High school senior suspended, arrested after posting a toy gun on social media

a reply to: TheRedneck

I think so TR Unfortunately, I can't see how this ends well for our nation. I believe radical changes in accountability/insurance requirements would really harm policing as a whole. Unfortunately these incidents make it that much easier to sell these ideas to a population desperate for this NONSENSE to stop

I don't see citizens accepting these abuses much longer. And unfortunately it *will* be the vast majority of sane & good LEOs who take the heat for this.

But clearly there is no other choices. Some departments, as we've seen recently, will apparently hire anybody regardless of their personal intelligence level or common sense. Too bad civil service doesn't test common sense (it does test common knowledge, but not good "sense")

originally posted by: BotheLumberJack
a reply to: Kandinsky

Much like Middle East issues, there's no solution.

Shirly people realize that.

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

I am serious. And don 't call me Shirley!



Priceless IIB

Here’s the part I don’t get:

How in the world is it any of the school’s damned business what any kid posts on social media?? Social media is not part of school, has nothing to do with school and is not a platform provided by or linked to school in any way. Since when did schools become the Facebook/instagram/Snapchat thought police??

If my kid posts something offensive on social media, that is MY kid and MY BUSINESS, and is between my child and me. No one else. I don’t need the school to tell me how to raise my son or to tell me what he should or should not be doing.

This last week, in the town of Comanche, about ten miles down the road from us, a teenage boy posted a video to Instagram of himself loading a gun. He said nothing threatening or anything like that, he was just loading his gun. It was a huge deal, the schools were locked down, the boy was taken to the pokey, cops were called, the boy’s home and belongings were searched....because he posted a video of himself loading a gun.

He wasn’t loading the gun at school, never said he was planning to bring the gun to school, never threatened anyone. It is NOT against any law that I’m aware of to load your gun. And if the boy was not loading the gun on school property, did not even possess the gun on school property.....so there’s no way to actually link the gun to anything at the school....then why does the school have the authority to have this boy arrested and his home searched?

We live in a very redneck, rural area. I’d imagine that the vast majority of homes in my county are armed. My son is 13 and owns a B.B. gun, a shotgun and a rifle. And it’s my responsibility to keep the guns locked up and to teach him proper firearm care and control. Not the school’s responsibility, but mine.

Hmmmm....you know, maybe if the schools would back up and go back to do their originally intended job of educating our children - like teaching them cursive, real-world mathematics, and proper grammar - and butt out of their private lives (which were never any of their damned business in the first place!), and let the parents actually parent without interference, maybe things would get better. Because right now, from what I’ve seen, we are wasting a ton of time and resources harassing innocent kids and their parents.

I mean, so now every time a kid posts a photo or video of a toy or real gun, we are going to lock down all the schools, call in cops who could be out there protecting us from actual criminals, and then we completely traumatize a kid and teach them that the school owns them and that they have no rights, even when they aren’t breaking any laws, by arresting them and taking them to jail.

Or maybe this is just the way the government wants it to go....traumatize all of the younger generation of kids where guns are concerned so that they will be terrified of firearms and give them up willingly....?

originally posted by: DustbowlDebutante
Here’s the part I don’t get:

How in the world is it any of the school’s damned business what any kid posts on social media?? Social media is not part of school, has nothing to do with school and is not a platform provided by or linked to school in any way. Since when did schools become the Facebook/instagram/Snapchat thought police??

If my kid posts something offensive on social media, that is MY kid and MY BUSINESS, and is between my child and me. No one else. I don’t need the school to tell me how to raise my son or to tell me what he should or should not be doing.

This last week, in the town of Comanche, about ten miles down the road from us, a teenage boy posted a video to Instagram of himself loading a gun. He said nothing threatening or anything like that, he was just loading his gun. It was a huge deal, the schools were locked down, the boy was taken to the pokey, cops were called, the boy’s home and belongings were searched....because he posted a video of himself loading a gun.

He wasn’t loading the gun at school, never said he was planning to bring the gun to school, never threatened anyone. It is NOT against any law that I’m aware of to load your gun. And if the boy was not loading the gun on school property, did not even possess the gun on school property.....so there’s no way to actually link the gun to anything at the school....then why does the school have the authority to have this boy arrested and his home searched?

We live in a very redneck, rural area. I’d imagine that the vast majority of homes in my county are armed. My son is 13 and owns a B.B. gun, a shotgun and a rifle. And it’s my responsibility to keep the guns locked up and to teach him proper firearm care and control. Not the school’s responsibility, but mine.

Hmmmm....you know, maybe if the schools would back up and go back to do their originally intended job of educating our children - like teaching them cursive, real-world mathematics, and proper grammar - and butt out of their private lives (which were never any of their damned business in the first place!), and let the parents actually parent without interference, maybe things would get better. Because right now, from what I’ve seen, we are wasting a ton of time and resources harassing innocent kids and their parents.

I mean, so now every time a kid posts a photo or video of a toy or real gun, we are going to lock down all the schools, call in cops who could be out there protecting us from actual criminals, and then we completely traumatize a kid and teach them that the school owns them and that they have no rights, even when they aren’t breaking any laws, by arresting them and taking them to jail.

Or maybe this is just the way the government wants it to go....traumatize all of the younger generation of kids where guns are concerned so that they will be terrified of firearms and give them up willingly....?

a reply to: JBurns

And unfortunately it *will* be the vast majority of sane & good LEOs who take the heat for this.

Sadly, you are probably correct. No good deed ever goes unpunished; only bad deeds do.

I wish I had an answer...

TheRedneck

originally posted by: TinfoilTP
Kid could get rich with the right lawyer, defamation of character, false arrest.

Was going to say...I would love for the cops to come search my house... Better have proper search warrants, and even with that, they better have good probable cause. Are cops just stupid? Can't tell what is toy, or even a phone to a real gun?

My daughters have toy bow & arrows. I imagine with the current mentality that they'd wind up being investigated if pictures of their (rather accurate) plastic bows were posted, too.

a reply to: JBurns

You never seen Airplane?

The movies just hardly ever make such comedy anymore.

originally posted by: Subaeruginosa
I think you guys have done to yourselves... With all the endless threads I saw on ATS alone, after the Parkland shooting, of (apparently) freedom loving Americans claiming it was the fbi/police's fault because they didn't illegally detain Cruz or take his gun, simply because he made a disturbing post on social media.

What did people think all that criticism of the authorities not taking enough 'pre-cautionary' action, on social media and by the alt-right MSM was going to result in?

“The haft of the arrow had been feathered with one of the eagles own plumes. We often give our enemies the means of our own destruction.”
― Aesop

Same thing with youtube/google and the whole elsagate stuff. People in conspiracy circles crying about them not policing their sites better and now a bunch of fringe channels they watched are being removed after youtube/google start policing their sites more. Forethought isnt something they are known for.

a reply to: Vector99

So then he placed a threat online? I personally saw no threat in those pictures or intended threatening language. Was the item he posted illegal for him to own? I'm pretty sure airsoft guns are legal in most if not all states. Was the picture sent by him to the school or taken on school grounds? I'm certain it was taken in his private home where it was again legally possessed and done so in a non threatening manner.

Bottom line it's time to sue the school system, police, county and any other entity who just trampled his 1st, 4th amendment rights. He has the right to publish any picture with any words that are not a call to violence and he has the right to be secure in his papers and property without the evidence of a crime. Multi million dollar case that's easy to win.

a reply to: Pyle

Sorta big difference between the two. Cruz had made actual threats both online and in person that he intended to shoot up a school. He told the police directly he would be a school shooter. Police had multiple calls about his threats and had been given evidence from multiple sources that he was violent and emotionally unstable. The school had been aware of his proclivity to violence and banned him from coming on campus with back packs.

had the police done their jobs and arrested him for the violent outbursts he had or the assault on his former girlfriend or the multitude of other violent and anti social behaviors he would not have been able to get a gun in the first place.... also he had been committed to a mental health facility which bars you from purchasing a weapon.

originally posted by: IgnoranceIsntBlisss
a reply to: JBurns

You never seen Airplane?

The movies just hardly ever make such comedy anymore.

An avi ive used

a reply to: JBurns