BE TRUE TO YR SCHOOL OR GET ARRESTED
Jan. 12th, 2012 11:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogYr Police State 101 lede of the day:
It’s easy to say, “Oh, well of course, it’s Texas.” Just like it’s easy to get all indignant and outraged if yr a parent. But however you slice it, the whole story is symptomatic of what happens when you let The Fear make yr decisions for you.
It’s worth remembering this kind of thing isn’t happening quietly. In the wake of fears over gang violence and Columbine and 9/11, putting cops on patrol in schools has been an increasingly popular idea since the 90s. The abuse of power and/or bad decisions that come with the territory – and the zero-tolerance policies that enable them – probably seemed less inevitable to the gullible parents and school boards who signed off on this idea at the time.
The cops have their excuses, and so do the teachers who call them in to deal with the kind of misbehavior that my 5th Grade teacher usually stopped with a banshee scream and a mad don’t-fuck-with-me gleam in her eye (and, if that didn’t work, a supple wrist and a paddle the size of a cricket bat, though that’s probably illegal now). And to be fair, some school districts do have serious enough gang problems to warrant having cops on the premises.
Whatever. Whether or not there's a legit reason to have cops in schools, it’s a depressing commentary on the state of the nation, especially when people say it's worth treating all misbehaving kids like criminals if it prevents one child from being killed by some gangbanger or Trenchcoat Mafia shooter.
But in a country where enhanced pat-downs, mass surveillance, militarized police forces, indefinite detention of suspects and pepper spraying people in the face until they die are considered run-of-the-mill law enforcement techniques by enough people, I guess it’s not that surprising either.
I'd be even less surprised if what the kids in these schools mainly learn from all this is a healthy disrespect for cops, who they'll come to see as pigs high on their own authority and/or people you can always call to deal with minor bullshit you probably could have dealt with yrself. Or both.
“There’s yr civics lesson, kid. Don’t drop the soap.”
Thug 4 life,
This is dF
It’s easy to say, “Oh, well of course, it’s Texas.” Just like it’s easy to get all indignant and outraged if yr a parent. But however you slice it, the whole story is symptomatic of what happens when you let The Fear make yr decisions for you.
It’s worth remembering this kind of thing isn’t happening quietly. In the wake of fears over gang violence and Columbine and 9/11, putting cops on patrol in schools has been an increasingly popular idea since the 90s. The abuse of power and/or bad decisions that come with the territory – and the zero-tolerance policies that enable them – probably seemed less inevitable to the gullible parents and school boards who signed off on this idea at the time.
The cops have their excuses, and so do the teachers who call them in to deal with the kind of misbehavior that my 5th Grade teacher usually stopped with a banshee scream and a mad don’t-fuck-with-me gleam in her eye (and, if that didn’t work, a supple wrist and a paddle the size of a cricket bat, though that’s probably illegal now). And to be fair, some school districts do have serious enough gang problems to warrant having cops on the premises.
Whatever. Whether or not there's a legit reason to have cops in schools, it’s a depressing commentary on the state of the nation, especially when people say it's worth treating all misbehaving kids like criminals if it prevents one child from being killed by some gangbanger or Trenchcoat Mafia shooter.
But in a country where enhanced pat-downs, mass surveillance, militarized police forces, indefinite detention of suspects and pepper spraying people in the face until they die are considered run-of-the-mill law enforcement techniques by enough people, I guess it’s not that surprising either.
I'd be even less surprised if what the kids in these schools mainly learn from all this is a healthy disrespect for cops, who they'll come to see as pigs high on their own authority and/or people you can always call to deal with minor bullshit you probably could have dealt with yrself. Or both.
“There’s yr civics lesson, kid. Don’t drop the soap.”
Thug 4 life,
This is dF
