Thursday, October 08, 2020

Rangers rule police shooting 'murder,' searches at traffic stops mostly fruitless, Sheriffs behaving badly, and other stories

Here are a few odds and ends that merit Grits readers' attention:

  • I'm not sure I've ever heard of the Texas Rangers announcing a shooting by a police officer constituted "murder," as they did in the case of Wolfe City Police Officer Shaun Lucas' killing of Jonathan Price. Either this summer's events have changed attitudes at DPS, the facts of case are especially egregious, or maybe both.
  • Overwhelmingly, most searches at traffic stops are fruitless fishing expeditions. At the Houston Chronicle, Eric Dexheimer and St. John Barned-Smith dug into the data on contraband hit rates, newly available from Texas' Sandra Bland Act, and took aim at trainers teaching cops "deception detection."
  • Ten people died in the Tarrant County Jail this year and a woman gave birth without the jailers noticing (the baby also died). Now Sheriff Bill Waybourn is up for reelection. Michael Barajas at the Texas Observer took apart his record
  • The Texas Indigent Defense Commission has created a new primer for counties that want to create a Public Defender office.
  • The Vera Institute of Justice has published a massive new report analyzing 911 call centers and suggesting reforms. More on this after I've had a chance to read it; perhaps it will help inform Austin's push to make the local call center independent.

11 comments:

  1. I just thought that the TX Rangers were just a mob of cowboy hicks that shot the Indians and roped the cattle.

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  2. Doug Swanson's new book adds a bit to that portrait, much of it unflattering.

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  3. They will be painted part of or the root cause of the slave patrol before too long on here.

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    1. When it happens be sure you blow your dog whistle extra hard so we all know...

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  4. I've run across a couple of early Rangers who participated in slave patrols, but haven't seen any institutional connections. Rangers weren't a government agency until 1874; slave patrols began in the 1840s.

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    1. You ran across the rangers ? Or reports about the rangers ? LoL

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  5. Hey, sorry if history so triggering for you. Wouldn't want reality or facts to get in the way of your worldview.

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  6. I’m not anonymous 10:42AM, but the reality and facts reflect slave patrols occurred under the primary leadership of the Democratic Party of “that era” so it’s history too.

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    1. I hope you have a fishing license for that Red Herring...

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  7. Whats so special about Rangers? They are just traffic cops that got promoted

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