A request to rename Jim Miller Road in Pleasant Grove for Santos Rodrigues who was killed by a Dallas police officer in Uptown Dallas was rejected. NBC 5’s Ken Kalthoff reports a push for recognition for Rodriguez is not over.
A street name change for Santos Rodriguez, who was murdered by a Dallas Police officer 50 years ago, was rejected by a Dallas Plan Commission Committee Thursday.
The unanimous vote to against the change is the first of three steps in the city name change review process.
The request was to rename Jim Miller Road in Pleasant Grove from I-30 on the north to Loop 12 Great Trinity Forest Way on the south.
Among other things, opponents said it was too far away from where the murder occurred in what is now Uptown Dallas.
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David Rodriguez, who witnessed his brother's murder, was at the meeting as the request was heard.
Speaking for the Rodriguez family, Attorney Mike Laux said the push for a new recognition of the tragedy half a century ago is not over.
“I’m sure we will have some suggestions coming up soon on how to turn this around and kind of resolve once and for all what happened 50 years ago,” Laux said.
David and Santos Rodriguez were being questioned about theft from a vending machine that evidence later showed they did not commit.
In his squad car, Officer Darrell Cain held a gun to Rodriguez's head that went off.
Cain, now deceased, received a prison sentence of just five years.
“It was a slap on the wrist that was perpetuated not by that neighborhood, not by that particular street, or any particular street, but the city apparatus as a whole,” Laux said.
Supporters of the change said it would provide a message for the entire city to see the name of Santos Rodriguez on exit signs for Interstate 30.
Even opponents of the change said they understood the desire for recognition.
“Every time I think about the Rodriguez family, I think it could have been my family. It could have been me or my brothers,” opponent Juan Olivo said.
Yet, every speaker at the meeting other than Laux said Pleasant Grove is the wrong place to make this statement.
“Most of the community members didn’t know anything about it. We saw it on Channel 5,” Pleasant Grove Community leader Yolanda Williams said. “We all sympathize with what happened to Mr. Rodriguez. We can’t change that. But I’ve been in Pleasant Grove over 50 years. We already have a lot of negative things being said about us.”
The neighbors said their area does not deserve this distinction or the expense of changing addresses. And they objected to removing the name of Jim Miller, who was a Dallas County Commissioner in the 1950’s.
“I just think it’s a dangerous precedent, a bad precedent to remove a historic place name that honors someone who is very significant in the history of Dallas and Dallas County,” Plan Commission Member Deborah Carpenter said.
Botham Jean is the new name for Lamar Street near Downtown Dallas, where an officer murdered him. It is also the new address for Dallas Police Headquarters.
The full Dallas Plan Commission and the Dallas City Council could ignore Thursday's unanimous rejection vote, but the family lawyer was talking about other options afterward.
“We look forward to continuing discussion with the city council,” Laux said.
Three city council members whose districts include parts of Jim Miller Road submitted the name change request that was considered at Thursday’s meeting.
