Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality

reclaimthenet.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 350 posts

Re: Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality

#141

Post by dlubarov »

markoman wrote: post #43

This type of treatment of citizenry by the State of Texas, and its various (and especially red ) localities should be all one needs to see of where conservatives (and Christian Naitonalism) will take our country in the future -- should they get their way. Republicans hope to enable just such a future by scaring Americans with made-up visions of transsexuals 'grooming' their children, yet they cleverly hide what await…

> the U.S. makes excuses for Israel's attack on its own USS Liberty in 1967.

It's strange how this 59-year-old incident keeps getting brought up. Friendly fire happens all the time, and Israel apologized and paid reparations ages ago.

Re: Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality

#142

Post by majormajor »

aliasxneo wrote: post #104
epistasis wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not a fair assumption in the current political environment. Those who have lots of money will get fair hearings under the court, but those with less power might not. There's a reason people like Elon Musk write into agreements that they must be settled in particular Texas courts.

I don't think that's the full picture. Activist judges have been a problem for awhile now, and it seems to be mostly influenced by ideology rather than purely money.

It's certainly obviously true that one political party used "we will find judges who will overturn one particular court case" as a fundamental part of their campaigning for decades...

Re: Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality

#143

Post by efitz »

ryandrake wrote: post #122
vjvjvjvjghv wrote: post #8

I assume she will get a settlement, the city (the taxpayer) will pay for it and nothing else changes. There will be even less money for infrastructure repair and people will keep voting for the same people.

The point of the arrest was not to win. The point was to inconvenience the whistleblower, cause her grief, and maybe as a bonus make her spend a night or two in jail. Nobody doing this remotely believed that they wouldn't have to settle. They did it to show that if you speak out against them, they'll arrest and inconvenience you. So the next person who gets a thought to speak out might decide not to bother. Same for…

The process is the punishment.

Re: Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality

#144

Post by georgeecollins »

crnkofe wrote: post #120
SilverElfin wrote: post #10

The craziest part is the police defending this action as a “cut and dry” case. Meanwhile the lawsuit this woman just filed will hurt taxpayers and not the corrupt city officials and police that caused this. We need to ban all forms of immunity - none for cops, politicians, or judges. They need to be personally liable for their actions.

This entire debacle weirds me out. Surely the police is aware of the water issues. They drink from the same tap as the locals do. What would a sane person call arresting people that publicly call out that your water supply is obviously contaminated?

That would not necessarily be the case in my town. We have police who don't live in the county and fireman who don't live in the state. (Los Angeles)

Re: Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality

#145

Post by paconbork »

p_j_w wrote: post #103
thekingshorses wrote: post #89

This week, there was two different settlement close to $800K related to someone posting and getting arrested about what charlie kirk said. This woman shouldn't settle for anything less.

Do you have information on this? I’m curious to see.

Here's a post about it from FIRE, the org that defended him https://www.fire.org/news/victory-tennessee-man-jailed-37-da...

Re: Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality

#146

Post by sirsinsalot »

mvdtnz wrote: post #47

How does a town in the richest nation in the history of the planet not have the resources to get clear drinking water flowing through their taps?

Because the US is a third world country cosplaying as a developed nation. Much like their president is a corrupt and morally bankrupt fool cosplaying as a politician.

It doesn't matter in the US. Just pretend.

Re: Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality

#148

Post by golem14 »

autoexec wrote: post #88
snazypaparazzi wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Federal government enforces a few rules and then leaves things to the state and people. Obviously that means the state and people have no nanny to protect them from consequences of their decisions. If they drain their budgets fighting the civil rights of their population instead of fixing a problem then they might look like a lot of bankrupt municipalities. The US is obligated to let that happen.

Not really. The federal government bails Texas out of the messes they get themselves into all the time (like their shitty power grid). Historically, Texas has often received more in federal funding than it contributes in federal taxes.

Is the Texas power grid shitty? Say, compare to California’s?

Re: Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality

#149

Post by cortesoft »

ryandrake wrote: post #122
vjvjvjvjghv wrote: post #8

I assume she will get a settlement, the city (the taxpayer) will pay for it and nothing else changes. There will be even less money for infrastructure repair and people will keep voting for the same people.

The point of the arrest was not to win. The point was to inconvenience the whistleblower, cause her grief, and maybe as a bonus make her spend a night or two in jail. Nobody doing this remotely believed that they wouldn't have to settle. They did it to show that if you speak out against them, they'll arrest and inconvenience you. So the next person who gets a thought to speak out might decide not to bother. Same for…

This is why the saying “you can beat the rap but you can’t beat the ride” exists.

They know the charges won’t stick, they are using the process of fighting the charges itself as the punishment.

Post reply on HN