I know Chief McManus is not everyone’s favorite guy.

Personally, I like him just fine, but he does rub some folks the wrong way.

Let me just remind you, however, that things could be worse. Remember when he made his triumphant return to the top job after a brief interregnum in the private sector?

During the talent search for a replacement, between McManus 1.0 and McManus 2.0, there was a boom for the then-chief in Austin, Art Acevedo. He was a hot commodity, an up-and-comer. But then the former chief agreed to be the new chief and that was that. Soon, Acevedo had a big promotion, anyway. Hello, HPD!

Sure enough, our loss was Houston’s…loss.

Here’s an example of why liberals who have nothing nice to say about cops fawn over Art Acevedo: recently the HPD suffered the horrific shooting of four officers during a drug dealer home raid. Natch, people all over the state, including leaders like the governor, expressed prayers and good wishes for the fallen officers.

Acevedo wasn’t having any of it. Aping the rhetoric of the anti-gun Parkland kids, he scorned the prayers. “We don’t elect people to pray for us. We elect people to lead us”.  Someone should tell him leaders can lead AND pray at the same time. He went on to bemoan the “public health epidemic” of illegal guns and called for more laws limiting gun ownership and types of guns.

Chief Acevedo might want to check in at the fact desk at some point.

The raid last month was on a house occupied by known heroin dealers. The Houston police operation involved sending an informant to make a purchase. Do we really think heroin dealers who’ve already done time would pass a background check? Or buy their guns at Academy? Calling for new laws and restrictions after a crime that almost certainly involved stolen and/or black-market guns is hypocritical.

Using your own injured officers to prop up your liberal reputation is even worse.

Oh, and it turns out that when Art Acevedo first learned of the officers being shot, he rushed to the scene while Tweeting out a request to the public…

…that they pray for the officers responding.

So, before you get down on Bill McManus, be grateful that he’s leading the SAPD and not the guy we almost got.

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