When 36th District Court Judge Kenneth King made a spectacle of a teenaged girl on a field trip, he undermined the system he's supposed to serve.
Detroit judge who threatened sleepy teen with jail sends message to Black community
It’s bad enough that young Black folks nationally are disproportionately jailed. Now Detroit has a judge who threatened a teen with jail time for falling asleep.
And now we wonder why Black teenagers — and their older peers — don’t trust the court system to deliver justice. We wonder why so many don’t believe law enforcement will deal fairly with them, and why they run from police.
The Black Lives Matter movement is not only about abuse during arrests, but extends to justice in courtrooms throughout America, both the punishment of criminal cops and justice for those unfairly imprisoned alike.
And I’m sure that many Black folks, watching this kangaroo court on YouTube, couldn’t have faith in our justice system.
If - while he's still innocent and not yet proved guilty - they didnt pay him, and either he appealed or something reversed or delayed the charges, he'd have a case that they tried to make him quit or that lawsuits - even the frivolous ones - are punitive.
So paying a guy while he's removed from duty pending an investigation is 99% shitty and also the least-worse thing to do at the same time.
He was temporarily removed from his criminal cases while he undergoes training. Technically yes, he was "removed from the bench" but that is misleading as it makes it seem like he was fired, which he was not.
And now it turns out that the 15-year-old girl is homeless, the Free Press reported Thursday. Eva Goodman's mother, Latoreya Till, told a reporter that the family does not have a permanent residence.
What an asshole.
I’d recommend listening to S3 of the Serial podcast. They spent a year in the Cleveland criminal justice system to really understand the American justice system. It was grim.
I imagine an unhoused teenager might be just a little bit more tired than most.
Big red flag anytime someone says they don't like someone's "attitude". He didn't feel she gave him enough respect, so he abused his authority to humiliate and punish her. He should be permanently removed from the bench.
That season pissed me off so bad. So fucking crazy that shit is happening and nothing is being done about it. I highly advise anyone who hasn’t heard it to go play - i couldn’t stop listening once i started.
I've known many fellow teachers who would get so mad about kids falling asleep in their class. I found that if you just asked the kids what was going on, 90% of the time it was some awful home-life issue. 10% lame teaching.
I don't understand authority figures that get angry when someone is falling asleep in their presence. They're not falling asleep out of spite. This reminds me of teachers who'd say "if you want to sleep, then do it at home" as if the student had a choice of catching up on sleep instead of having to get up early and sit through class, barely able to keep their head up.
Teachers get points docked on their evaluations if more than 3 kids are not paying attention, or if more than 10% of the students fail.
I wish that I could have a safe environment where a student could get what they needed, but I have to meet the metrics.
Please don't denigrate teachers without getting the full picture that these are policies are from the district and not necessarily the personal vendetta of a rogue teacher.
There's a pretty big difference between "I am required to wake you up by the rules of the school (district)" and "I don't want you to sleep because it means I am not being listened to."
A sleepy student isn't learning whether they're awake or not, and if they're that tired they're not paying attention no matter how hard they try. Physiological needs come first. If it's impossible for you to ensure those needs are met for your students, it is impossible to do the job you've been set. This isn't a problem with the students, it's a problem with the job.
I don’t think that’s relevant. A black cop killing a black man is still a cop killing a black man. It’s the institutions and systems that are racist and thus folks within them that also act that way. Hence the whole bad apple thing.
Honestly nobody should trust the American court system. Maybe if you're obscenely wealthy. That's about it though. We all know it's a system designed to fail us. Designed to destroy us.