Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
Former legislator convicted of rape makes preposterous copyright claim on his own name, threatens news organizations who publish it without his permission, causes the entire story to go national, ensuring hundreds more articles mentioning his name and the rape conviction.
Seems plausible.
Second-grader suspended, given psychological counseling over drawing of Christ’s crucifixion.(UPDATE: Per the comments, it’s looking more and more like this story is bogus.)
A call for Obama to allow for a more honest, science-based study of marijuana’s possible medicinal benefits.
Spanish jazz fan calls cops during concert because musicians weren’t jazzy enough.
Cop tases girlfriend three times, twice in the face; will get probation.
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on Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 at 10:04 am by Radley Balko
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TheAgitator.com
The superintendent in Taunton disputes some of the facts that boy’s father claims about the suspension.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/12/16/taunton_officials_dispute_reports_on_jesus_sketch/
Another scumbag cop commits bodily harm with no real repercussions. And in Texas yet. Anyone else, I guarantee you, would have ended up in a TDCJ unit. Fight back! We must no longer allow agents of the government to pummel, beat, and kill us. The are not the shining “heroes” in blue out to “serve and protect.” Anyone of them will kill or maim you for the slightest provocation. Because they know they can.
“I therefore find that the existing supply of marijuana is not adequate.”
Preach it, brother!
After reading Gavin’s link and Radley’s, I think this kid will be screwed up by both the school system and by his money grubbing dad. Our public school systems are retarted because of the litigious nature of retarded parents. This scenario is a prime example. This kid seems to be changing his story to make dad happy one minute and teacher happy the next. Looks like a no win situation for him no matter what. And all because both parties want to do what is best for the child. Irony can really blow sometimes.
That photo montage just made my day.
Seems like, according to the article linked by #1 Gavin, that the dad was just trying to get some money out of the school. It mentions him wanting to be compensated in “a lump sum” for his pain and suffering a few times. Plus, he asked that his son be given a full scholarship to the school of his choice.
Nothing but money-hungry people trying to get in the news, or so it would seem.
As for the kid, he apparently has a God complex at age 9. The phsychologist was called in because he said the guy on the cross was himself. Can’t blame the kid for wanting to be All-Powerful. Kids want to be superheroes all the time (Superman, Aquaman, etc.), why not the ultimate superhero? I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that kid.
If my elementary school had a staff psychologist, I’d never would have seen daylight again after 3rd grade. Do schools really need staff psychologists?
What happened to teachers talking with children’s parents? Is that now illegal or something?
The cop loses his job, but keep a close eye out to see which nearby jurisdiction he ends up as a police officer in.
Yes…not sure of the fact about the Jesus story, but shouldn’t the school not discuss the matter…I mean that is their policy, right?
This sticks out to me.
In the original story link the Superintendent Julie Hackett said district policy prevents her from discussing a “confidential matter regarding a student.”
In Gavin’s link after daddy say’s it’ll take some money to appease his families pain, suddenly old Julie is talking up a damn storm about it.
Yes money is the key to getting things done sometimes. I think that more of this is needed when to stop this bull-rush gubment oppression that is increasing daily.
Radley get comments section with an edit feature.
PLEASE! Pretty please.
I wrote like an idiot on my last post. I do not know how that “needed when to stop” got in there.
Gotta love the story about the legislator rapist, but it gets better. He was convicted of raping his foster daughters. Lovely. I wonder what bills he passed while in the legislature that were “for the children”
MacK: Radley’s comments section already has an edit feature like you find on email. Its called “backspace” and “delete.” It gets deactivated if you push the “submit comment” button, so be careful. I often forget that rule and, while it’s egg on my face, I can take comfort in knowing that I made someone else laugh.
Glad there weren’t cell phones at Newport in ‘65.
Err, all of them.
Was he suspended because he drew a crucifix? No.
Did he even draw the crucifix in school? Probably not.
Did the teacher give him an assignment to draw something that reminded him of Christmas? No.
The story sounded fishy from the get go. “Poorly drawn popular religous image gets 8 year old suspended.”
I do appreciate the knee jerk hating on school teachers and adminstrators in the comments section though.
Uh. Drawing a Crucifix and putting and substituting “Timmy” for “Christ” would be a pretty good reason to follow up with the kid and see what’s goin’ on. The teacher went to the administrators because he’s not a child psychologist, he’s a teacher, and sending it up the flagpole to say “hey, is this something we should be worried about?” is usually a good idea. Sounds like the school district is working hard to do right by this kid and his dad is working hard to exploit him.
The “inmate copyrights name, threatens anyone using it with giant damages” is apparently a tried and true prison tradition. If you google [inmate "copyright his name"] there are a bunch of cases where inmates registered their name with the Copyright Office, then started filing liens and other papers against the property of jail wardens, guards, judges, etc.
It’s beyond ridiculous, but it is not hard to imagine the theory getting around the jail and prisoners trying it. It’s like those e-mail forwards you get from your mother saying that if you just forward it to 27 people Bill Gates will send you a new microwave.
I’ll repeat what I said when Obama announced he wasn’t going after medical marijuana dispensaries: As long as it is a schedule I drug, anybody using or selling cannabis as medicine is breaking federal law so Obama has done almost nothing.
It’s amazing that this government is looking for places to trim the fat while the ONDCP controls over $40 billion in the budget, $2.5 billion of which goes straight to the DEA.
Oh well, I’m about to go smoke a joint so it’s pretty clear none of this works.
#15…wait, so I’m not getting my microwave?
Turns out the kid wasn’t suspended, and the father is full of crap.
The school overreacted to a “violent” drawing, like we’ve all seen them do with “weapons” like keychains and kids playing War at recess, and daddy thought he could make a few bucks pretending to be a religious martyr.
Quoth the father: “We deserve a lump sum!”
“It hurts me that they did this to my kid,’’ Chester Johnson, the boy’s father, said in an interview with the Globe. “They can’t mess with our religion. They owe us a small lump sum for this.’’
“He said he was uncomfortable,’’ he said. “I also think they should give him a fully paid scholarship to the school of his choice. We should be compensated for our pain and suffering.’’
I like money.
Man dies after swallowing bag of pot and being tasered
By David Edwards
A Florida man who is suspected of swallowing a bag of marijuana died in police custody Friday. A taser was used on Andrew Grande after he resisted arrest. Grande then indicated that he was having trouble breathing and taken to Bay Medical Center. An autopsy determined that the preliminary cause of death was asphyxia due to obstruction of the airway by a foreign material.
http://rawstory.com/rawreplay/?p=4411
“Quoth the father: “We deserve a lump sum!””
One lump or two?
My wife and I lived in an apt. complex with our bedroom paper-thin wall next to a Houston, TX cop’s flat. He was your typical machismo cop douchebag.
He regularly had vicious fights with his g/f late at night. The mrs. and I had an ongoing drama played out for us most nights.
Anyhoo, one night about 2am, it got out of hand and he beat the living shit out of her… including throwing her down a flight of stairs. Someone had called the police and his cop buddies showed up and arrested HER!!!
The funny part, if there is one, is that the very next morning after the incident, at 7:00 am – we heard him cleaning up the place with Elton John’s Daniel blaring on the stereo.
We were like… ‘Elton John! Really?!‘
He moved out shortly after that so we have no idea what happened to him.
But…
Elton John
!?!?
Cops can be strange people sometimes.
Cheers.
Read above in a bugs bunny voice. It stripped out my fake tags…
Saw the picture the kid drew, someone should continue to discourage him from his artistic pretentsions. Possibly that texas trooper with the mad tazer skillz could be encouraged to help the Tauton art appreciators.
Regarding the second grader suspended for drawing a violent picture, the fact is that if you’re going to make a blanket rule that prohibits violent drawing, then you cannot exclude a depiction of a crucifixion.
On the other hand, I think the psychological exam was misdirected. It should be those who came up with such a stupid fucking policy who should be condemned to counseling (preferably for life).
I see this a lot these days where, in order to ensure equal treatment and to take decision making powers away from the front line administrators, they institute inflexible rules that require defined response to a particular behavior regardless of the degree of that behavior. Zero tolerance rules are an example. Their thinking is that they can standardize everything and eliminate differences in the way different administrators react to similar situations. It’s a monument to the idea that everything can be made perfect with more rules, which is basically an acknowledgment that individuals are incapable of thinking for themselves.
And, just remember, we put these fucking idiots in charge of shaping our children’s entire educational future.
I’m surprised this hasn’t been mentioned here, so here goes:
Since people have dies from being Tasered, how is this cop Tasering his g/f not assault with a deadly weapon? Seems to me that if I did this to my wife, I’d be facing such a charge.
^^ *died* not dies. Fck, I hater nop habin am edid buddon!
I’m sure an interesting argument would be made that Tazer’s are designed to be non-lethal. Certainly somebody could die if I hit them over the head with a fish but the chances of that seem rare. I’d personally agree with you but I don’t think the standard for defining a deadly weapon is that somebody once died using the same weapon. I’d say the whole concept of “Assault with a Deadly Weapon” seems flawed. The weapon doesn’t seem relevant to the crime, unless it is showing intent or something.
I think there’s gotta be some crossed wires somewhere. The link starts out by saying “two to the stomach, one to the face” and then quotes something else saying “one to the stomach, two to the face”.
Not that it matters, but it makes me wonder how much of the story got muddled.
#26
That’s what he was originally charged with. Part of what happens when you cut a deal is often the charge gets downgraded. So in this case no one is actually disputing that it was assault with a deadly weapon, so much as rewarding him for making a plea and short-circuiting the process.
I’m glad he’s getting disciplined and losing his job. I’d prefer to see a sanction against him holding any position that would require him to be armed him with a taser (or other weapons) as well though.
From Gavin’s link:
“…the student identified himself, rather than Jesus, on the cross…”
Maybe religion didn’t have anything do with it at all. Hell, this kid may be a soothsayer. The drawing is symbolic and this is a merely a prediction of the government persecution he will face as an adult. Oops, I forgot. Scratch that. The government doesn’t wait for adulthood anymore.
Ah-ha! A “warning sign”! It could only mean one of two things. He was contemplating suicide by self-crucifixion or he sees himself as Jesus Christ and plans to pursue a career at a regulatory agency.
Just a quick note for recent posters (not just this thread) that are asking for edit feature: Radley did attempt to change the comment system, but unfortunately the new version introduced far more issues than it solved. The general consensus was that the current system is fundamentally how a blog comment system should be, and if a couple of features could be added (edit being a big one) that would be great – but in general, it’s worth keeping the current system as-is if that’s what it takes to keep the current system.
Others may chime in with additional clarifications on this, but that’s my basic understanding. Personally, I usually triple-proofread before hitting “submit,” and occasionally post a quick clarification if I realize I either goofed substantially (typos ok, within reason) or could have been clearer or whatnot. This system seems to work well for the majority of posters here.
Was he suspended because he drew a crucifix? No.
Did he even draw the crucifix in school? Probably not.
Did the teacher give him an assignment to draw something that reminded him of Christmas? No.
As I wrote over at the Boston Herald forum, this is why bureaucrats are fucking scumbags.
If my kid is sent home from school and cannot return until some action is taken, that is a motherfucking suspension. If I go to the press and call it a suspension, if you work for the school district and go to the press and say, “This dad is lying, our administrative definition of a suspension is something different,” you are a disingenuous cunt who is deliberately employing bureaucratic obfuscation to try to cloud the issue.
None of your points have anything to do with the core issue in this matter, as you next post makes clear:
Uh. Drawing a Crucifix and putting and substituting “Timmy” for “Christ” would be a pretty good reason to follow up with the kid and see what’s goin’ on.
Uh. No, it wouldn’t. Identifying oneself with the crucified Christ has been part of the Catholic tradition since the motherfucking Apostle Paul.
The core issue here is that the school administration looked at this child’s action, which fits neatly into the history of Catholicism to the point where entire religious orders have been devoted to it, and declared it insane. It is the official position of the school district of Taunton now that mainstream Catholicism is evidence of psychological dysfunction.
I happen to think this is true, and ALL Christians are mentally deficient in one way or another. But no government body has the right to say so as a matter of policy.
Keeping score: Cops can beat up (or kill) kids, women, old ladies/men, dogs, cats, and steal property without EVER actually going to jail.
Almost always probation which is eventually overturned and back-pay is awarded.
A number of years ago, I got a call from the Social Worker at my sons’ school. She was about 4 parts into a panic attack, and suffering palpitations of the heart…
“Mr. Wilburn, Mr. Wilburn! You need to come down here right away! Nathan is threatening to kill himself!”
“So, Nathan wants to kill himself. Setting aside his reason, for the moment, let me ask you – has he indicated how he intends to accomplish this suicide?”
“Yes – he said he was going to strangle himself with a sock.”
“I’ll be right down.”
Twenty miles I drove, so that I could explain, very patiently, that it was a physical impossibility for my son to strangle himself (to death) with a sock. I explained that, in the worse case scenario, he would momentarily interrupt the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain, causing him to pass out for 2 or 3 seconds, resulting in his releasing the sock. Subsequently, his involuntary reflexes would cause his diaphragm to expand and contract, and restart his breathing. Then, he would come to, and say “What happened?”
The short version is that my son, at a very early age, learned to use the system, to fuck the system – a system that is rife with confused individuals who honestly think that you can learn how to deal with children, from a textbook…
(The textbooks do have one use, though – you can beat on the kid with them…)
I thought you were going for a “Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?”
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/has-anyone-really-been-far-as-decided-to-use-even-go-want-to-do-look-more-like
I happen to think this is true, and ALL Christians are mentally deficient in one way or another.
You know, as a Christian libertarian I understand why some are skeptical of, or even outright hostile toward, religion and I respect those views even if I don’t agree with them. But a statement like that is simply ignorant.
He test drove LivePodium recently but that had too many problems, although the problems were being addressed in a timely manner. I’m sure Radley is on top of this and revisits finding a better solution from time to time. In the mean time, see #13 comments.
If I’m not mistaken, a shod foot is often considered a deadly weapon in assault cases. It’s not designed as a weapon, but clearly it can be a deadly weapon. The taser is not designed to be a deadly weapon, but as we all know, it often is. How are they any different?
A taser isn’t non-lethal, as this means NO ONE has ever died from it being used on a person. This is clearly false if you examine the case data (and exclude this bullshit “excited delirium” excuse, which is a “look over here at this shiny object” method that only works on idiots). Therefore a taser is a less-lethal weapon than a firearm, meaning it is less likely to kill you when used, but it is still very much within the realm of possibility. However, I add that it’s more than just less-lethal, as it is quite often used as a torture tool under the guise of “compliance AKA respect my authoritah”. It’s hard to torture someone by shooting them.
Is that located on Hoth?
BamBam,
I saw the headline twice and both times thought of the Empire Strikes Back. Hoth… excellent question!
Secondly, I seriously doubt Chuck Norris would do the bidding of Obama given how crazy right wing he is. Cool pix nevertheless!
So, who wants to meet the Police Women of Broward County? You may even win a date with one of them!
http://blogs.trb.com/entertainment/news/gambling/blog/2009/12/police_women_of_broward_at_coc.html
BamBam ftw
You know, as a Christian libertarian I understand why some are skeptical of, or even outright hostile toward, religion and I respect those views even if I don’t agree with them. But a statement like that is simply ignorant.
Well, if we define mental deficient as “failing to achieve mental perfection” then anyone who believes anything silly is mentally deficient. Also, anyone who ever makes any error of fact would also be mentally deficient. So I’d also be mentally deficient on both of those scores, if that makes it any more palatable for you.
The school system denies the story. That doesn’t mean it’s false; it means that the chances are 50% that it’s true. Neither side has more credibility and each has reason to make their claim.
re: the Spanish jazz fan
If you search YouTube for “Larry Ochs”, you’ll see that although it’s probably nothing that needs to be settled in the courts, the jazz fan was definitely cheated.
So he drew a picture of Jesus getting crucified. Big deal.
Now, if he’d drawn Jesus getting *circumcised…*
Perhaps the reason the father thinks that the family is entitled to compensation is because the school forced this low-income family to pay for a psychological evaluation of their son as a condition of admitting him back into school. It seems the mayor of Taunton agrees, and has ordered the school to compensate them for their expenses.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I’m just a caveman. I fell on some ice and was later thawed by some of your scientists. Your world frightens and confuses me! When I see my image on the security camera at the country club, I wonder, are they stealing my soul? I get so upset, I hop out of my Range Rover, and run across the fairway to the clubhouse, where I get Carlos to make me one of those martinis he’s so famous for, to soothe my primitive caveman brain. But whatever world you’re from, I do know one thing: My client is entitled to NO LESS than a lump sum settlement and a scholarship to the school of his choice!
Apropos Taunton, and in The Agitator’s hometown, http://www.indystar.com/article/20091212/LOCAL/912120364/Fishers-school-adjusts-holiday-show-after-protests
FISHERS, Ind. — A Hamilton Southeastern elementary removed a mention of Allah in its holiday show after it drew the anger of a national conservative Christian group.
School officials removed a phrase saying “Allah is God” after the American Family Association launched a protest of the program on its electronic newsletter.
The change was made, Thompson said, because no other deities were directly named in the program.