a shotgun entered the store and shot him in the face. Bhuiyan, who was 27 at the time, thought he was being robbed. He wasn't: Mark Str ... More >>

ACLU of Texas Reacts to House Passage of Carrollton Rep's Sanctuary Cities Legislation

State Rep. Burt Solomons​As the Texas Tribune notes today, in the wee small hours of the morning, the state House passed Carrollton state Rep. Burt Solomons's HB 12, the so-called "sanctuary cities" legislation deemed an emergency item by Gov. Rick Perry. As the Trib's Julian Aguilar sums it up, t ... More >>

Rick Perry, State Officials Named in Class Action Over Failures in Texas's Long-Term Foster Care

​A lengthy federal suit filed this morning by the national advocacy group Children's Rights says Gov. Rick Perry and other state officials have neglected their legal responsibility to the children in state care, and violated their constitutional rights, by "failing to either return them safely to ... More >>

Asylum for High-Profile Mexican Police Chief Marisol Valles Is No Sure Thing in Dallas

Via.​Marisol Valles became an instant media star last October, when she took over as police chief of Práxedis G. Guerrero, a town near Juarez. She was just 20 years old, a criminology student and a mother, and the job she was taking only opened up when her predecessor was beheaded. Two weeks ago, ... More >>

The Feds Bury Border Patrol Abuses of Immigrants, But What's Been Unearthed Reveals a Culture of Cruelty

Unlike refugees from other troubled countries, only a fraction of Mexicans seeking U.S. asylum are accepted- no matter how horrible their wounds or their stories.

Access Denied

Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Reign of Terror Becomes State Policy, Thanks to State Senator Russell Pearce and Governor Jan Brewer

A Report from Juarez, the Bleeding Front Line of the War on Drugs

An Opportunity to Stand Up

Legendary Fights For Rights

From the Curriculum: Some Higher-Ed News and Notes from SMU and UT-Dallas

SMU will host a conversation with the director of the Academy Award-winning doc The Times of Harvey Milk next week at the Angelika​SMU sends words of a media and human rights symposium set for next week -- which includes a tribute to director Rob Epstein, two-time Oscar winner for co-directing the ... More >>

There Was...But What Now?

It's a Grind in Deep Ellum is more than just a coffee shop, it's a sanctuary for second chances.

Look It, Ladies

Military Deserters Once Again Flock to Canada

Looks like this time they picked the wrong country.

To the Polls!

Dynamic Duo

Ledoux and Pennigton unite at HCG

Livin' LaVidas

See cultures clash at Theatre Three

Osama Undercover

See another side of Afghanistan

Radio Free Haiti

Jonathan Demme's documentary brings a joyful revolutionary to the screen

Courthouse bully

Legal assistant Jim Carrao works the dark corners of the justice system. He serves papers, does background checks, files annoying cases--and knows just enough law to be dangerous.