Bellaire residents want meeting with mayor

/*Robbie Tolan*/ still has a long way to go in the road to recovery. His attorney, Geoffrey Berg, says his dreams of playing Major League Baseball are uncertain.

"He's got a long way back," said Berg. "You don't get shot in the chest and have a bullet tear through your organs and hop right up and get back up and do what you were doing. This is going to take a very long time."

Tolan will tell his story for the first time on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumble Tuesday night. The 23-year-old will speak with the Houston media on Wednesday as the Harris County DA moves forward with the investigation

"We remain hopeful that something will come of this, that justice will be done through the district attorney's investigation," said Berg.

There's also a Bellaire police internal affairs probe and city leaders approved an independent consulting firm's review of racial profiling allegations, something Bellaire residents Jamie House and Ron Lewis applaud.

"We think there should be open dialogue and it should be a continuing dialogue and that's why we've asked for a meeting with the mayor," said House.

House and Lewis are among a group of about 30 concerned citizens who have written the mayor a letter.

"It should be pointed out that we're not anti-police," said House. "We just want accountability and responsibility."

The letter says they are concerned about the safety of their families, the lack of awareness of issues relating to minority residents and allegations of racial profiling.

"What we'd like is for a fairly simple state of affairs to be in place," said Lewis. "Civility, first. Shooting, not at all."

Those concerned citizens say, at this point, the mayor has deferred their requests for a meeting. We tried to talk to Bellaire Mayor Cindy Seigel at Monday's city council meeting, but she was out ill.