DA Craig Watkins Weighs In On Yesterday's Push-N-Shove Between Brett Shipp, JWP

• I wonder which trumps in a "hate crime" fight.  Gay of Black?  If he calls me the F word and I call him the N word and we beat the shit out of each other and both claim a hate crime.  The botton line and most important question......could I become famous for it and get my own reality show.  The Gay Revenger?

• The thing is JWP would not call the cops in this case.  I think he would take it out back.  If you whipped his ass cool.. but I bet you'd feel it in the morning too. 

• You sure do have the right to walk into a public offince including the DMV, but I wanna see you go behind the counter.  The Road and Bridge office is not open to the pubic. So really Mr Shipp was trespassing and JWP, as and officer of the county has a duty to protect the assets of the county.  And does include detaining him or blocking his path.  lol the splitting neck comment was a verbal bonus... Ok I'm gonna say again I'm not a JWP fan but there are so many wrongs on this thing from the start that it's really sad...

• So, you are saying JWP has the right to threaten to slit Mr. Shipp's neck as well?  It's a public office not his private office, we have a right to walk into any public office whether it be a driver's license office or JWP's office.  Hello!!!  He had no right to shove Mr. Shipp nor threaten to slip his neck.  JWP is in the wrong.  Period.

• not if you're white!

• So following the DMN's logic, Commissioner Price could spend his days walking around punching and pushing random people and threatening to split their throats, and then "decline to press charges"?

• I'm thinking t-shirts. http://www.freakzilla.info/images/price.jpg

• I can't imagine JWP had grounds for any charges against Shipp. It didn't look like Shipp did anything wrong or illegal. So, must be DMN making it look "neutral".

• Today's DMN says that both Price and Shipp declined to press charges in their headline and story. So any reader would quickly get the idea that there was some kind of kerfuffle that both Price AND Shipp were responsible for, and Price magnanimously declined to press charges against Shipp (and the other way around). Did I miss something? Exactly what would Price charge Shipp with?  Is this DMN's attempt to make Price look good, or at least not as bad as he actually is?

• Transpassing. JWP is an elected official charged with protecting the properties and rights of the citizens of his district. Ms Shipp doesn't have a right to go on those lands, view those properties without consent.  I can't go o the public works or into the back of the police department without permission. 

• I guess that means someone is going to get shot, and it aint gonna be JR???

• Emergency satellite communications equipment nobody can find in a non-emergency?

• Shipp is a coward.  JWP is a criminal.

• Well, well. See, if a teacher did that to a student, he would get arrested, but when a student does that to a teacher, they get a suspension-maybe, and J W P gets---nada. Nada damn thing.

• another way to spin it "Brett's Shipp has come in, and there was a steep Price to pay"

• No, they won't say a word. In fact, they would like to see a person of interest lose their cool and make an admission or other mistake.

• They fitted the dish satellites with gangsta rims and JWP got clear title.

• Do you suppose the FBI sent word to WFAA to back off????

• Meanwhile, back at the JWP office storage sheds, where's the dish satellites and other $tuff that was purchased by the taxpayers?

• You have to remember Shipp works for WFAA.

• and he wears sweet leopard skin undies. POW!

• Shipp should've stepped up and put JWP in more of a world of hurt(i.e. cold-cocked his sorry corn-rolled ass), but I understand his reasoning behind it. The King Of Black Holes is going to get his just dessert sooner or later in this investigation..Make room Don Hill, theres a new bitch headed to the cell block...

• He is getting the same justice as the rest of us (I mean, he shoved a guy and blocked a door, he didn't shoot him in the head and rob a bank). The parties in this instance are getting the same exact justice you and I would get if you walked into a Wal-Mart and I shoved you at the door.  We'd exchange a few "f-yous" with each other, and go about our day, rather than take time off work to fight it out in a courtroom for one/both of us to walk away with a slap on the wrist, or even worse, a judge asking us why we're clogging his court with this childish nonsense. Again, while I think his were not the actions of a public official, you don't get to re-write how the courts work just because you don't like his tactics.  In this case the two parties involved did just exactly what you and I would do - simply walk away.

• Ordinarily I would agree. But not with public officials and not with one who threatened to split/slip someone's throat when we all know that's a just a few semantics away from "slit". And what if this incident ends up being the ONLY thing that sticks to JWP and brings him down?

• pretty much anyone 'shoves' a cop and they get dogpiled and stomped. hunter s thompson wrote about the hell's angels by-law: if any angel(cop) punches a non-angel(not a cop) all other angels(cops) present must follow suit. it seems to be an unwritten police law. even price knows that, and bullies always choose their victims.

• Can you imagine a Dallas jury convicting JWP for 'shoving' Brett Shipp. I think Mr. Shipp should be thankful the camera was there so that he avoided real pain. Shipp got his ego bruised and JWP showed a few of his true colors. I think it is time to move on to the real issue - i.e. where are those satellite trucks?

• Is it possible that Shipp's bosses told him not to press charges? Aren't a lot of them the very movers/shakers/cheerleaders for all the corrupt crap that goes on in Dallas? That's why anything caught on video shouldn't require a person to press charges.  You never know who is threatening the victim with reprisal if they do press charges. It was caught on video, Watkins saw it, Price and his lackey should be charged.  Watkins is useless.

• Just ask Kenny Rogers

• I would normally agree that two adults in a scuffle is not worth court time - but this is a public official barring entrance to a public building and issuing a verbal threat. This is exactly why JWP has the power and attitude he does - because nobody ever holds him accountable for his actions. Drag his ass downtown and lock him up, if only for a few hours. Put him on official notice that the rules the rest of us live by apply to him too.

• i dunno, but apparently the beatles and the stones will be sluggin' it out over at dan's on the 16th of september. unfortunately, i won't be attending. evidently zeppelin's playing the same night over at hailey's. fags...

• This is also a cop-out by Shipp. Shipp was in the right on all fronts, had concrete evidence of the wrong doing and then turned into a chicken-shit!!!!!!!!! 

• I didn't see you pushing and shoving the FBI when they went into your private home and took stuff...the next time they come to your office shove one of them and tell them this is private property....yeah I didn't think so....CHUMP

• i think it's time for a flash 'gathering' at jwp's offices and at the storage units where Willie's gear is allegedly stored. it's time we called a stop to jwp and his cronies' abusing our tax base...speaking of tax base, Robert....send someone over to Dallas Country Club to take a photo of their new facilities...compare these new digs and the acreage to the DCAD records.  This loophole needs to end.  I don't care what color the hustlers are....

• This is a cop-out by the DA. Look at how they prosecute assault with battered spouses. The spouse often declines to testify because of fear of reprisal. Witnesses are needed to guarantee a conviction. We have witnesses and video footage. Come on! This is a travesty.

• Peace and love in Dallas. I am telling you all- This is the return of "Dallas", the filming has begun. The suspense is killing me- so unpredictable!

• JWP is a punk. That being said, Shipp would have looked like a whiny little bitch if he pressed charges, if you're gonna try and push your interviewee over the edge in hopes they say something really salacious a little physicality comes with the territory. 

• Lets get this in focus.  The funds are disbursed by the state, but this is federal money.  Therefore the guys with authority here will be the ones wearing the dark suits.

• I am resigned to agree that pressing charges would be a waste of everyone's time BUT I storngly believe JWP should be reprimanded by the County Court for his behavior and for blocking access to a public county facility. Like there's a chance in hell Clay-boy Jenkins will do that......

• You deserve some credit for those, but "Like" may be a tad too strong

• This just makes no sense.  Why the hell wouldn't you press charges?  What would you lose by doing so? The entire city/county would GAIN by getting this guy off the streets if even for an afternoon.  JWP can't continue to act with absolute impunity.  Come on, feds, let's get this guy indicted and arrested.

• Question, if someone would have pushed JWP at his office, would the result have been the same? Shipp should have used this capital to ellicit an apology from JWP or an interview at least.

• The funds used to purchase the satellite dish equipment, and perhaps the cooling units (not sure yet) were state grant funds. Is an inquiry by State Attorney General Gregg Abbott coming soon?

• I think someone should test this... We could collect for bail and legal defense, because you know JWP would cry racism and press charges if he was on the receiving end... Still, it would delight me to no end if someone cold-cocked him on video...

• It's a bit more high key since jwp's a public figure, but if this would have been two drunks shoving each other in a bar, it would never see a courtroom. While I think its an eyeroller for a public figure to behave like a 15 year old bully, I think it was the best decision of the two parties involved for this not to see a courtroom, either.  It literally would have wasted their time, and the court's time.

• Looks like even John Wiley has a....Price. "YYYEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHUUUUUGGHHGHHGGHHGHHAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" No, no, how about: So, according to the District Attorney, Brett's Shipp....has sailed. "YYYYEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHHUUGHGHGHGHHGGUAUUAGAGAGGAHHAGAHHHHH!!"

• So does the same law apply to someone that threatens JWP and/or shoves him?

• I am not a lawyer and you are so I defer. However, the fact that this would become completely irrelevant once he is indicted federally is pretty accurate, don't you think?

• Yeah, it is a city misdemeanor but also a complete waste of time if he is indicted for some real stuff.

• http://www.mytexasdefenselawyer.com/texas-criminal-laws-penalties/assault/ Assault is a crime. Most incidents that are shoving matches that don't involve injury are filed a class c misdemeanors, offensive touching cases. a threat can rise to the level of  Sec. 22.07. TERRORISTIC THREAT. I'm not saying this applies here, but those are the definitions.

• Shipp probably considered the fact that a misdemeanor simple assault charge would be dismissed completely when he is indicted on multiple federal charges, anyway. What's the point?

• Can someone who knows the law tell me what charges could have been filed against Shipp?  To me it is amazing that someone in a city leadership role could make a threat to split someone's neck and it be okay. 

• None.  Any Dallas County taxpayer had a right to enter that public-owned facility.  He was not trying to get into Price's private office.

• Really disappointed that Shipp is not pressing charges.  JWP is a public official who used violence to prevent a citizen from entering a public-owned office.   It was not JWP's private office.   He also prevented Shipp from filming/viewing the non-existent equipment the County has paid big money for.  There was no excuse for what JWP did or threatened to do.   Not sure whether that district office was in the city limits of Dallas, but the Police Chief of the respective city should take action on his/her own.  Official oppression is a very serious crime and easy to prosecute when you've got a video of the whole thing.

• You are dead on Replay!!!!!

• wink, wink, nod, nod.........JWP would have posted a (bail) bond anyway...........

• Hmm. I find myself wondering exactly what charge could have been filed by JWP against Brett Shipp.

TotalComments: 56