Texas, the School Police State

In Texas, as in other states where unrestricted access to guns has led to an epidemic of gun violence and fear of mass shootings, the result has been an increased presence of police and accompanying police brutality inside institutions of learning. 

The New York Times offers a grueling account of a detailed investigation into policing policy and practice inside Texas public schools. Shocking stuff, even for a state governed by a supermajority of christofascists.

Clips:

. . . the constant presence of officers has transformed the way many public schools manage discipline, subjecting students to heavy-handed police tactics for behavior that once would have landed them only in the principal’s office, The New York Times and The San Antonio Express-News found.

Officers in Texas displayed startling belligerence at times, grabbing or tackling students a fraction of their size over misconduct that often appeared to be minor. Children in elementary school, including one as young as 6, were handcuffed. Teenagers were arrested, charged with crimes and even jailed. In the most extreme cases, they wound up in hospitals, bruised or concussed, after being body-slammed or shocked by Tasers, which are prohibited in the state’s juvenile detention facilities but allowed in its public schools. . . .

. . . in Texas, no state agency has the power to routinely review school officers’ actions and weigh in on possible overreach.

Lawmakers here have embraced school policing without establishing safeguards required for meaningful accountability, policing experts said. A 2019 law meant to keep officers out of “routine student discipline” does not define the term or detail repercussions for violations. Police departments in Texas are not required to report incidents of force in schools unless they shoot someone.

Police Brutality at Reach Partnership High in Baltimore

Story here.

Disturbing new footage shows a high school police officer violently slapping a Black student.More details here: http://attn.link/1TV7dh0
Posted by ATTN: on Wednesday, March 2, 2016

First Grader Handcuffed by School Cop

Racist Police Brutality Goes to School

Update:

Pigs, Midwest Version

For unarmed black men across America, death goes on.  Excuse this time:  I meant to use my taser.  Followed by this:

The more disturbing portion of the video, however, comes after Harris suffers the gunshot wound. Screaming in apparent pain, Harris can be heard telling the officers “He shot me! He shot me, man. Oh, my god. I’m losing my breath,” to which he did not receive any aid.

“Fuck your breath. Shut the fuck up,” an officer can be heard replying to Harris’ pleas as he is held down by the neck. He was pronounced dead an hour later.

Story here.

Pigs, West Coast Version

MSNBC, The Prison Channel, Will Never Show This

I was amazed over the holidays at the hours and hours of non-stop prison "documentary" footage on MSNBC, with the creepy John Seigenthaler as host and cheerleader for prison guards and wardens, who are never seen to be capable of doing anything wrong or even vaguely questionable. This kind of corporate media desensitizing of the public to the plight of the incarcerated in America, which has the largest prison population on Planet Earth, presents real questions about the social responsibility and educational responsibility of the mass media.

MSNBC's morbid fascination may be seen as helping to set the stage for the future urban police state, for which urban schools are certainly playing a role, too. (Watch any group of young children in urban schools holding together their imaginary straightjackets while mechanically marching to lunch, and you will see another part of the prelude).

Well, here is some footage you will never see on the MSNBC lockdown marathons. The first is from Oakland, where a young black man, already in custody, was repeatedly shot and killed at point blank range by a BART cop.

And today comes this from Raw Story about a young black man murdered by NOLA police:

A young, black man in New Orleans is dead, slain by police officers on New Year's Day, in an incident that has outraged a community and triggered protests over what family members are calling a "murder."

The New Orleans man, 22-year-old Adolph Grimes III, traveled to his grandmother's home near the French Quarter in order to celebrate New Year's Eve with his fiance and their 17-month-old son. Three hours after arrival, around 3 a.m., he was found dead a block from the front door.

The Orleans Parish coroner said Grimes was shot 14 times, including 12 times in the back.. . .