Land of Information Suppression – Teacher Arrested for Questioning Public Policy

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1. rubycreekboathouse says:

   January 10, 2018 at 13:02

   Alex,

   Valid contention that maybe she didn’t need to be tackled or arrested, but I respectfully disagree with your headline. Seattle Times had the same or similar today and in just a few short words it paints an irresponsible and incomplete picture.

   She was arrested because the chair declared her out of order (not because of the opinion she was expressing, but because she was disrupting the meeting by not following established legal process to express that opinion) and asked her to leave. As a former short-time two-bit public official myself here in our little town I can say for sure that the public process abounds with examples of well-meaning citizens going beyond their allotted comment time, interrupting meetings with shouting, running up to the commission’s desks and pounding their fist, inciting the crowd into an uproar. Sometimes all those things at once (sheesh!). Elected officials are put in place to do the people’s business, and the good ones establish processes whereby the citizens’ concerns can be heard but order can still be maintained at meetings. The best board chairs have solid rules on meeting decorum; they follow and enforce those rules consistently and without bias.

   All that justification aside, and keeping in mind it’s a thirty-second video that we’re all judging without considering the thirty years or more that probably went into the conflict itself, issues remain and need to be addressed.

   * It was horrible execution by the cop, especially if, as is claimed, the teacher was leaving as requested when she was told to. Why did she need to be cuffed and tackled? Cited, maybe, if in fact she broke a law. But cuffed, thrown to the floor, taken to jail? * The school board chair was pretty stupid to make the followup comments he made. He was likely still angry, scared, and overwhelmed about all the public reaction, and his comments reflected that. Sometimes it helps to take a deep breath. * The bigger issue, and only a few of the wack sensationalist media are covering it, is whether the board’s rules of order are enforced consistently. There are claims that men are out of order regularly at the same school board meetings, but not held to the same standards of when to stop talking. Those claims state that women are often noted as out of order, but men are not. That’s a problem, and if true the board is in deep shit for a lawsuit at this point. * A screaming woman in handcuffs makes really bad viral press. Someone should school that cop and his Chief that someone’s always watching with a camera, and any member of the public is free to edit their movie in whatever way is most beneficial to their cause. Meanwhile bodycam footage is public record in its entirety, which is great because after all we the citizens have issued the guy a badge and a gun and the authority to throw a middle school teacher on the ground and slap the cuffs on her. So we should hold him and his police brothers to a far higher standard.

   I really dig your blog, Alex. Usually I’m all for what you write. This time, mmmm, like I said. The news is usually more complex than a slanted headline.

   All the best,

   Bill

   Reply
2. yeomalt says:

   January 10, 2018 at 14:28

   Bill,

   I didn’t see any of this:

   Interrupting meetings with shouting, running up to the commission’s desks and pounding their fist, inciting the crowd into an uproar.

   The group gathered in the meeting seemed to agree more than once that her comment/question was not being answered or addressed.

   “..keeping in mind it’s a thirty-second video that we’re all judging without considering the thirty years or more that probably went into the conflict itself…”

   The duration of the video I posted is 12:36

   I think there a trend in the US these days involving information suppression.

   Some examples here:

   https://oakbaystarfish.com/2013/12/20/land-of-information-suppression/

   https://oakbaystarfish.com/2017/10/06/pledge-allegiance-to-information-suppression/

   https://oakbaystarfish.com/2016/12/08/information-suppression-update-3/

   Alex

   Reply
   • Anonymous says:

     January 10, 2018 at 18:22

     Hi Alex, the meetings I was talking about where all that nasty stuff went down were all from my own experience right here in Oak Harbor. I was not referring to the video. I might add ironically that nobody ever got cuffed, physically abused, or arrested in any of those cases I witnessed.

     You are absolutely right, information suppression sucks, and it is rampant.

     My point there was that in order to have an effective public meeting process, the organizers of the meeting have to have a consistent and fair set of rules that allows public input but still focuses on getting the people’s business done. In the full video you showed, it sure looks like the cop was acting/overreacting autonomously and wasn’t even taking direction from the board chair who was supposed to be running the meeting. Clearly the woman was trying to leave when the cop told her to, even though the board chair had recognized her for comments. In any case the whole thing was nothing but a shit show that really didn’t have to happen.

     Sorry for the comment about the duration of the video. The ones I had seen online prior to this were only about 30 seconds long, and I assumed yours was the same edited version. My mistake, sorry!

     Bill

     Reply
3. yeomalt says:

   January 10, 2018 at 18:46

   Good points Bill.

   Thank you.

   Reply