CHARLIE A. REVEALS SYLVIA'S DEFENSE...AND LACK OF CLASS

By Juan Montoya

We have been aware of the running commentary in social media following our report on the sealed motion filed by federal prosecutors in the U.S. vs. Sylvia Atkinson bribery case where her brother – and assistant football coach at Rivera High Charlie Atkinson – is coming to her defense.



Now, we all know that getting into a difference of opinion with Charlie usually ends up in acrimonious discussion bordering on insult – and often way past that border an into a quagmire of invective – but several red lines have been crossed in this "dialogue."

Of course, those Brownsville residents who have known Charlie all his life know that he has been a cantankerous, contentious sort all of his life. He was argumentative in the playground in elementary, in middle school, high school and – after a relatively passive college stint – in his adult working life.

He got into arguments with his bosses at U.S. Customs, with his fellow commissioners and the public while he was a city commissioner, and then as a football coach at Faulk Middle School and now as a coach and teacher at Rivera High School. In a way, one has to admire his consistency in refining his antagonistic character. Ask any referee in the football games he's coached when a call doesn't go his way.

It is, of course, admirable for a brother to come to the defense of his sister, but being, as he is, an employee and representative of the Brownsville Independent School District, there is a certain decorum and respect that is missing from his postings.

Among other things, Charlie Atkinson questions the integrity of local FBI agents and federal prosecutors who presented the evidence against her to a federal grand jury and obtained indictments against he BISD trustee and former Texas Southmost College employee on eight federal counts of conspiracy, bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds, and violation of the Travel Act-State Law Bribe.

"Didn't your boy Trump prove that?," Charlie posted. "He exposed how political the FBI can be."

Is he saying the grand jury – his peers – are all uneducated and ignorant people for having indicted her?

But he doesn't sop there. He then goes on to say that perhaps the reason the female poster thinks Sylvia may be guilty is because "that is what you
are used to in the country where you come from..."

There has always been a streak of xenophobia and racism (self hate?) in a segment of Brownsville society and Charlie is but one shining example of that ugly bent. "...your profile states you are from Mexico and we all know that how judicial system is in Matamoros but this is the US so u need to honor the way we do things here..."

Is Charlie implying there is favoritism and compadrismo in the Mexican system? So how does he explain that he was given a job as a coach at Faulk on an alternative certification basis when other candidates were already certified and were passed over? Having his sister (Sylvia) as the director of the BISD's Human Resources Dept. wouldn't have made a difference in the Good Ol' USA, would it, Chuck? Naaah!

Since when does having lived in Mexico (Carlos Cascos was born in Mata, so does that make him ignorant of U.S. laws, too?) and having an opinion on an issue like the innocence or guilt of a person charged with a crime in federal court make you ineligible to express it? To Charlie, apparently, it disqualifies them from having any opinion on any matter.

We wonder whether he, as a coach/teacher in a school district where a large number of students were born here but live in Matamoros and attend district schools, tells them they cannot think in a specific way and will never understand the right way because they are from Mexico and don't have the brains, therefore the right to express their opinion.

We see where Sylvia uses the name "Perez" in her last name. Does it refer to a distant Mexican relative? Or – heaven forbid – from a branch of the family who may still live there.

And he lay bare her defense when he says that she will claim though her attorneys Noe Garza and Dale Roberston that she was acting as a consultant – not as an elected official – when she took $10,000 in cash from an undercover FBI agent to push through as a paid consultant – and also voted for as a board member – the use of BISD district property for a set for a "Hollywood style" film.



She is, he says – in answering Ana Lia Saldivar's opinion that Sylvia is "crooked as a $3 bill and u sir are not very far behind,"–  innocent and a victim of crooked Brownsville politics. But Charlie cannot help himself. After having insulted her citizenship and questioned her intelligence when she didn't swallow his opinion of federal authorities and his version of his sister's actions, he throws the stone.

His sister, he tells Saldivar, is "not as crooked as your teeth and that scale you step on once a year...," and tells a supporter (Jose Hernandez) who backed her opinion that "tu ese un pendejo," mangling the Spanish language.

See what we mean when we say that a "dialogue" with Charlie can
quickly deteriorate into a mudslinging fest and – like the kids he coaches as quarterbacks on the football field – Charlie loves to sling that ooze with the best of them.

But as we were saying, Chuck should realize that by questioning the integrity of the federal prosecutors and asserting his disdain for the American judicial process, and then gleefully diving into the gutter of insult and invective when someone doesn't agree with him, he is misrepresenting U.S. values and reflects badly on the district he works for.

If this is the caliber of instructor our district places in front of our kids as an example, God help us.