A cop’s decision to sport a body camera and search a Massachusetts middle school for a book has raised serious concerns among civil liberties experts, a new report shows.
The Berkshire Eagle reported Wednesday on mounting fears after the Great Barrington plainclothes police officer who entered an eighth grade classroom at W.E.B. Du Bois Regional Middle School.
“Police going into schools and searching for books is the sort of thing you hear about in communist China and Russia," Ruth A. Bourquin, senior and managing attorney for the ACLU of Massachusetts, told the local news outlet. "What are we doing?”
For their part, police say they were obligated to investigate a complaint about the book “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe, a memoir about gender identity that contains sexually explicit illustrations and language, the report notes.
But Great Barrington Police Chief Paul Storti said in a statement, “Because this complaint was made directly to the police department, we are obligated and have a duty to examine the complaint further."
I call bullshit, and would like to see the law and/or court rulings that support this assertion.
Because if cops have no duty to protect the public, then in what sense do they have a duty to take this complaint seriously?
You are right they have no duty to protect the public, their job is to maintain the status quo and defend capitalist interests. Two guesses into which category searching for this book in a middle school falls under.
When people say police have no duty to protect the public, they are talking about a legal affirmative duty to act.
Usually the law does not impose a duty to act. If you see someone drowning, it’s not negligent to NOT jump into the water and save the person. You can stand there and watch your neighbor’s kid drown and you’re neither breaking the law nor being negligent. Even if your neighbor’s kid screams for help and looks right at you and says please help me, it’s legal to do nothing: there is no affirmative duty to rescue.
It’s the same for police. The exception are when there is a fiduciary relationship, if you created the peril, or if you start rescuing someone you can’t leave them worse off. Usually these exceptions don’t apply to police, even if you call and ask for help, they have no duty to act. That doesn’t mean they won’t show up and do their best. Just means you can’t sue them for negligence if they fail to save you.
Therapists, doctors, lawyers, architects, have legal duties to act.
It’s the same for police. The exception are when there is a fiduciary relationship, if you created the peril, or if you start rescuing someone you can’t leave them worse off. Usually these exceptions don’t apply to police, even if you call and ask for help, they have no duty to act.
Clear takeaway: when they said “Because this complaint was made directly to the police department, we are obligated and have a duty to examine the complaint further" it really means they wanted to do it but didn’t want to be held responsible for wanting that. (after all, if they had no choice in the matter it’s not their fault they’re doing ghoulish police-state things most people don’t want done)
So I wonder:
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Does MA have some statutory requirement, such as how many states have statutes requiring police to followup to a 911 hangup call, perhaps requiring a response to complaints about sexual deviance with children or something, and perhaps the police had no choice but to make contact with the teacher. They didn’t find the book. Could have been showing up a friendly warning of a nutjob parent, and the ACLU is taking liberty with the term.
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What was the extent of the search? IMO, even showing up at the school and entering the classroom whilst having eyeballs, let alone a camera, is a search.
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What the fuck is wrong with parents that they can’t have these conversations with their kids, or… Fuck, I don’t know, check the book out at the library and read it to their kid and talk about it in a context they are comfortable with? Oh k forgot, that requires emotional intelligence and these people who try to control their environment instead of their emotions are fucking ghouls that nobody wants to fuck.
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I’m not sure why this had to be typed out.
Anyone who has had their bike stolen or car broken into or otherwise be victim of a crime the police don’t really care about knows this is not the case. You’ll be told to come in and fill out a form, or if you’re lucky you might have someone call you and fill out the form for you. They’re not going to send a cop out for that, and the form doesn’t really get acted on, it’s just for records keeping.
The last time I had my car broken into, they sent an officer out to take the report. They, of course, did nothing with that report, and I found the person who had broken into my car later through reliable sources.
For a while, I had a partner who lived in Harlem. Their apartment was broken into multiple times by forced entry via the fire escape.
I remember the cops laughing as they took the report, which we only filed to get the insurance claims. Nothing was done other than sending out two officers to spend five minutes taking the report. I’m not saying they need to find every stolen laptop in NYC, though. I’m just saying that they absolutely choose how to investigate and resource complaints.
Last time I had my car broken into they told me to file a report online. It took them over a year to send a form letter reply saying they got it.
Yeah I don’t want my police spinning their wheels hunting for a used bike. The police time and resources could pay for a new bike.
Unfortunately, that’s not the tradeoff the police department offers. And we do need to distinguish between relative and absolute values. Relative to myself, having a multi-thousand dollar bike loss isn’t all that big of a deal, and I have insurance anyway. For others who depend on their bikes as their primary mode of transportation and who don’t have the ability to just walk into a bike store and slap down a credit card without thinking twice, it’s a much bigger deal. For those people, their lives are impacted as much as a car theft would on someone else.
I do get that we have limited resources and they need to be used for more serious violations, but by that same token book banning isn’t one, and would not have required an officer to physically investigate. This is about purely fascistic thought control and book banning. Honestly, I would have preferred that cop go track down a stolen bike ring.
I agree with all of this. Especially the part about insuring against risks you cannot afford. How much was your policy? I imagine it’s less than $100 per year.
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“Pro Tip” I learned looking up camera insurance - don’t get specific item insurance, if for whatever reason you’re not doing a home insurance rider contact an insurance agent to get you a Inland Marine policy (I have no idea about the naming). I got like $11,000 in coverage for ~ $150 a year, with a $100 deductible. Covers theft and me breaking it accidentally.
EDIT: And how this relates is it seems like you can schedule just about anything with a serial # and declared value via the agent on the policy.
I have to confess that I don’t remember. I carry riders on my other policy for high value items like my camera gear and bike. It all goes into a lump sum that just gets auto paid annually.
But you’re right - they’re fairly inexpensive to insure.
I carry riders on my…bike.
A rider’s rider rider.
The full news article states that they do not have that authority, this is just ass covering by wanna be heroes of oppression.
This “report” was done anonymously probably for the reason they knew it was BS, and just looking at the report should have been enough to dismiss it. At the very most a phone call to see if the school wanted to handle it, but sending an officer should get all involved parties suspended without pay. That principal should have also called bullshit and never escorted a cop to a classroom to search for a book. They should also be suspended and the policy gone over again on what to do with these bullshit book banning “reports” (deleted/recycled).
Edit - extra shit
The problem with the principal refusing to escort the officer is then they are obstructing a police investigation, and that is a crime. It isn’t fair to put this burden on them, the blame lies squarely with the police chain of command.
In fact the root problem of all things police is that once police decide to do something, even if that thing is illegal, interfering is a crime.
This is how we end up with people being charged with resisting arrest, and no other crimes that would warrant an arrest. This is also how we end up with a bunch of people live streaming George Floyd’s execution, because stopping a cop from killing someone is a crime.
Should have asked them to come back with a warrant as that is within his legal rights. The officer had no reason to suspect any real harm to any child in a school classroom after hours (this all happened after school was out for the day).
With a complaint and a full description of the offense, the officer had cause to force entry.
Same as if someone called in a suspicious package, they wouldn’t need a warrant to gain entry.
Society gives police an incredible amount of leeway.
On the complaint of a book? I’ll call bullshit on that, and no way that would hold up in any sane court. A book is not something that should give police any probable cause, and really something that the police shouldn’t even be investigating. Having police coming in to schools to look for books is so far out of what they should be doing the principal should have laughed and called the station to ask what the hell is going on over there.
I agree with you, but it doesn’t change the implications of a police officer having a complaint and a sufficient description to follow up on it without a warrant.
It is at their discretion, same as if you called in that your grandma didn’t answer the phone, they could ignore it or bust down the door. Both would be fully legal.
Court is a different matter. A judge could say there wasn’t cause to search after the fact, but that won’t change what the police do in the moment.
Because this complaint hurt little piggy’s feelings.
Yeah I don’t believe it either. The courts have agreed the cops don’t have to help anyone.
Yeah, but that’s because they don’t want to help people. They actively recruit cops who hate the communities they’re going to police.
So it’s never an issue when they’re asked to do harm. That’s why they became cops.
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Life pro tip: In the middle of a school shooting? Call the cops and say that the gunman is giving away books with gay characters! They would ram and arrest him without hesitation.
“ThErE aRe DrAg QuEeNs ReAdInG tO cHiLdReN. PlEaSe HuRrY!”
in communist China and Russiaor in the history of many US States…
Republicans talk about China so much because they envy their Authoritarian power over the people…
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also, russia is not communist, lol
in {communist China} and {Russia}
The US has been a “post truth” nation a lot longer than many people realize. Easily disproven falsehoods like this have been a part of its culture for decades. I think it’s gaining so much attention now because it’s just getting beyond ridiculous.
Almost as if two entire generations of propaganda during the Cold War was enough to sway the collective consciousness. It doesn’t matter if the WW2 vets or GenZ/Alpha believe it, because they’re not the ones in charge right now. There were two (three, if you count the early millennials) entire generations of people who were raised in and around anti-communist propaganda.
That’s not something the populace will be able to shake off in a few years. That’s the kind of shit that takes literal generations to settle down, because GenX/millennials will need to be the crazy dementia-ridden great grandparents ranting about communists in the soap dispenser before GenZ/Alpha will be able to look at them with pity and go “yeah, okay grandpa. Go back to your Seinfeld reruns and we’ll take care of that for you.”
I think that’s a reference to when it was, not someone saying they are at the moment.
No one is saying Russia is communist today but they were communist.
Neither is China, despite them repeatedly saying they are.
But I think the comment is referring to the past when they were, as opposed to now.
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Over/Under on how many punisher tats this piggy has?
13 - one for each of the original colonies
You say this like they’d be educated.
11 since it’s more than the fingers they used to count.
13 - for the biggest number they can count to
For their part, police say they were obligated to investigate a complaint
Police have wide discretion about how much effort to put into any particular investigation. This is how it should have been handled:
“Hello Mr. Principal. This is the police. We have a complaint about a book called Gender Queer, which allegedly contains obscenity. Do you have that book in your library? You do? Okay, in your expert opinion, as a teacher and principal, do you believe that this book is obscene? No? Okay then, have a nice day.”
Notes made in the database. Investigation fllagged as complete. Complaint unfounded. The school takes responsibility for the content. The parent who complained can take it up with the school board.
Instead the police took it upon themselves to get into the business of determining whether a school library book is obscene. What a stupid quagmire to wander into. Clearly, someone in the police department lacks good judgment.
Okay, in your expert opinion, as a teacher and principal, do you believe that this book is obscene?
lol, imagine a cop recognizing outside expertise and working to deescalate a situation. We can still dream…
Of course, this runs up against the fact that cops are lazy fucks who want to get out of doing paperwork as much as possible. Clearly this particular cop could’ve dropped the issue and expended a minimum of effort on a cursory report, but the fact that they (the cop was unnamed in this article, which seems like important information to include, especially considering all the names of educators that were listed) made it a mission to go full sherlock on this issue indicates that they have an axe to grind about it.
police say they were obligated to investigate a complaint
Are police obligated to do anything? Like… literally anything?
It’s my understanding that it’s up to the department how police conduct themselves. If the department doesn’t do anything about their behavior and the community keeps funding it, then why would cops change?
ACAB
I’m calling the cops!
W.E.B. Du Bois Regional Middle School.
What do we want to bet a school with a name like that has a significant majority of black students? And what do we want to bet that’s why the cop went there?
I live in the area and while I dont have the exact numbers, Great Barrington and the surrounding towns are very predominantly white. The school is named because WEB Du Bois was born in Great Barrington
Sounds French to me.
W. E. B. Du Bois was one of the most prominent writers about the African-American experience and civil rights until his death in the early 1960s. So not French.
I have like 3 coworkers who are black and primarily speak French. Isn’t Louisiana all about black French people? There’s some kind of French stuff going on there, I can taste it!
Last I checked, the people of Louisiana are generally American, not French. Including the black people.
Does that mean the French food is also American or can we describe things with words still?
I have no idea what you’re talking about. Du Bois wasn’t French because he wasn’t a citizen of France. That is what makes someone French.
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W.E.B. Du Bois is a famous black sociologist
Land of the free, as long as you are a fascist
“A book is a loaded gun." - Fahrenheit 451
“If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none." - Fahrenheit 451
This was supposed to dystopian fiction not a fucking playbook.
I need to reread this but it will likely just depress me.
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A cop’s decision to sport a body camera and search…
Why was it his decision to make?
That’s the kind of shit you’d read about in a young adult novel
Not that it makes a huge difference because it’s messed up for this to happen in any scenario, but was this a student’s personal copy of the book? And some other kid snitched on them? I remember taking my copy of Naked Lunch to school back in the 90’s and I’d probably be expelled nowadays if I was in one of these backwater fundie dominated districts.
Well as a new Englander this is barely concerning.
Something tells me that officer should move if he values his personal property. Massholes earned their name.
