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Jackson said the ACLU used to offer a hotline service in North Texas that answered dozens of calls per week, but the program was scrapped as the ACLU’s mission changed to focus more on lobbying and legislative efforts.

“I think the … ACLU is not as interested in covering cases that affect individual persons,” he said. “They used to have a regional office in North Texas, and they shut that down for a variety of reasons and consolidated their efforts in Austin. So they have very little presence in North Texas.”

Terri Burke, executive director of ACLU of Texas, said that is a misconception of her group’s evolving role. The ACLU still accepts individual complaints of civil rights violations through the group’s website and by mail, she said, and recently reopened its Dallas office.

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“In the past we sat around and took whatever came over the transom,” she said. “Now we are more focused, with an affirmative agenda as well as having to play defense.” Her group’s work “is very strategic now,” she said, focusing on prison reforms, reproductive rights, border enforcement, and LGBT issues.

“I think what [NTCRP] is doing is just great,” she added. “For a group of volunteers to organize like that is a wonderful thing for that area.”
What’s still missing is better awareness of the new group in the community, Krause said. Discrimination against gays and Muslims and tensions between African-Americans and law enforcement are running high.

“If you don’t see lawsuits, you’re going to see demonstrations,” Krause said. “If you don’t see demonstrations, then we’re going to see violence if we don’t start facing these problems.”

Fort Worth freelance writer Edward Brown can be reached at ejb0017@yahoo.com.

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16 COMMENTS

  1. A hospital violates the civil rights of a deaf patient if it doesn’t provide an ASL interpreter? No wonder health-care costs are out of sight. Everyone sympathizes with the deaf, but calling this a “civil right” that an ambulance-chaser can sue for is ridiculous.

      • Put your brain in gear….then read the piece, pull your finger out, open your mind, think about what you read and then think about what you said??? O.K. ?

      • Edward, I think you’re wrong. Generally, in a suit under the A.D.A., a successful plaintiff recovers money damages and the attorney recovers fees. If that is the case here, the “ambulance-chaser” moniker fits.

        It helps to know the players.

        Krauses. Tony Krause, head of the NTCRP, has the same address as attorney Sarraine Krause. Both are listed as founders on NTCRP’s website. Texasbar.com shows Sarraine’s address on Canyon Crest Rd. in zip 76179. TAD.org shows Tony Krause has a homestead exemption there. I’ll bet your photo of Tony at the computer was taken in a bedroom of his and Sarraine’s home.

        Mandy Price. Your story says attorney Mandy Price of NTCRP is overseeing a lawsuit against North Hills Hospital for violating the A.D.A. by failing to provide A.S.L. interpreters. Texasbar.com shows her full name as Mandisa Shani Price Brown.

        North Hills Hospital. Tarrantcounty.com shows their full name as Columbia North Hills Hospital. The lawsuit against it has cause number 4:14-CV-569, Northern District of Texas. The complaint was filed 7/24/2014. One of the attorneys is Mandisa S. Price. In their complaint, the plaintiffs asked for “compensatory relief for anguish” and “attorney’s fees”. The suit was dismissed 2/17/2015 upon a joint motion of the parties. Usually this means the parties reached a written settlement but its terms are not made public. Nothing in the record shows whether the plaintiffs and/or their attorneys recovered any money.

        All of this provokes the question: How can you say the “TCRP is not suing for money” when their complaint said that they were?

          • Why do you need my email address? So that if your publicly-made claim turns out to be wrong, you can privately admit it? No. If your claim is wrong, say it here where you made it. (Benny called me a “Black heart” over this because he obviously sides with you. Maybe your confession here would change Benny’s opinion of me). You ARE wrong about what they sued for because I have read their complaint. The suit was filed BEFORE your article but it was settled AFTER (yesterday actually). It’s possible that the settlement did not involve money damages or attorney’s fees, but I doubt it. In either event, you could not have known that when you made your comment on 2/14/2015.

          • Geez, relax. I was offering to help you find the info you were asking for. I’m not siding with Benny either.

          • That Stouty is a real piece of work Ed.You did nothing to cause you to ask forgiveness from the dunce. He’s flakier than a box of Post Toasties. You can count on him to behave like any other fifth-grade kid. He’s on the Weeklys site every week behaving like an adolesent. A handful of Startle-Gram Tea-Baggers often join him. They’re pure losers.

  2. Stouty, you Repugs are real pieces of work,bless your black hearts, and you win a Grand Prize for both Stupid and Greed. You expect Jesus was lying when he suggested ‘it was in giving that we receive’ and advised us ‘to do unto others’? Tell me why you hate Jesus, would you mind,Sir? Clearly, ole Beelzebub’s got a death-grip on your stinking hiney, that’s clear to everyone. It’s also a state law that hospitals must abide by….like it or not. You and many additional Repug Peckerwoods remain not so really happy about that in Austin or anywhere else in Texas, ( but there you go). Another thing, a group of Democrat lawyers donate both their services and their money, to see that smaller, jack-leg, Repug, greed-head hospitals obey that law. They charge not even a quarter for their Christian service. Another thing, O’ Wise One, how old are you? It’s got to take a long journey to be so black-hearted & hammer-headed? I’m praying for you.

    • Benny, you’re such a hoot. You say: “They [the plaintiffs’ Democrat lawyers] charge not even a quarter for their Christian service.” WOW. I don’t think you KNOW it to be true that they didn’t recover attorney’s fees, and I don’t think you know their religious affiliations, either.

      • I know it, my bird-dog Roxy knows it, and any fifth-grader with a computer could know it in less than a minute if they were interested. Where in the world does the Startle-Gram find you flakes? Have you no shame? Does your boss have any sense? Is he aware of you and your dip-stick buddys childish crap? Has that newspaper no sense of honor? You wouldn’t know enough to pour urine from out of your boots when you arose in the morning. Oh, one other thing, are you and your Tea-Bagging, half-wit buddies intending to shut the United States of America down again any time soon?

  3. Another thing Benny. I thought you Libs believed in being open and inclusive. But you implied that attorneys who represent civil rights plaintiffs pro bono are of the Christian faith. But isn’t it discriminatory to imply that good works cannot come from Muslims or Jews? I’m ashamed of you. Bigot.

    • Stouty, you’re flakier than a box of Post Toasties. I have a bird-dog who would make a better newspaper reporter than you, and I imagine she smells better, and I know she he has a bigger heart. Why are you Startle-Gram Repugs so hammer-headed? Can’t you take something for it? Either you lie like a rug or you are to shifless to check things out (both Repug traits). I implied nothing. I certainly am not a Christian and my sweet dog Roxy isn’t either, but we both love Jesus and strive to follow his advice. Why don’t you?You clearly are a fool and a knuckle-head, and your beliefs tend to suggest you’re a heathen. I’m praying for you. I do know that the the lawyers charge nothing and you would also with a twenty second search on your computer. You are clearly a fool, and a disgusting whiner, and lack ambition. Otherwise, you would find a decent job and amount to something. Grow up, get lost, check out Taco Bell for a job you’re more suited for and maybe pays better.

      • “I do know that the lawyers charge nothing”. Benny, you mean the lawyers don’t charge their CLIENTS. That could be right; but that’s different from saying that they worked for free. My money says they got paid handsomely in the settlement with the hospital. The plaintiffs’ complaint is a matter of record–they DID ask for money damages and attorney fees. I provided the case number. You could go to the federal courthouse and read the complaint.

        When Edward Brown, the author of the story, commented on 2/14/2015: “TCRP is not suing for money so the ambulance chaser analogy doesn’t fit” either: (1) he was lying; or (2) he did not know what he was talking about and he knew it. (Why would he have offered to ask attorney Mandy Price about the terms of the settlement if he already knew?).

        Remember–stay with me here, Benny–my original remark in this thread was about ambulance-chasers causing health expenses to raise. Whether such ambulance-chasers charge their CLIENTS is immaterial to my point. Get your head far enough from your bird dog’s tail end to smell the coffee.

        • Speaking of lying, and lay-a-bouts, and not knowing what they are talking about, and shiffless hammer-heads, and condeming some of the most decent, honorable folks in our community, and the Star Telegram, have you ever noticed the Star-Telegram isn’t one of us? Like, you know what I mean? It’s special relationship with the Petroleum Club and Westover Hills, and Tea-Bagging half-wits, is not a good enough reason for it to be a bigot. What’s new here?

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