Texas cops arrest 11-year-old honors student and put him in solitary confinement for three days
https://www.texasobserver.org/why-was-this-11-year-old-honor-roll-student-put-in-solitary/Open linkView original on lemmy.world691
Comments121https://www.texasobserver.org/why-was-this-11-year-old-honor-roll-student-put-in-solitary/Open linkView original on lemmy.world
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.
As a guy with childhood trauma, abandonment issues, depression, and many other mental challenges, I appreciate the work you do. I feel like what I went through is small potatoes compared to being arrested and put in the hole for 3 whole days as a kid. I really feel for this little guy and hope that he gets through this ok.
Gotta start them young, you know. Freedom (to abuse basic human rights) yeah, Freedom!
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
Um. No. We absolutely cannot
You can tell...by the way that it is.
Fwiw the biggest issue with bodycams is that they're expensive as hell. Milwaukee wanted to get better equipped with them a few years back and nobody wanted to pay. People want to defund police but it throws so much off. Even when they want to defund, Republicans refuse to push legislation to get more Crisis workers who can help and fund mental health care.
Most voters barely want to fund schools, let alone the police and poor/addicted/troubled lol.
https://www.jsonline.com/story/communities/west/news/wauwatosa/2021/04/12/cost-body-cameras-setback-milwaukee-area-departments/6966971002/
The cost of a body cam doesn’t have anything to do with policies on whether or not they can be turned off.
The cost isn't the cam itself, it's the servers and their software and IT administrators to maintain them, the personnel to audit the videos, and the personnel to respond to records requests by being able to locate archived files and redeact private information of the people the police interact with in the requested videos. Spinning up and maintaining multiple departments that just didn't exist before a body cam program was implemented is a significant resource draw.
If the auditing personnel aren't hired in sufficient numbers, or the IT personnel to keep the video archives actually usable, then turning off of bodycams won't ever be caught.
But what does that have to do with a bodycam being turned off during an incident? We see them clearly disable them or cover them on their own. I’m not saying they need to be turned on 24/7, that’s obviously not feasible.
Besides the fact that it effects even having one to turn off you mean?
Privacy. Can't go to the bathroom. They use it and abuse it.
The ability to turn the cam off while you shit could easily have come with a rule that states that if you turn your cam off while doing cop stuff you're fired, but it didnt. Privacy in the bathroom is the excuse, not the reason. The reason is that cameras exonerate the innocent and impugn the guilty without regard to status or favor, and cops want to continue to break the law and hurt people who haven't broken the law. They're a street gang. There is no cop who enforces the law without fear or favor, there are only criminals and cops that ignore crime committed by people they like.
Easy. If you turn off your cam, you're not a cop anymore, you lose your legal powers.
Take a shit while turning off your cam? No problem, you don't need to be a cop for that.
Shoot someone after "accidentally" turning your cam off? You just killed someone likely while trespassing with no qualified immunity. Enjoy prison.
Too bad. Make it part of what you sign up for when you become a cop. "You wanna be a cop? Well a few people may end up seeing you pee, just so you know that."
There are people who have to piss into cups in front of people constantly. Surely that's not an onerous demand to ensure the integrity of all bodycam footage. Who would ever see the raw uncut (lol) footage anyway? A jury maybe? in which case, blur out the dong. Easy.
I don't know... I'm just not convinced by the "privacy" angle.
Edit: I guess other people's privacy could be a concern. Though I bet AI is good enough that, if we really wanted to be honest about it (lol), we could figure out a way to filter other people out completely in a way that can be verified etc. etc. But that'll never happen.
They don't work for us anymore; they're not "public servants." They're a (militarized) force that serves the interests of capital. They don't defend people, they defend private property. That's where the root of the problem lies. These people aren't becoming cops to make the neighborhood they live in a safer place, most of the time they don't even live in the neighborhood they serve. No, these people become cops because it lets them hurt people.
They're just a gang of thugs that happens to serve the interests of those with the most money and power.
I don't know. I hear the anger and I think there are some bad cops. But I think they are good ones out there. And they are people too. I can't punish someone's rights because of some assholes.
I hear what you are saying and there should be a way to handle it. I'm just not convinced that running them full time is the solution. Maybe limiting the turning off and if it's done too many times in a row there is lockout and automatic reviews.
People always seem to forget the second half of the old saying about "bad apples." The full phrase is, "a bad apple spoils the bunch."
In other words, all it takes is one rotten person to bring an entire group down.
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
I have always wondered since the body cams came out and even the dash cams over why is it even legal for an officer to turn off the cams. Why would they even have the ability to turn them off. The cams were proclaimed to be for the civilians safety and to keep officers in check and professional.
If I had it my way…
Any cop who turned off their body camera would be fired immediately
This is the only union I’m against, police unions; I’d fire them and have them arrested for obstruction of justice
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.
Sure, but the cop could have told her to kick rocks. Instead he arrested a child with the closest thing to no evidence there is. And made sure to bully him with the body cam off. The cop chose to be a bastard which is why this is a story.
oh those poor cops just couldn’t say no
I'm sure it was one of those "reeee!" Karen moments. "I want them arrested! Don't you know who I am??!?!" etc. etc.
Cops are dicks for putting the 11 year old in solitary though.
This is why I always tell people who say “reporting the _____ incident to the police isn’t going to get anyone hurt, it’s just going to get them help” that they are idiots. You have no way of knowing what the police are going to do in any situation. I don’t care if there’s a 99% chance of it going right (it’s much lower in reality). That isn’t a chance worth taking for something that can absolutely be resolved without police.
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.
Careful now, she 'll send SWAT after you! 😂
Oh fuck your right!
questioning authority is the biggest no no for conservative babies
How big of a fucking dick do you have to be to make lies about an 11 year old and fuck up his future?!
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.
The thing that sucks is, no 11 year old should be arrested unless they're actively threatening physical harm with a weapon, and three days in solitary on top is just beyond the pale. It sucks that we have to have "perfect" victims before the powers that be dare to take notice, and even then it's not enough.
So many children let down by this system, who knows how many stories we haven't heard. And not a god damn thing changes.
He should be fucking arrested. He ruined that boy's life. He'll never be the same after three days in solitary for asking for mental help.
The principal is a woman. She should be fired but the real issue is how the police handled it. Instead of arresting a 5th grader they could have told the principal to kick rocks and that they would investigate the threat. Which was literally hearsay and after investigation they'd have found nothing.
Turning off body cam to bully a child....sounds exactly like what a bastard would do.
I feel so bad for that child. His father died less than a year ago and he was kept in solitary confinement for 3 days. I hope he and his mother find a good lawyer that gets true justice for him. And I hope the people of Brownsville stand up for justice and get the principal fired. I hope they pressure the police to change policy on no longer allowing body cams to be turned off. And I hope the arresting officer dies sad, miserable, alone, and soon.
That's.....
I mean, this shit principal and the cops that put handcuffs on an 11 year old boy should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
But saying he'll NEVER be the same again after three days in solitary, and the boy's life is ruined is too much of a stretch. A little dramatic
People are resilient, especially kids.
Not even close to a stretch. This study is with adults, and not with an already fragile child dealing with trauma.
https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/March-2023/How-Solitary-Confinement-Contributes-to-the-Mental-Health-Crisis#:~:text=Among%20many%20other%20mental%20health,of%20an%20acute%20mental%20illness.
|Mental Illness And Solitary Confinement
Those with mental illness are overrepresented in solitary confinement, despite the vulnerability and threats to the mental health of those incarcerated. Research shows that the effects of solitary confinement on mental health are often fatal, both during and after incarceration. Half of all suicides in prisons and jails occur in solitary confinement. A recent study shows the long-lasting effects; that any amount of time spent in solitary increases the risk of death in the first year after release.
Individuals were overall 24% more likely to die in the first year after release, including from suicide (78% more likely) and homicide (54% more likely). They were also 127% more likely to die of an opioid overdose in the first two weeks after release.
Among many other mental health experts, Dr. Stuart Grassian, a psychiatrist, observed the devastating mental health consequences of the practice. Solitary confinement, he found, caused either (1) the exacerbation or recurrence of preexisting mental health issues, or (2) the onset of an acute mental illness. He is also credited for identifying a specific psychiatric syndrome associated with solitary confinement, termed the SHU Syndrome.
Well TIL
Yeah it's pretty fucked honestly, a lot of people that have never been to jail or prison don't really have the perspective how just how horrible it is. Time moves differently in there and your sense of control you have with autonomous movement is gone. 1 week in jail goes by quite a bit slower than 1 week in regular life. Add solitary to it and it's a straight up nightmare.
Yup and my comment was more as to hoping the kid wouldn't suffer permanent damages but clearly that's not the case. I didn't know the stats
he’ll never trust authority the same again
probably for the best
No. This was a principal punishing a child for being difficult by making up threats. Nobody even mentioned shooting except you.
Not even difficult, he was just interested in using the mental health faculty that was provided the year before to continue to work through his father's death. She could easily have explained to the kid or his parent that the councilor would not be replaced. Going after the kid with selective enforcement of uniform rules while ignoring others was blatant punishment and the escalation to calling the police is excessive force. If this kid were black there is even a higher than normal chance the cops would have hurt him by treating him like an adult.
Absolutely! Should have been clearer that I meant him being difficult from the perspective of the principal, not from that of myself or anyone else with any empathy and common sense.
Go home, child abuse apologist, you're drunk.
Do you think that being in close proximity to a school shooting increases the risk of a school shooting?
The fucked up thing is, that they are, but not the way the OC implies. 24h news cycles and heavy exposure to reports glorifying shooters do act as triggers for other potential shooters. The same is true for suicide and serial killers.
oh texas, what a shining example of republican values
Republicans don't even need to defund the schools. The schools keep doing it themselves.
you think this just happened in a bubble? lol
I didn't say that at all. Rmfeayadl
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.
Our dean of students in high school was an ex-marine. And it sure seemed like he decided that he learned valuable lessons about how to treat other people in boot camp.
“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.
That's not why kids are shooting up schools.
"no you're wrong" says nothing else. Wow now that's what someone who doesn't know anything sounds like to me. I literally just listened to an interview with a person who was planning a school shooting and he mentioned how he felt isolated and no one would help. He was lonely and needed people to talk to, so this situation exactly. But idk, If I'm wrong just respond with "you're wrong" and nothing else.
Well sorry man but... You're wrong.
I don't make the rules. The other guy did.
Oh shit, you listened to an interview with someone who didn't shoot up a school, that you give no further details on, while complaining about a lack of details?
You're clearly the expert here, those people who killed all those kids must have been "good students who were punished for asking for counselling".
Because if I was right, surely I would have listed every single school shooting and the known motivations behind them.
Or did you want every single school shooting wrapped up in a neat little bundle with a single cause?
You: Gives zero info to back up ur claim
Me: Provides an example to backup my claim
You: Psh whatever, that only one source, also what did u want from me, more than zero sources?
What is it man? Did I not provide enough information, or is asking for information to much? Because I'm the only one that made an argument that didn't sound like a mindless dipshit.
Keep going. If that's why people shoot up schools, you should be able to provide clear examples of it for multiple school shootings.
Don't worry if you can't. After all, it's only murdered children so it's no big deal to just bullshit about the motivations.
Yeah kids only shoot up heroin
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.
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.
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.
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
You may be joking, but it totally is. Not in the legal sense, of course, but in the literal sense. Texas is very much an inherent danger to the safety, well-being and sanity of children.
I think raising kids in super rural districts should be considered a factor yes. Not the sole reason. You are setting up your children for a world of hurt.
I grew up in an extremely rural area, but the people that were around were incredibly kind and accepting, especially to others that were different. Now I'm raising my kid in the biggest city in the world, but with the same values they taught me. So I'd say it's not so much the place, as it is the environment we create there. Which in Texas' case is utter, total, complete dog shit.
I also grew up in an extreme rural area and didn't enjoy a single moment of it. I am raising my kids in a small city next to a massive city.
The crime
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.
It's not terrorism when the state does it. It's legal!
I thought we were supposed to be better than this.
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.
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.
Not that the rest of your comment isn't valid about his developmental risks, but juvenile records aren't public and I believe usually expunged when the kid turns 18.
That's the way it should work. But my wife has something on her record from when she was a minor that was supposed to be expunged and sealed, but keeps popping up from time to time.
IANAL, but Texas Article 45.0218 would likely offer some protection to the kiddo since it's a Class C Misdemeanor. The short of it is that being held or detained doesn't mean that the individual was "prescribed jail time."
However, since the Texas Observer is shamelessly plugging away and, as a result, search engines may recognize the child's name, then the article (and similar "news" reports) will likely have more disastrous impacts than the actual event since the print industry is declining/desperate and the internet never forgets.
Not a lawyer either, but although I agree with that interpretation, I'm not sure where Class C Misdemeanor comes from.
The article states that:
I used your link to search for "terroristic threat," and found this statute:
Penal Code Section 22.07 - Terroristic Threat
There is no mention of a Class C Misdemeanor in that statute; so I'm not sure what the Texas Observer is talking about.
Again, not a lawyer, but by my reading of 22.07, it seems like this ridiculous charge would be a Class A Misdemeanor under:
Subsection (a)(2):
With the penalty described in subsection (c)(2):
Class A misdemeanors carry both a fine up to $4000 and jail time up to 1 year.
Texas Penal Code Section 12.21 - Class a Misdemeanor
TBH, I'm not sure if either of us (The Texas Observer and myself) know what we're talking about. IIRC, Texas classifies felony charges as 1st, 2nd, or 3rd degree offenses and Misdemeanors as Class A, B, or C by their severity.
The fact that they would consider it a "Felony", or anything other than frivolous, is disheartening though I appreciate your efforts to research and correct any potential misinformation that I may have spouted. (Good catch, btw)
SMDH, Texas 🤷
Stop and think about this. The only evidence is hearsay. There is a long string of evidence of retaliation. What jury would actually convict this kid because of this? We don't know that it actually happened. It could all be made up. The kid will walk, they will sue for enough money he will walk out of med school debt free.
You: "This 11-year-old will grow up"
The cops: "That's where you're wrong, buck-o..."
Hopefully leaving the state is an option.
Unfortunately I doubt that a single mother that has to rely on a court appointed attorney to defend against felony charges has the money to leave.
Depends if they have family out of state or if they're tied to a job instate. Also, don't discount the paternal side. Considering the father died, there's no reason to believe that that side is cutoff. Too many variables to make assumptions.
And yeah, it's hard to move, but it's also hard getting harassed for years or even disappeared by the cops.
https://www.bobvila.com/articles/how-much-does-it-cost-to-move/#:~:text=Interstate%20moves%20are%20usually%20considered,national%20average%20cost%20of%20%244%2C792.
Only source I could find that didn't give a really wide range says the average move costs $5000
https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/banking/data-2023-savings-report
55% of Americans would need to borrow to cover a right now emergency of $1000
Not if the justice system has anything to say about it
I thought the same, but after a bit of searching it looks to me like this wasn’t racially motivated. The town the school is located in is 95% Hispanic, as is the principal. My assumption at this point is the principal is a tyrant who considers any question of authority as an attack that must be squashed. The cops too, but that goes without saying.
Your read being that a bunch of Hispanic people put a Hispanic person in jail because he is Hispanic? Ok.
Of course racism and systemic racism are alive and well. And yes, people can be racist against their own people. These factors are pervasive and can’t fully be separated from the situation.
That doesn’t mean that this was racially motivated. You seem to want to point to racism as the motivation for the principal and cops to do this. It’s only motivation in the sense that systemic racism underlies everything and is always there.
I knew Texans were f-ed up in many ways. But that is just another level.
Fuck. Texas.
Now he learned something really useful: it stinks to live in a non-free country.
There's plenty where people are free or at least feel free, unlike the US.
Us Northern Neighbors are at least freer than the states... for now, our love for oligopolies and eventually copying our Southern Neighbor is slowly eroding that
Canada doesn't even have free speech anymore tho
We never did. We have freedom of expression, but dont believe people should be free to spout hate, which, looking at the States, definitely has its positives, even if it has its worrying sides
I don't believe in the concept of hate speech. one person's hate speech is another person's politics or religion, or art. the concept of protected classes simply comes with hegemonic political power. That's tyranny of the minority and I don't buy it into it. I don't see why emotion matters for language. Language is just ideas. Ideas shouldn't have human rights.
The kid needs a lawyer willing to crawl so far up there assess they can count their teeth from behind.
The article doesn't explicitly call it out, but the judge and the principle share a last name? The judge granted a much more lenient ruling than the prosecutor wanted though so I'm not assuming they're (closely) related, but I would think a thorough journalist would at least mention trying to find a link in the family tree.
Don't get me wrong, absolutely fuck these vile pieces of shit
But also let's not give them an excuse to play the victim of an internet mob.
Protest, write to representatives and school boards, campaign to have those involved leave office or be prosecuted, do not send threats.
We have a sociopathic principal, and a police force that allowed themselves to be used as a weapon against a 10 year old. There are multiple people that should not be in the positions they are in. They deserve to be removed from their positions, they deserve to be sued or prosecuted for their role in this travesty. They do not deserve to be forced into hiding for fear for their lives, and neither do their loved ones.
Unhinged people can come from all walks of life, not just the far right.
Exhibit A
Now, given how there is a young child very much at the victim of this, and the state was essentially fully complicit, in addition to the typical unhinged, there will be A LOT of people absolutely seeing red and typing without thinking.
Shit states gonna shit state
Does anyone have a mirror?