San Marcos community members have a shared discussion surrounding critical incidents with police at Dream Sessions

By Felicity Guajardo

Co-Director of News and Culture

A series of dream sessions hosted by the City of San Marcos’ Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Coordinator sparked conversations surrounding critical incidents involving police and gave the community a chance to learn about and discuss this topic on Wednesday, Oct. 23 at the Dunbar Recreation Center.

Two other sessions took place on Monday Oct. 21 in Spanish and English, and another took place on Thursday Oct. 24 over Zoom.

Every community member who attends a Dream Session can speak about the topic at hand or can write their thoughts on a sticky note for staff to later identify common themes and share them internally with San Marcos city government.

The questions that led the recent Dream Sessions were:

1.     When you say accountability, what does that look like to you?

2.     When you say transparency what does that look like to you?

3.     When it comes to critical incidents with police, how might we _____and not end up____ (describe the state that we don’t want)?

Prefacing the session on Oct. 23, Lonzo Anderson, assistant city manager, spoke a few words to keep in mind when discussing this serious topic.

“Lawlessness should not be tolerated on any side whether it’s a gun and a badge or a gun and a rag,” Anderson said. ‘We have to protect life at all costs.”

The sessions are led by DEI Coordinator, Grisell Pérez-Carey, who says she is passionate about the dream sessions and inviting the community to have conversation.

“[Dream Sessions] as a way for community members to come and engage in conversations. It’s something that I really enjoy and I’m passionate about, but then also being able to work behind the scenes with other staff and provide perspective and insight I think has also been to me really important,” Pérez-Carey said.

She also says that Dream Sessions are meant to give community members a chance to speak about difficult topics.

“And oftentimes when we engage in, in conversations around difficult things, we don’t have the luxury or the privilege to dream or engage in some of that ideation. And so, the dream sessions to her [past colleague] were a pathway to do that, and so we actually were able to bring that to my previous campus for staff. And so, when I started this role, I felt like it was something that we could go ahead and host within the community,” Pérez-Carey said.

Community members in attendance at the session last Wednesday emphasized distrust in the police system within the community, accountability not being taken by police enforcement and reports of critical incidents not being sent out to the community quickly enough.

Sam Benavides, managing editor of the Hays/Caldwell Examiner says that to restore trust, transparency about specific cases must be maintained.

“While I appreciate the city’s effort to connect with our neighbors about critical incidents in policing, I think that it’s important that we don’t shy away from discussing specific critical instances. I think if we want to have authentic discussion, we really need to address these issues,” Benavides said.

Another attendant Adriana Montoya, geography graduate student at Texas State, says that Dream Sessions are a start to what can be done regarding policing.

“The session is a good start, but the bare minimum that the city can be doing in regard to ethical policing,” Montoya said. “The people get more frustrated when people say it’s more complicated that it actually is…I don’t think it’s a replacement for actual policy change.”

Pérez-Carey says that although Dream Sessions do not guarantee policy change the purpose is to listen to what the community has to say and foster a place for respectful conversation.

“I think the the other piece of it is we have to be we have to be honest and transparent that not every single piece of feedback will will lead to policy change. But we’re committed to listening and keeping all of these things in mind,” Pérez-Carey said.

For more information on Dream Sessions please visit, https://www.sanmarcostx.gov/4154/Dream-Sessions