Seems like they're hoping for the TX Supreme Court to bail them out, because the PIA (FOIA for Texas) is pretty clear this is mostly not covered (other than info on crime victims) [0].
Very well. Criminally, presume they are innocent. Professionally, these employees have refused to answer to their boss, the public, therefore they should all be fired for insubordination. If no one in the entire police/school board are willing to release records then simply fire everyone from the top down.
> … "then simply fire everyone from the top down."
I feel that this is how politicians who have abdicated their duties / responsibilities (nearly every single one of them, sadly) should be handled as well.
Outside of actions that exclusively benefit the politician (generic abuse of power, bribery, etc), that would be an impossible threshold to clear in a representative democracy - given the whole prevention-of-majority-tyranny raison d'etre.
But what we have here is nakedly self serving and at the expense of everyone who isn't them: they're refusing to release records on the grounds that they're "highly embarrassing" and capture their state of "emotional/mental distress". The only way that one could argue that it isn't self serving: by forcing them to comply with the law you establish a precedent that would discourage police departments from cowardly doing nothing as children are murdered - because the knowledge that they can't sweep their misdeeds under the rug would pressure them into doing their jobs. I look forward to hearing that argument, and how this is actually a selfless act - heroic even, in service to all future feckless cops.
i absolutely agree with the sentiment, but this issue is much wider than police departments.
the people are supposed to have privacy while power (of all sorts) gives transparency.
in front of our eyes this is being flipped on its head: power is asserting all privacy while demanding that we—the public plebes—give up ours.
much of this community have been fighting against losing this privacy for years.
the piece that hasn’t been getting as much voice is how power is becoming far less transparent and refusing to answer anything. (and yes, flooding a topic with noise making it impossible to find signal on an issue is the opposite of transparency.)
and for you partisan hacks, this is both parties, and yes, this includes your favorite cult figure.
it’s being flipped on its head. the countless recent police incidents is just one of many many many incidents.
I think the real myth is that power was ever transparent. Power has always behaved this way. We just get raised to believe power has generally been nice to us, so it looks like things have recently eroded when we begin to see the truth.
15 comments
[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 34.8 ms ] thread[0]: https://texas.staterecords.org/foia
> Prompt access to non-confidential or otherwise protected information
Yes... Prompt I'm sure.
I feel that this is how politicians who have abdicated their duties / responsibilities (nearly every single one of them, sadly) should be handled as well.
But what we have here is nakedly self serving and at the expense of everyone who isn't them: they're refusing to release records on the grounds that they're "highly embarrassing" and capture their state of "emotional/mental distress". The only way that one could argue that it isn't self serving: by forcing them to comply with the law you establish a precedent that would discourage police departments from cowardly doing nothing as children are murdered - because the knowledge that they can't sweep their misdeeds under the rug would pressure them into doing their jobs. I look forward to hearing that argument, and how this is actually a selfless act - heroic even, in service to all future feckless cops.
the people are supposed to have privacy while power (of all sorts) gives transparency.
in front of our eyes this is being flipped on its head: power is asserting all privacy while demanding that we—the public plebes—give up ours.
much of this community have been fighting against losing this privacy for years.
the piece that hasn’t been getting as much voice is how power is becoming far less transparent and refusing to answer anything. (and yes, flooding a topic with noise making it impossible to find signal on an issue is the opposite of transparency.)
and for you partisan hacks, this is both parties, and yes, this includes your favorite cult figure.
it’s being flipped on its head. the countless recent police incidents is just one of many many many incidents.
I think the real myth is that power was ever transparent. Power has always behaved this way. We just get raised to believe power has generally been nice to us, so it looks like things have recently eroded when we begin to see the truth.