The incumbent Midland County Precinct 2 Constable, Charles "Choc" Harris, is being challenged in the Republican primary this season by Joe Watters. I don't know much about Mr. Watters, but there's plenty of information out there about Mr. Harris.
The first time I saw Constable Charles "Choc" Harris he was the complainant in the criminal case of State of Texas vs. Theodore L. Jurgensen. According to testimony at that trial Mr. Harris' dogs were annoying his next door neighbor, Mr. Jurgensen. So Mr. Jurgensen pepper sprayed them. Mr. Harris climbed over the fence and grabbed Mr. Jurgensen by the shirt. Mr. Jurgensen kicked Mr. Harris, drew his gun, and ordered Mr. Harris off his property. Mr. Harris initiated a felony action against Mr. Jurgensen. And the next time Mr. Jurgensen went to the store he experienced a Swat team knock down, an arrest, and a felony trial that left many local people scratching their heads. (See writeup here.)
The next time I saw Mr. Harris was in June of 2006 on the highway North of Midland when a grass fire was raging a few hundred yards away. DPS officers were slowing the traffic down so that by the time the traffic reached the staging area it was moving at a crawl. Mr. Harris was standing at the staging area waving the traffic by.
It's not clear how crucial Mr. Harris' function was at that time as the DPS officers appeared to have traffic under control. I mention this because Midland Reporter Telegram photographer Tim Fischer arrived at the scene. The fire was over the ridge and not visible from the highway. So Mr. Harris dropped everything, loaded Mr. Fischer with camera in his big County SUV, and took him on a 20 minute tour of the fire scene.
I was awed. I don't hang out with elected officials or main stream media figures, so I don't know how common that sort of thing is. But it was an amazing thing to see. And I've wondered if there's any payback for that sort of thing. There probably isn't.
In any event, this next item is surely unrelated to any of that. The Midland Reporter Telegram pronounced today that Voters should select Harris for constable:
"To be quite truthful, this was a tough decision for us. Both are well qualified and certified to perform the duties of constable. We think both can do an excellent job, and both carry impressive law enforcement credentials.
"In the end, however, we continue to support Choc Harris for constable. While we feel Watters is a fine candidate, we think there is no evident reason to kick Harris out of the job. Harris has served as constable for two full terms after filling an unexpired term through appointment in 1999. That's a long uninterrupted period of service that deserves the vote of the public."
In other words, vote for the incumbent because he is the incumbent. Great reasoning, y'all.
What exactly do the constables do, anyway? There's something the local media could tackle. I don't mean just call a constable and ask, I mean actually find out and report it to us. Don't say something vague like "serve warrants," tell us exactly what kind of warrants and what serving a warrant entails other than mailing a letter or hand delivering a piece of paper. Give us the knowledge to decide for ourselves whether the constables are doing something the sheriff's office couldn't do. But first, pledge that you will no longer accept any special treatment from them.
Updated 3/5/08: The incumbent Harris won. See MR-T: "Incumbent Charles "Choc" Harris beat challenger Joe Watters for the constable race for Precinct 2 with 54.42 percent of the vote."
A constable serves the Justice of the Peace's office. They serve warrants, both civil and criminal. At one time, they served as "mini-sheriffs", my own terminology.
There was one Justice of the Peace, that took care of mainly misdemeanor stuff. The constable took care of that end of things. The sheriff took care of overall law enforcement in the county. Several years ago, many minority groups said that having one JP was discriminatory, and sued. Now we have as many Jp's as there are county commissioners in a given county.
A constable is also the only LE officer than is allowed, by law, to arrest a sheriff while the sheriff is on duty.
Posted by: MKFJ | February 28, 2008 at 10:34 AM
Thanks for that background, MKFJ. That's interesting.
Posted by: Geo | March 05, 2008 at 06:29 AM
What? Only law enforcement officer allowed by law to arrest an on-duty sheriff? Where did you get that? Wikipedia?
Posted by: Papa Smurf | March 06, 2008 at 09:49 PM
Papa Smurf, sounds like that issue might need more research. Thanks.
Posted by: Geo | March 08, 2008 at 05:11 AM