I literally drove past this incident after it happened, just moved to the woodlands from Chicago that day. Good to see the boys in blue still being as reputable and trustworthy as ever.
The driver was originally accused of seriously injuring that Montgomery County Precinct 2 Constable’s Office investigator who was directing traffic at the Ironman North American Championship in The Woodlands last weekend.
Dashcam video from another driver’s car showed Investigator Toby McLaughlin, a 40-year veteran with the Montgomery County Precinct 2 Constable’s Office, kicking the man’s vehicle as he passed by and hurting his own leg.
So did the “investigator” not know that he had caused the injury by his own actions? If so, that’s sad. If he did know, and let the guy sit in jail with $30,000 bond, then that’s a problem.
The driver heads west on S. Millbend Dr. in a white Honda Civic, ignoring McLaughlin’s signal to stay put.
And here’s the win for the driver: The video shows his car never hit the constable, and it also shows McLaughlin kicks the car and then falls to the ground.
Terribly written article, should have been mentioned right there. They talk about the fine after they talk about ring doorbells….
Constables are not cops, in general. IDK how exactly it works in Texas and it looks like it's actually more similar than it usually is, but as a general rule in practice, constables are sort of the "civil matter" version of police (who are chiefly for criminal matters) -- they serve evictions and summonses, child support warrants, traffic detail like in this case, that kind of thing.
well, i’d love to know literally any actual details of this “cyberstalking, physically intimidating and harassing Chinese citizens, naturalized U.S. citizens and families of dissidents”, but i guess the purview of a lot of journalism is just press releases now and not actually investigating the contents of those press releases
I’ve found that usually is the case especially with “articles” like this on TV News channel sites, but I can’t find where any papers have picked up the story. They may still be following up on it, but I would expect if the Houston Chronicle winds up picking the story up they will have more details.
then, again: it’d be nice to provide literally any details of that–this article basically presupposes this to be occurring without providing any details at all
In one case, according to Wray, the CCP “sent an emissary to visit the target’s family here in the United States.” This emissary warned the target that he or she “had two options: return to China promptly, or commit suicide.”
In December 2021, a ‘Private Investigator’ working for the CCP has been advised to also consider physically attacking the Victim. In a voice message intercepted by the police, it was said:
You can start thinking now, aside from violence, what other plans are there? Huh? But in the end, violence would be fine too. Huh? Beat him [chuckles], beat him until he cannot run for election. Heh, that’s the-the last resort. You-you think about it. Car accident, [he] will be completely wrecked [chuckles], right? Don’t know, eh, whatever ways from all different angles.
this is such a false equivalence it might as well be a nonsequitur–this isn’t “demonstrating basic inferential science that has been known about for over 100 years”, it amounts to an accusation of violating the sovereignty of another country and yes, that should be seriously scrutinized and demonstrated (especially given the tensions between the US and China, and the long tail of anti-Asian sentiment caused by COVID)
So what would you say is the appropriate course of action? For the FBI to out the identities and statements of people who report Chinese state harassment in the US? To keep the information entirely a secret otherwise?
Like, the FBI warning people that there’s a danger without totally tipping their hand seems like a reasonable move to make if they have such evidence. They don’t need to present it in order to do that.
Likewise, while it would certainly make a better story and a better read if it provided some additional background information, that’s not what this piece is. It’s literally just reporting the announcement.
Honestly, I’m not sure where your opposition to it is outside of simply reacting to criticism of the Chinese government. Which, honestly, is a little shady.
I mean, it’s not an investigative piece. It’s literally just ‘hey, the FBI made an announcement’. Presumably because most people aren’t checking on FBI announcements, and it’s probably something people should know about. Relaying the announcement as a public service doesn’t preclude also being able to do investigative journalism.
This certainly isn’t the first time I’ve seen something like this, not even on beehaw. Seems like it’s worth it to provide an FBI warning to people who might be vulnerable; both so they can be aware and so they can know who to reach out to if they have an issue.
2/3 of kids who aren’t reading proficiently by 4th grade end up in prison or on welfare.
Why give them books and librarians and reading specialists to bring them up to speed? Just gettin’ the lil’ buggers accustomed to their future conditions, dontchaknow!
Try that link, if’n it works, I’ll switch the links. With how many adblockers and such I have on Firefox, I don’t see autoplays or ads, and can force pop ups and other things to go away.
HOUSTON – Houston Independent School District will be eliminating librarian positions at 28 schools this upcoming year and utilizing some of the libraries as ‘Team Centers” where kids with behavioral issues will be sent, the district announced.
This comes as part of the new superintendent Mike Miles reform program, New Education System (NES). Currently, there are a total of 85 schools that have joined Miles’ program, and of those, 28 campuses will lose their librarians. The district said they will have the opportunity to transition to other roles within the district.
The remaining 57 NES schools’ librarians will be assessed on a case-by-case basis, according to the district.
Retired HISD Teacher in Charge of Library, Lisa Robinson, believes the library is full of some of the greatest stories ever told.
“It was such a joy to help them find the perfect book,” said Robinson.
She said those stories are now ripped to shreds.
“My heart is just broken for these children that are in the NES schools that are losing their librarians,” said Robinson.
Librarian positions have been an ongoing debate in HISD. Robinson said the former superintendent, Millard House II, made efforts to keep library staff.
“The mandate for librarians had been put back in place. With one swipe of a pen that has been destroyed,” said Robinson.
Superintendent Mike Miles said students are behind on reading levels, especially in 4th grade.
Former HISD Librarian and Manager of Library Services, Janice Newsum believes eliminating librarian positions could hurt reading performance even more.
“When students engage in reading as an activity of choice, they are not only building that reading muscle, but they are also developing their vocabulary they are understanding a bit about the world that exists outside their block radius,” said Newsum.
Mayor Sylvester Turner believes the move is unacceptable.
“You don’t close libraries in some of the schools in your most underserved communities, and you’re keeping libraries open in other schools,” said Turner.
“Our less fortunate students are the ones that suffer the most; primarily because many of them live in situations that are reading deserts. They don’t have access to the reading materials. They don’t have a choice in the reading materials that they are given to read,” said Newsum.
The district said the libraries will not be closed, just used for different purposes.
Some of the library spaces will now be turned into “Team Center,” designed for students to work individually or in teams throughout the school day. Students with behavioral issues will also be placed in the Team Center where they will be able to join their class virtually.
The libraries will now be available to students who are dropped off at school before classes begin or after school before they go home.
KPRC2 reached out to the superintendent’s office for comment about why eliminating librarian positions are necessary. District officials said Superintendent Miles will be taking questions during his family event at Sugar Groove Middle School on Thursday at 6 p.m. He will have another family event Saturday, July 29 at West Briar Middle School at 9 a.m.
That’s what I appear to have just read as well. “This is what happens when people want bad books in schools” is a selling point to many, though in Houston?
I’m guessing all we can do about it right now is beg the assholes to stop being assholes, wait several years and hope enough other people don’t like this enough to maybe vote out the politicians doing it and maybe overcome all of the gerrymandering, or just watch in horror? ~Strawberry
“Our less fortunate students are the ones that suffer the most; primarily because many of them live in situations that are reading desserts. They don’t have access to the reading materials. They don’t have a choice in the reading materials that they are given to read,” said Newsum.
Reading desserts, yum.
I wonder what reasons they’ll come up with for this move… probably frame it as being better for the kids.
Back in the 90s, I’d say the STAR program worked nicely, anecdotally anyways. Add in the Pizza Hut personal pan pizza rewards. I was zooming through books once I found what I liked. Texas: let’s take things away from the kids.
Pizza Hut must’ve done that everywhere … I wasn’t in Texas for high school. And, I mean, it was a brilliant marketing coup. Everyone I knew in high school wanted Pizza Hut over any other brand. Only once discovering just-off-campus pizza options in college did I discover how truly execrable Pizza Hut was.
ngl I was obsessed with the Pizza Hut program. It was SO fun as a kid.
I’m really concerned about the future… Without education & resources, we’ll start raising isolated and less empathetic people, and things will just get worse…
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