Government Thugs
Rad Geek has three awful stories of petty little thugs hired by government schools to harass and intimidate students. At least one of these stories has racial overtones, but it would be a mistake to ascribe these actions merely to prejudice. This is what inevitably happens when government employees are given carte blanch to exercise cohesive power.
In the first story, a 13-year-old girl was asked to strip naked because school security thugs has "reliable" information that she had an ibuprofen tablet - basically a freaking aspirin.
In the second story, security officers quiz high school girls about whether they are having their period to see if it is OK that they are carrying a small purse.
In story number three, a fifteen-year-old girl was tackled by security officers, forced down on a table, and had her wrist broken in an arm lock. Later she was arrested and charged with assault. All because she failed to fully clean up a piece of cake she dropped on the floor.
In the same incident, two onlookers were attacked, tackled, handcuffed, and arrested for photographing and video-taping the incident. This is what you get for trying to record video of government employees at work:
Twenty years ago, when I would have called myself a conservative instead of a libertarian as I do today, I probably would have said, "Oh, there are probably two sides of the story. He probably provoked them." I am embarrassed to admit it, but that might have been my reaction. But watch the video that is linked from Rad Geeks post. What could he have possibly done to warrant this? You can see in the video he was just circling the security guards filming them until one pointed at him, the other came at him, and then this. This boy was led from the school in handcuffs and spent the night in jail. Sick.
Hat tip Catallarchy.
bbeeman:
There's clearly no justification for the police state status of many public schools today, and one would hope that there would be legal consequences for not only those who actually commit this sort of thing, but for the administrators and boards that authorize these reigns of terror.
Much of this flows from the ascendancy of the professional educrat, mostly chosen from the lower quintile of the college population, and brought into full flower in our schools of education, immersed in a stew of post-modernism and almost totally protected form logic.
Add to that the fact that public schools have chosen to not remove the disruptive members of the student body, and you have a recipe for total disaster.
We've let government pour more and more money at the problem, while making no real reforms, and now wonder why it doesn't work.
October 2, 2007, 8:16 pmSome guy:
Amazing. Just amazing what madhouses our public schools have become...
October 2, 2007, 9:04 pmRad Geek:
The meathead security guard pictured above told the city cops that he felt "threatened" by the young woman, so he slammed her down and broke her wrist in order to regain control.
I mean, that's understandable, right? I mean, he's only got, what, 100, 150 pounds on the fifteen year old girl?
October 2, 2007, 11:02 pmGmac:
I can't belive that he wasn't arrested on the spot for being a pedophile AND a thug.
October 3, 2007, 7:19 pmCT_Yankee:
Gmac - I don't understand where you find pedophilia in a rather ordinary case of assault and battery.
It would appear that the boy filming the assault was close enough to be a good witness, and his film would be even better. The attack and incarceration should also be considered intimidation of a witness; a crime almost always associated with criminal acts by gang members and "authority figures" (police, security guards, corporate officers).
I would love to see the principal announce to incoming freshmen that they should cell-video any heated confrontation they see, anywhere.
Many conflicts would be understood better without the he said, she said, I don't believe you process. Over time, it would be understood that seeing cells in use means the people around your think you have escalated things a bit too far, and it is time to walk away before there is trouble (applies to students, and police/security).
October 4, 2007, 7:47 amGreg:
"Twenty years ago, when I would have called myself a conservative instead of a libertarian as I do today, I probably would have said, "Oh, there are probably two sides of the story. He probably provoked them." I am embarrassed to admit it, but that might have been my reaction. But watch the video that is linked from Rad Geeks post. "
Always keep in mind that videos and transcripts easily edited to show what we want them to show. Media coverage is frequently less than honest. Let's not assume that something that appears on CBS or YouTube is 100% reliable.
That said... The cases you bring up do look an awful lot like abuse. That 15 year old looks like she weighs what... 100#? Maybe she beat up three of the officers before the one in the photo broke her wrist. Seems unlikely, though...
Ok, sarcasm off.
Stripped naked for an ibuprofin? Is that really what happened?
If so then all of the above looks like yet another reason to get our kids out of government schools, ASAP.
October 4, 2007, 12:49 pmTCO:
The schools are in loco parentis. It's ok to beat your kids, so it's ok for schools to do so also.
October 5, 2007, 3:47 pm