HERE'S LENNY! PEREZ MAKES ENCORE AS GRINCH

By Juan Montoya
Last Christmas the firefighters at the Brownsville Fire Department toy giveaway were mortified when their chief pulled a Grinch on some Brownsville kids.
Lenny Perez was overseeing the annual giveaway where kids who otherwise wouldn't have gotten a toy because of their parents' economic situation walked away with smiles.

While there is always the usual carping about Matamoros families hauling their children here to get freebies from the Brownsville side, last year there was pointed criticism of the way the fire department handed out its toys.

It seems that some parents were miffed when they attended the Fire Department giveaway at Toys-R-Us store at the Old Amigoland Mall site. Perez, unlike Brownsville Police Chief Carlos Garcia, unfortunately took a personal interest in handing out the toys.
"At the police department giveaway, Chief Garcia wasn't micromanaging the event," said a parent then. "The process was smooth and the children got to pick their toys. At the fire department event, Chief Perez personally picked the toys each child got."
Perez at the time issue an edict that only every third family should receive a bicycle – the object of desire of most adolescents. Although this might have seemed fair, the results were, at best, incongruous.
"I have a boy who's almost in his teens and he got a small stuffed teddy bear like the ones you get at the HEB quarter machines," said a parent. "The little girl behind us, because she was the third person after the bike, got a bicycle. She wasn't even old enough to ride a tricycle. But that was the order the chief gave. A lot of the kids were disappointed."
After that, Perez compounded the mess by sending some of the best toys abroad.
"The chief had the fire department send three large boxes of toys to Matamoros to be distributed there," said one. "Don't misunderstand me. Even though my kid got a stuffed animal, I appreciate the gesture. But why does the chief use this event to send theses toys to Matamoros as a public relations gimmick? It doesn't make sense. We have plenty of needy kids here, too."
This year, some firefighters said that Perez outdid himself in his portrayal of the Grinch.
Several witnesses report that he again issued an order concerning the giving away of bicycles.
"There were two kids in a family leaving the giveaway with their bikes when Perez stepped in and ordered the firefighters to take away one of the bikes from one of the children," recalled the firefighter. "We couldn't believe it. Instead of ordering that the rule apply to the kids who hadn't received the gifts, he made us go and take away the bike from the boy. It was awful. What do you think that kid is going to think about firefighters from now on? He'll be traumatized forever."
We can't think Lenny can improve on his performance as the Grinch. But if he can do this on his encore as the nasty caricature, we can only hold out breath and wait for his future appearance next Christmas.