Editorials & Other Articles

January 4, 2007
Slurred speech: Farmers Branch police Chief Jimmy Fawcett retires after apologizing for using a racial epithet at a meeting of the police department’s oral review board, which had gathered in December to consider job applicants, including one potential recruit of Vietnamese descent. “As long as I’m chief, we won’t have any gooks working in Farmers Branch,” Fawcett allegedly said to board members. Fawcett, a veteran officer with an unblemished record, says he deeply regrets the comment and its reflection on Farmers Branch, which a city spokesman insists welcomes people of all nationalities and races, “as long as they have a green card and aren’t, you know, beaners or anything like that.”