BASEBALL EATS THE SHOW AT 12:30 So let's get busy giving you something to read or listen to.
DON'T FORGET ABOUT MURDER PHONE! If you missed my interview with Tony Ciaglia about how his recovery from a horrible Traumatic Brain Injury led him to talk to and correspond with serial killers start with that interview here. Then check out his podcast about those serial killers Murder Phone by clicking here. The first episode is retelling of how he started this process and it drags a bit, just an fyi.
OF COURSE YOU CAN LISTEN TO GRANT'S PODCAST I don't know who today's episode is about but you can find them all here.
AN INTERESTING TAKE ON SROs IN SCHOOLS I was not expecting this one. A parent organization is asking questions about SRO's in Denver Public Schools which is good, parents are really paying attention. Except this comment from a parent in the Black Family Advisory Council jumped out at me:
“We want to create a plan and some policies and procedures so that our kids are safe while these SROs are in our schools,” council chair Tiffany Grays said.
That seems reasonable, except she means keep her kids safe FROM SROs. Also from the story:
The council says it’s ready to collaborate to make sure students are safe and protected from officers who might mistreat them.
“We as a community as a whole haven’t had any answers about: What are SROs doing? What are they not supposed to do? How are schools supposed to use them?” Grays asked.
To be clear, I am NOT criticizing parents looking out for the safety of their children. What I want to know is what incidents of SROs mistreating black students at Denver Public Schools are there and why haven't they been made public, student's name redacted of course? This got me going down a rabbit hole about the Denver Public School Board's decision to remove SROs back in 2020 because surely if there were evidence of SROs mistreating children it would have been discussed when the Board kicked them out. Let me share with you some of the fine, fine work of one Mr. Tay Anderson. I care less about what name he goes by now than I do his pronouns. He and Jennifer Bacon instigated this because of the George Floyd protests. Not because of something or someone who happened at DPS. When commenting on Facebook after the vote to kick out SROs, Tay had this to say via CNN.com:
“Last night we voted to end the contract with Denver Police, but this was never about an individual officer,” Anderson wrote.
“It was about dismantling a system that has held children of color down for far too long. I know that this change comes with critics and doubts on our ability to lead this district forward, but together we will craft a brighter future to ensure all students are safe in our schools and are no longer thrusted into the school to prison pipeline.”
The only bit of what may be considered evidence (it is one piece of a bigger question, imo) is about ticket and arrest statistics from DPS:
Denver public school students were ticketed or arrested at school more than 4,500 times between fall 2014 and spring 2019, according to Colorado Division of Criminal Justice statistics compiled by Padres & Jóvenes Unidos, a Denver-based civil rights group.
About 87% of the 679 Denver students who received a summons and 83% of 65 students who were arrested at school during the 2018-19 academic year were nonwhite, according to state statistics. Such students comprised 75% of the district’s student population.
So the assumption is racism at work. Though according to this part of the article above:
Most officers serving in Denver schools are black or Hispanic and grew up in the communities they serve, said Derek Hawkins, dean of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Early College.
They often write tickets or make arrests after school administrators ask them to step in, he said — which points to a bigger problem of racial discrimination in schools. “Our personnel are just as responsible for these tickets being issued,” (emphasis mine) he said.
I don't know the racial makeup of SROs in Denver, but if this accurate it does make racism seem to be the less likely issue. The question I'm left with, do black and brown kids act up more or are teachers and administrators racists? We spend a lot of time on the second question and not enough on the first. There is a possibility that black and brown kids do act up more. There just is. Which leads me to my earlier question of the Black Family Advisory group above: have your children been targeted, harassed, mistreated or otherwise harmed by an SRO? If so, I beg you to come forward. That is unacceptable at any level and the people responsible should be held accountable. I hope you get your concerns addressed by the school board so we can come to a place where every child feels safe. That being said, is this happening or are there just fears of it happening? I'd genuinely like to know.
THESE ARE THE CUTEST LITTLE ARAPAHOE SHERIFF'S DEPUTIES The department just welcomed a couple of new four legged officers and you must see them here.
JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT COLORADO COULDN'T MAKE IT WORSE TO BE A LANDLORD A new, even worse bill is being lofted at the Gold Dome. Senate Bill 23-184 would make it illegal for a landlord to do a credit check on a tenant, inquire about late payments, or rental history if that person has a housing subsidy. If they don't have a housing subsidy, the landlord can't ask about their income other than to be sure that it is at least 125% of the total of a year of rent, or that they made payments on time for the LAST THREE MONTHS of their current lease. Y'all 125% of a year's lease is ridiculous. How are they going to live if they are paying well over a third of their income in rent??? Then it gets worse. The landlord is required to accept THE FIRST applicant they get and they are required to time stamp every application to prove to the state they are doing that. I'm just going to say it, I'm not going to rent to someone who makes me feel uncomfortable (while not violating discrimination rules of course) just because they applied first. This bill is an absolute disaster and will drive all the small mom and pop landlords out of Colorado and into other markets. I know it will do just that thing for me. It's almost like these people don't know anyone who owns a rental property.
SHOULD A BOOK SHOWING SCHOOL SHOOTINGS REMAIN IN MIDDLE SCHOOLS? There is a hue and cry from parents who want books explicitly showing sexual acts between young people left in middle school libraries continues, I'd like to add this one to the conversation. Even if you think pornography should be available in school libraries (I do NOT) do you believe a graphic novel called "Assassination Classroom" belongs in those libraries too? Sure it contains images of students shooting at teachers, but the crux of the story is that the kids have been tasked by the government with the job of killing an alien teacher who will destroy the world at the end of the school year unless they stop him. But still? Can we just wait until High school for school shooting graphic novels? Just a thought. I don't think kids will miss anything important by not having this in school libraries.
A COLUMN ON THE IDIOCY OF THE DENVER SCHOOL BOARD I talked briefly about this yesterday but Alan Gottlieb does a great job telling you how skewed the priorities of this disastrous board really are here.
DOWNTOWN TARGET LOCKING UP ALUMINUM FOIL TO FOIL DRUGGIES This is fun. The Target store on the 16th street mall is now locking up it's aluminum foil. Why? Because drug addicts were not only stealing it they were using it to smoke drugs IN THE STORE. Now it's under lock and key. One wonders how long that store will be open.
BOEBERT PULLS A PRIMARY OPPONENT Russ Andrews is a Roaring Fork Republican and financial adviser who has had enough from Lauren Boebert. He had this to say about the sitting Congresswoman:
“She has shown more of her true colors since then,” he said. “It’s time for her to move on. She’s puerile, she’s truculent, she’s divisive, she’s not terribly informed, I don’t think. I don’t shoot from the hip. I’m willing to do my homework. I don’t see that from her.”
He decided to challenge her because of her actions when the Republicans narrowly regained control of the U.S. House in the last election and selected a speaker. Boebert was among a contingent of far-right House members who held up the election of Kevin McCarthy. Boebert had a regular presence in national media expressing views that many felt were divisive within the party.
Let's see if he can raise enough money to unseat Boebert, who already has Democrat Adam Frisch to worry about. She barely squeaked out a victory over him last time in the general election.
CENSORING RUN AMOK John Stossel reminds of us the censorship that the media jumped all in on during Covid. Just watch this.
THIS MAN ACCIDENTALLY RED PILLED HIMSELF This is fascinating.
THIS IS LIKE A DAD JOKE PERSONIFIED
HERE ARE FIVE TRAFFIC LAWS YOU MAY NOT KNOW IN COLORADO The biggest one is LANE SPLITTING IS ILLEGAL people on motorcycles! Oh, and you can get a DUI on a bicycle.
OMG I LOVE ELON MUSK EVEN MORE AFTER THIS Because he's asking for a SINGLE example of hateful content and this reporter gets caught flat footed lying about it. I've not seen a single change (aside from the occasional bugginess here and there) since Musk took over and I truly think the narrative that Twitter has become (more of a) cesspool is just wishful thinking by those who want Musk and free speech to fail. The entire thread by Glenn Greenwald about how the progressive elite gets to decide what is "hateful" and what is not is worth your time.