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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • And in an unusual step, Sheriff Mike Chitwood of Volusia County, Fla., this week posted pictures and videos of an 11-year-old who was charged in a fake school shooting threat, part of a pledge to take a tough stance on the wave of threats.

    That’s counter productive in a couple of ways

    Not only is this sheriff’s publicity stunt harmful to children, but it also risks fueling contagion around both threats of violence and actual school shootings. It’s also vindictive. At a news conference last Friday, Chitwood said, “Every time we make an arrest, your kid’s photo is going to be put out there and if I can do it, I’m gonna perp walk your kid so that everybody can see what your kid’s up to.”

    This is exactly the kind of law enforcement message that reporters should examine and challenge, rather than mindlessly repeat.





  • The article beneath the headline actually says

    Johnson then put one hand around Joyner’s neck and took out his service weapon, putting the barrel of the Glock-22 to Joyner’s temple.

    FWIW, headlines and subtitles usually aren’t written by the journalist bylining the piece, they’re typically handled by an editor who supervises a bunch of journalists reporting out a bunch of different stories and decides which to publish when (or, more likely, which to forward on to a committee of more senior editors who will decide which of those to publish and when).

    So I’d bet an editor read through this story in about 90 seconds and then just said something like, “‘Glock 22’ obviously isn’t going to tell the average reader anything because I don’t know what that is, so let’s just say ‘revolver’ because it’s all the same to me. Now, on to the three dozen other stories I need to review because my bosses keep cutting our staffing and I’m doing three people’s jobs.”



















  • Close, but she’s not being sued, she’s actually being criminally prosecuted on six felony charges

    Isn’t that fucking special.

    In-fucking-deed it is

    What are they going to do about the bad cops?

    They all already got a variety of punishments (generally not harsh enough imo, but their conduct runs all the way from rigging an intramural athletic competition to driving drunk with a loaded firearm, so it’s a bit of a complicated picture and worth reading the full article for those details). She was looking them up after the fact so the prosecutor’s office she works for now (Los Angeles county) didn’t call on them to testify in court (or, if they had to call them for whatever reason, so her office knew to let defense attorneys know about this as theoretically required under the Brady opinion (but exactly what things are Brady material and what can be ignored is something attorneys will be fighting over until the end of time and something I believe LA county and the CA attorney general have argued over in recent history)).