The police problem is that police are policed by the police. Cops are accountable only to other cops, which is no accountability at all.
99.9999% of police brutality, corruption, and misconduct is never investigated, never punished, never makes the news, so it's not on this page.
When cops are caught breaking the law, they're investigated by other cops. Details are kept quiet, the officers' names are withheld from public knowledge, and what info is eventually released is only what police choose to release — often nothing at all.
When police are fired — which is all too rare — they leave with 'law enforcement experience' and can easily find work in another police department nearby. It's called "Wandering Cops."
When police testify under oath, they lie so frequently that cops themselves have a joking term for it: "testilying." Yet it's almost unheard of for police to be punished or prosecuted for perjury.
Cops can and do get away with lawlessness, because cops protect other cops. If they don't, they aren't cops for long.
The legal doctrine of "qualified immunity" renders police officers invulnerable to lawsuits for almost anything they do. In practice, getting past 'qualified immunity' is so unlikely, it makes headlines when it happens.
All this is a path to a police state.
In a free society, police must always be under serious and skeptical public oversight, with non-cops and non-cronies in charge, issuing genuine punishment when warranted.
Police who break the law must be prosecuted like anyone else, promptly fired if guilty, and barred from ever working in law-enforcement again.
That's the solution.
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Our definition of ‘cops’ is broad, and includes prison guards, probation officers, shitty DAs and judges, etc — anyone who has the authority to fuck over people’s lives, with minimal or no oversight.
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RULES
① Real-life decorum is expected. Please don't say things only a child or a jackass would say in person.
② If you're here to support the police, you're trolling. Please exercise your right to remain silent.
③ Saying ~~cops~~ ANYONE should be killed lowers the IQ in any conversation. They're about killing people; we're not.
④ Please don't dox or post calls for harassment, vigilantism, tar & feather attacks, etc.
Please also abide by the instance rules.
It you've been banned but don't know why, check the moderator's log. If you feel you didn't deserve it, hey, I'm new at this and maybe you're right. Send a cordial PM, for a second chance.
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ALLIES
• r/ACAB
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INFO
• A demonstrator's guide to understanding riot munitions
• Cops aren't supposed to be smart
• Killings by law enforcement in Canada
• Killings by law enforcement in the United Kingdom
• Killings by law enforcement in the United States
• Know your rights: Filming the police
• Three words. 70 cases. The tragic history of 'I can’t breathe' (as of 2020)
• Police aren't primarily about helping you or solving crimes.
• Police lie under oath, a lot
• Police spin: An object lesson in Copspeak
• Police unions and arbitrators keep abusive cops on the street
• Shielded from Justice: Police Brutality and Accountability in the United States
• When the police knock on your door
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ORGANIZATIONS
• NAACP
• National Police Accountability Project
• Vera: Ending Mass Incarceration
Garza called law enforcement, who detained him and placed him in solitary confinement for three days at the Darrell B. Hester Juvenile Detention Center in Brownsville.
Why the fuck does a juvenile detention center even have solitary confinement... America is so fucked up...
I work in with traumatized teens. There are times where they need to be isolated from their peers, but I agree that solitary is not therapeutic. Research and experience easily demonstrate that.
The reality is, though, that these systems are so underfunded and understaffed that these detrimental tactics are the only viable option.
I'm not defending the practice. I would never work in a system that uses solitary confinement with adolescents, but I have the luxury of choice.
“When the police officer had his body cam off, they were yelling and telling me, ‘We’re gonna go to the full extent. We’re gonna put you in a lockbox,’” Timothy said. “Then, when the body cam was finally on, they were so nice.”
How are we still letting cops just turn off body cams? It defeats the entire fucking purpose.
The shouldn't be able to ever turn them off while they are working and if they do. Immediate suspension, second time formal inquiry, 3rd time he's out in his ass.
I feel like you guys can't even control your own police
I feel like you guys can't even control your own police
Um. No. We absolutely cannot
ACAB
“When the police officer had his body cam off, they were yelling and telling me, ‘We’re gonna go to the full extent. We’re gonna put you in a lockbox,’” Timothy said. “Then, when the body cam was finally on, they were so nice.”
No shirt ! Wtf with a god damn kid the cop turned off his body cam!
Grrrrrrrrrr
While true, this started with an insane school administrator.
fuck em both but the admin didn’t put the kid in jail
Oh, you know damn well she put the cops up to it.
Sure. That doesn't negate their responsibility or hers for that matter.
But instead of suspension, Garza summoned a police officer to arrest Timothy at school. In a video that Rincon shared with the Observer, Timothy puts his arms up on a wooden shelf and waits to be handcuffed as directed by a police officer.
These are adults who feel threatened by an eleven-year-old child, because he asked some questions. The entire country should be ridiculing them until they're too embarrassed to leave their homes.
No no no no she was annoyed and felt disrespected because he asked questions. She's a cunt and I hope the rest of her life is long and miserable.
How big of a fucking dick do you have to be to make lies about an 11 year old and fuck up his future?!
His ordeal began five days later. In the late morning of September 8, Timothy was pulled out of music class and ushered into a room where he found Garza, Assistant Principal Michelle Saucedo, a district police officer, and a counselor sent from the district’s central administrative office. He was told another student had just reported that Timothy said he was planning to kill the principal. Rincon said she was called and rushed to the school but was not allowed to be in the room while Timothy was being questioned.
“When the police officer had his body cam off, they were yelling and telling me, ‘We’re gonna go to the full extent. We’re gonna put you in a lockbox,’” Timothy said. “Then, when the body cam was finally on, they were so nice.”
Timothy told me he had explained to the school and district officials that the accusations were not true, that the only conversation he had that morning was with two other boys about wearing his sweater over his uniform.
Just read the whole article. It's fucking astonishing how big of an ass these people are. Not only is the principal fucking ill but also the superintendent, principal, assistant principal, district counselor, and police officers.
I hope Timothy continues to speak up and reaches his goals to become an oncologist. I hope these fuckers learn from their mistakes and if not, hope they rot. Thanks Texas Observer for writing about this story.
More likely little Timmy will have lifelong cptsd and develop addiction issues throughout puberty to cope. After which the cops can bust him again and go "See? We told you so!".
ACAB. No exceptions, ever, anywhere.
Once again perpetuating the school-to-prison pipeline that so many people of color get shunted down.
If police turn their bodycams off then that should automatically disqualify their testimony and cause a major fine (which they would need to pay off personally)
All this punishment on a smart kid who simply wanted to have a school councilor to talk to after he had lost his father to cancer.
This shitty principal should be fired and also investigated for false reporting. I'd be really interested to hear which student reported this boy for uttering a threat to kill the principal because it sounds more like the principal made this up to toss a kid in solitary confinement for a weekend to shut him up.
oh texas, what a shining example of republican values
Republicans don't even need to defund the schools. The schools keep doing it themselves.
I'm incoherent with anger about this one. Who treats a bright and hardworking fucking 11 year old like that? Over literally nothing but hearsay. No red flags, just some made up shit by Karen.
The taxpayer funded settlement which will come at no cost to the police department better be fucking huge. And when taxes go up to pay for it, folks better damn well remember why.
WTF is wrong with these people? I would come home to my family and apologize to them for our impending homelessness after I quit my job before I would do this to a child. And anyone who wouldn't - yeah, they are fucking bastards.
Also, what adult bullies a kid who's messed up because their parent just died of fucking cancer?!?
I've dealt with school staff who seem to get off on having power of students. Like they go out of their way to bully some kids or they enjoy enacting harsh punishments.
I also think the police officer turning off his body can to intimidate a child should be fired. We need to pass laws that prevent this.
“Why are kids shooting up schools?” Well when a good student gets punished for asking for counseling due to the loss of a family member, and had the wherewithal to ask for help which he then is ultimately punished with psychological torture it becomes quite obvious.
Cameron County prosecutors pushed for Class C felony charges of “terroristic threat” and argued for two more weeks of detention. Instead, Judge Adela Kowalski-Garza ordered a safety risk evaluation and conditional release home until his hearing November 8.
Prosecutors can go to hell. At least the judge wasn't maximally evil.
The principal and police should be fired, barred from holding these kind of positions, and I don't know made to do community service to make up for this huge harm.
I don't know made to do community service to make up for this huge harm.
Maybe 3 days of solitary confinement would be appropriate. Seeing as a CHILD can do it they should be fine, right?
Judge isn't a hero here either, should have put a stop to it as soon as the word "solitary' was brought to their attention.
Cameron County prosecutors pushed for Class C felony charges of “terroristic threat” and argued for two more weeks of detention.
It's important to note that they were arguing for additional punishment but they just sorta forgot about the part where they have to convict him of something first. This is America. This is conservatism. It's force and violence as a response to inconvenience and discomfort. It's absolute lawlessness.
This makes me want to cry. That poor boy. His life could be ruined by this. The mental anguish could set him down a path to failure when he was on one to success. He's going to be afraid of school now. He will have gone from loving learning to fearing the educators.
Last summer, the current superintendent, René Gutiérrez, announced a shake-up in the leadership on several campuses. Canales Elementary, where Garza was principal for four years, was targeted as needing improvement, and Garza was reassigned to Palm Grove. The former counselor and principal at Palm Grove were transferred to Canales Elementary School.
Here we are. Head of a failing school gets her balls busted and a humiliating reassignment. Then some dweeb kid starts asking about the actually good teachers that got sent to fix her mess. Ego can't take it. Got to destroy the kid. Fucking loser bullies.
At this point, should willingly raising a kid in Texas be considered child endangerment? I'm joking, but it's starting to get really worrying there
The crime
On September 8, school administrators told Timothy that another student alleged that he made threats against Garza. Timothy denied the allegation, but Garza called law enforcement
This country sucks. This kid is being charged with terroristic threats after a school administrator terrorized and threatened him with the cold and callous police. All over a request to join a gifted students program. Now, he's literally been terrorized into giving up? He's "afraid" to speak up because of this?
as i understand this isn't about his request to join gt, and he hasn't given up. it's because he asked what happened to the school counselor from the previous year (who helped him cope with his father's death), and wrote three letters asking about uniform policy.
The police abused this poor child... and they call him a terrorist. If the parents of this community had any sense they'd pull their children out of the school immediately.
This 11-year-old will grow up to be a doctor while this cop will continue to be a useless sack of shit to society.
Not with an arrest record at age 11. Medical school applications, state medical licenses, controlled substance prescription licenses, hospital credentialing applications, etc - all of the underlying bureaucracy of being a clinician (understandably) require background checks with clean records.
Unless his lawyer can get the record sealed and expunged, he'll most likely have to explain this event at every turn. One would hope that juvenile records could be explained away, but the field is so competitive that it could very well be the thing that keeps him from pursuing his dream.
All because a shitbag principal didn't want to deal with the requests of an 11 year old grieving his father and opportunistically punished him for it on the alleged word of another dumbass child's idea of a practical joke.
Even if he actually said it - he's an 11 year old, with a prefrontal cortex that is just starting to come online, on the hormonal cusp of puberty, trying to deal with the complex social dynamics of being 11 and changing schools, getting bullied about his haircut and clothes by a shitty adult abusing their authority.
I cant help but wonder how the situation would be if he was white.
You: "This 11-year-old will grow up"
The cops: "That's where you're wrong, buck-o..."
This is just sick at all levels in the chain. Thank god the kid is at least at a different school with his old principle and councilor. I can’t imagine the trauma to this poor kid. 3 days of solitary at 11 years old. That is torture.
I have to mention that I really appreciate how well written this article is. None of it was filler. And it reads like it was written from scratch by the journalist. It’s refreshing to not read another copied/pasted mass produced article with some extra words thrown in to pad it out.
I knew Texans were f-ed up in many ways. But that is just another level.
Now he learned something really useful: it stinks to live in a non-free country.
The kid needs a lawyer willing to crawl so far up there assess they can count their teeth from behind.