Rep. Dukes' challenger gives Austin open mic on police, community relations

 Some familiar faces gather for a photo after the town hall.

You may remember a forum held on July 13 in Manor regarding police and community relations in the wake of a spate of shootings over this summer -- particularly an attack on officers at a downtown Dallas demonstration. The "It's Time for Unity" town hall, organized by House District 46 candidate Gabriel Nila, was a rousing success with a standing-room-only crowd.

You may also recall that the Manor rally was held after a dialogue event for greater Austin was essentially hijacked by local Democrats and turned into a showcase for liberal values. Republican officials and candidates, such as Nila, were not invited to the forum held on a local public broadcasting channel (which necessitated the Manor event be held separately to assure that a variety of voices be heard).

On Wednesday night (Aug. 10), Austin had its chance to weigh-in with the second "It's Time for Unity" town hall, held at East Austin's Millennium Youth Entertainment Complex.

Even though the crowd was modest, KVUE-TV reported on the big statement the event made:

Last month it was Manor and Pflugerville's turn, now it is Austin’s time to address tension between the police department and the community. [...] 

"We have to have a community dialogue, not just in this city about race relations, about the fact they're a lot of disfranchised communities," [Austin Police Chief Art] Acevedo said. 

APD has had several high-profile officer-involved incidents, including Breaion King, David Joseph, and Larry Jackson. Organizer Gabriel Nila says this is a step in the right direction. 

"Any step that we can take besides [just] protesting and praying, and crying and getting mad -- any step that we can do that moves away from that after we have done all that is going to be a step in the right direction," Nila said. ...

Nila is facing Democratic Rep. Dawnna Dukes in November. Nila plans to keep up this theme with a third "It's Time for Unity" event.

You can watch the KVUE news clip below: