Why can't Council just do the right thing?

Two weeks ago City Council approved an agreement to pay a law firm up to $609,000 to represent the city against a lawsuit from two victims of jaw dropping police incompetence.

The item passed quietly on the consent agenda, with no discussion. Only Council members Ryan Alter and Vanessa Fuentes voted against approving the legal services agreement with Richards Rodriguez & Skeith in Glen & Mindy Shield v. City of Austin.

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You may recall that nearly three years ago two officers were conducting a welfare check on a troubled man, Dwayne Brzozowski, in Southeast Austin. Brzozowski opened his door brandishing a shotgun, prompting them to retreat and call for backup. One of them sought refuge in an open garage of Glen and Mindy Shield, across the street.

For some reason, the officers who later arrived ended up raiding the Shields' home, rather than the one the actual threat came from. They detained the oblivious couple for hours and ransacked their house, damaging a gas line and causing $23,000 of damage.

The original account of the event was bad enough, but last year it was revealed that the officers who had fled Brzozowski told their colleagues that they were at the "wrong friggin house" and yet the cops still deployed explosives to blow off the Shields' front door!

The brutish incompetence is mind boggling.

The Shields have said all they want is fair compensation for the damages and an apology.