Mayor Ron Nirenberg sat down Tuesday with San Antonio Report Editor-In-Chief Leigh Munsil for an hour-long interview conducted in partnership with KLRN public television. While the conversation — available on YouTube — touched on housing, transportation, job creation and economic competitiveness, there was one significant omission.
Munsil — a seasoned journalist whose experience includes time as breaking news editor at CNN Politics — waited until the end of her interview to ask Nirenberg about public safety, an issue at the forefront of voters’ concerns last election. The mayor defended his proposals to increase the number of cops on the beat and to ignore the informal budget cap on allocating more than two-thirds of the city’s general revenue to the police department.
“There’s so much more to ask there, but I don’t know that there’s anything specific that we need to delve into right this second,” Munsil said at that point. She then changed the subject to the Spurs’
addition of first-round NBA Draft pick Victor Wembanyama.
Saying there’s not “anything specific we need to delve into” as a followup to Nirenberg’s policing comments seemed odd. Especially considering three SAPD officers were charged with murder for gunning down a woman inside her own home on Friday. After all, the tragedy garnered national and international attention — in no small part because the shooting victim, Melissa Perez, 46, was a mother of four who struggled with schizophrenia.
Given the significance and timeliness, a journalist with access to the mayor has every right, if not a duty, to pose tough questions about the incident.
For example, is Nirenberg concerned his advocacy for more “proactive” policing risks more officer-involved shootings? Does he regret publicly opposing the Justice Charter, a failed ballot initiative that would have created a watchdog position to look into police misconduct? Can San Antonio really trust the police to police themselves? Are there adequate numbers of mental health professionals working with first responders? How many more civilians will get needlessly shot before city officials deem it an institutional failure and not merely “a few bad apples?”
“The shooting officers’ actions were not consistent with SAPD’s policy and training,” Police Chief William McManus said during a Friday news conference, but he declined to take questions from reporters.
Reached for comment via email, Munsil conveyed the San Antonio Report’s resolve to continue
covering the Melissa Perez story — even if she didn’t bring up the subject with Nirenberg.
Still, it was more than a sin of omission for the mayor not mention the fatal shooting of a mentally ill woman while discussing plans to expand the city’s police presence. It came off as strikingly tone deaf.
For Munsil and the San Antonio Report, it seemed like a missed opportunity to do what journalists should: ask tough questions and expect solid answers.
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This article appears in Jun 28 – Jul 11, 2023.