Earlier this week, as part of the ongoing process to select Dallas' next police chief, the seven remaining finalists for the job met with community members selected by City Manager T.C. Broadnax. Among those selected to participate in the panel interviews was Dominique Alexander, the leader of the Next Generation Action Network, the anti-police brutality group.
The group is known for organizing the July 7, 2016, march that ended in the shooting deaths of five Dallas police officers. The shooter was not affiliated with the group. Alexander, a convicted felon, recently completed a sentence for causing serious bodily injury to a child.
While Alexander has struggled to draw crowds to his group's protests since the shooting, his selection by Broadnax has brought him plenty of attention. Tomi Lahren, the popular conservative commentator most recently employed by Glenn Beck's The Blaze network, posted a rant posted to Facebook on Wednesday night that has been watched 2.1 million times.
"Of all the left-wing, politically correct, intellectually dishonest bullshit we've put up with in 2017, crap like this pisses me off the most," Lahren said. "Listen to this. The Black Lives Matter 'activist' behind last year's protest that resulted in the deaths of five police officers was invited to help choose the next Dallas police chief. Yeah, is your blood boiling yet, because mine sure the hell is."
Lahren goes on to run down Alexander's criminal history and complain that he continued to host protests last year after the ambush. "The BLM movement itself is bullshit," she said.
In a statement, Broadnax declined to comment on Alexander's selection but emphasized that interview panelists have "no decision-making authority over the final candidate selection."Broadnax emphasized that panelists have "no decision-making authority over the final candidate selection" of a new police chief.
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"I am hopeful that the new chief will have the capacity, wisdom and appreciation for the diversity in perspectives, approaches, attitudes and expectations that will be needed to lead the fine men and women of the Dallas Police Department," Broadnax said. "My commitment to transparency and inclusiveness will not be guided by popularity or be reduced to talking about specific individuals, groups or organizations."
On Thursday afternoon, Alexander declined to talk about Lahren, saying he "wasn't going to talk about that idiot," and promised to call the Observer back to talk about the police chief search more generally. As of posting, he has yet to do so.
