A kinder, gentler response to a mass school shooting:
The Texas student who allegedly opened fire at his high school, injuring four people, including a teacher, was sprung from jail on Thursday afternoon — as an attorney who joined him insisted that the case wasn’t a “standard-issue school shooting.”
Timothy George Simpkins, 18, who attends Timberview High School in Arlington, will report to home confinement after he posted $75,000 bond at Tarrant County Jail, news station WFAA reported.
Simpkins, who was wearing a blue baseball cap and graphic T-shirt, didn’t answer questions from reporters as he was escorted from the jailhouse by two relatives into the back seat of a white Mercedes sedan.
Uh, what?
You mean to tell me that authorities suspect this guy of literally opening fire inside of a school building, hitting four people including a faculty member… and they just let him walk out the door?
The media are predictably having a field day with this one, but the young man’s lawyer, for one, is not having any of these alleged false equivalencies:
Civil rights attorney Kim T. Cole, who spoke on behalf of the family, blasted reporters outside the jail for portraying the dangerous incident as a “standard-issue school shooting.”
“There are numerous school shootings that have occurred across this country which are tragic. All school shootings are tragic,” Cole said. “However, in this situation, this was not someone who was just out to go and shoot a school and had made up their mind [and said,] ‘You know hey I’m upset and I’m just going to shoot anyone I see.'”
“That was not the situation here. So I request the media correct their narrative with regard to what happened, and that you all respect the family’s privacy,” she continued.
Ohhhh! This wasn’t a “standard-issue school shooting.“
Go here to read the rest. The tried-his-best-to-be-a-murderer was given a welcome home party by his family. Heart-warming. The Magistrate Judge put him on home confinement and electronic ankle monitoring, but this seems absurd for an accused mass shooter who definitely poses a huge potential threat to the public.
In comparison a stopped eighteen year old motorist in Mazon, ten miles north of Dwight, on Thursday this week, decided his proper response was to drive off, crash his car, flee on foot, and then shoot at the deputy chasing him. A bullet proof vest stopped two bullets, but the third hit the deputy in the forearm and he will recover. The suspect is being held on ten million dollar bond, and is facing six Class X Felonies-six to thirty years in prison- charges. Go here to read about it.
A school shooter is out on bail after a day in custody, and there are Jan. 6th DC protesters still in jail. Crazy.
Because he’s not the issue. They’re preparing the arrest warrants for 5,000,000 card-carrying, NRA members.
And, Black Lives Matter.
Severely unbalanced scales in the judiciary. The victims? Is it money talks?
Hmmm. Who put up the $75,000 bond…?
His family is rich apparently. His family claims he was bullied at school because of his nice clothes, car and other signs of wealth.
When his photograph was not immediately posted, I correctly assumed he was not white. Imagine a white guy in a Trump hat doing the same thing. A sad state of the nation when the race of the accused has anything to do with his treatment. This is unfortunately where we are.
What a dangerous precedent they’ve just set.
Hmmm. Who put up the $75,000 bond…?
What’s the name of the judge who set the bond at $75,000?
His family claims he was bullied at school because of his nice clothes, car and other signs of wealth.
Non ci credo. Wagers he was bullied for the same reasons everyone else is: because he seemed vulnerable in some way and / or because he has personality defects. His clothes and his car are a hook for the bullying or generate enhancements of it. It wouldn’t surprise me if the purpose of larding him with display goods was to impress his peers, an effort which made things worse.
Judge Brooke E. Panuthos, a Magistrate Judge, the lowest ranking of Judge in the Texas system. She will not be the trial judge. She was a prosecutor prior to being appointed to be a judge. She was still working as a prosecutor in 2019, so she is new to the Bench.
Being a prosecutor is no guarantee of sanity or ability. I served as one for eleven of my forty eight years in the practice of law (ever wonder why lawyers are always “practicing”). The success of most prosecutors is due to the real world presumption of guilt that accompanies most defendants into the courtroom (not that most are not in fact guilty). If you are a defense attorney, always strike any prospective juror who will not admit to you in voir doir that the first thing crossing his mind on seeing the defendant was “I wonder what he\she did”. That is, unless you don’t mind having a liar on the jury.
Being a prosecutor is no guarantee of sanity or ability.
You can say that several times and put it to music!