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Inside the two-year fight to bring charges against school librarians in Granbury, Texas (www.nbcnews.com)
submitted 3 months ago by fpslem@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
16 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The law enforcement officer spent months methodically gathering evidence. He leafed through thousands of pages and highlighted key passages amid reams and reams of paper. He wore his body camera to record his interactions with witnesses and suspects. And he photographed what he saw as instruments of the alleged crime:

Books.

The targets of the investigation? Three school librarians in Granbury, Texas. The allegation? They had allowed children to access literature — such as “The Bluest Eye,” by Toni Morrison — that the officer, Scott London, a chief deputy constable, had deemed obscene.

In an extraordinary look into the ramifications of the right-wing backlash against books dealing with racism, gender, sex and sexuality, an 824-page investigative file obtained by NBC News and NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth shows how, for two years, London vigorously pursued felony charges against librarians in the Granbury Independent School District.

London secured subpoenas, filed public records requests, received names of students who’d checked out certain books and, after a year, wrote draft criminal complaints.

Those charges — distributing harmful material to a minor — were never filed. The investigation came to an end in June after Hood County District Attorney Ryan Sinclair turned down London’s request to indict the librarians, citing a lack of conclusive evidence to charge them with felonies.Sinclair declined to be interviewed and did not respond to written questions. London, who has ties to the anti-government constitutional sheriff’s movement and tried to launch a local chapter of the far-right Oath Keepers militia in 2020, did not respond to questions.

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[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 79 points 3 months ago

This is a summary from Wikipedia about The Bluest Eye.

The Bluest Eye, published in 1970, is the first novel written by Toni Morrison. The novel takes place in Lorain, Ohio (Morrison's hometown), and tells the story of a young African-American girl named Pecola who grew up following the Great Depression. Set in 1941, the story is about how she is consistently regarded as "ugly" due to her mannerisms and dark skin. As a result, she develops an inferiority complex, which fuels her desire for the blue eyes she equates with "whiteness".

The novel is told mostly from Claudia MacTeer's point of view. Claudia is the daughter of Pecola's temporary foster parents. There is also some omniscient third-person narration. The book's controversial topics of racism, incest, and child molestation have led to numerous attempts to ban the novel from schools and libraries in the United States.[1]

I agree with them. Racism, incest and child molestation are obscene. And children need to know exactly how obscene they are.

What? That's what the book teaches them?

Huh.

[-] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 20 points 3 months ago

"We don't like when other people say racism exists. It hurts our white feelings to think that race exists. We are all the same, just don't move into my neighborhood because of what you look like, which probably means you're just like the others."

[-] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 4 points 3 months ago

Isn't most/all of that same stuff in the Bible? I'd love to see a similar investigation into churches distributing obscene material to many of these same children.

[-] Carrick1973@lemmy.world 49 points 3 months ago

Fuck that guy. And I'm sure that he did all this while getting paid to actually protect the kids, which he didn't do because he spent all his time in the library. The right wing mindset at this point in time is truly diseased. Obsessed over trivialities; scared of every little new difference that is considered progress by normal people. And how many of these idiots are paid with government positions all while trying to destroy the government?

[-] Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

And I’m sure that he did all this while getting paid to actually protect the kids, which he didn’t do because he spent all his time in the library.

You and I both know that at the first sign of possible violence he'd be the first one out the door.

[-] NineMileTower@lemmy.world 41 points 3 months ago

Want to know what's wild? You can tell who someone is going to vote for by whether or not they would say the words, "I support libraries." out loud or not.

[-] teft@lemmy.world 30 points 3 months ago

London, who has ties to the anti-government constitutional sheriff’s movement and tried to launch a local chapter of the far-right Oath Keepers militia in 2020

Color me surprised. /s

[-] Timii@biglemmowski.win 15 points 3 months ago

Color me surprised. /s

Colored?! STOP RESISTING!!!

[-] SeaJ@lemm.ee 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

The CSPOA unsurprisingly has its roots in white supremacy. The idea started through the writings of Christian Identity (white supremacist) minister William Potter Gale about Posse Comitatus which considered the county sherif as the highest government law official. White supremacist groups continued the idea throughout the 80s and 90s. When I grew up, I had always heard of talk of "constitutionalists" up in the mountains that were fine dealing with the sheriff's departments but claimed they would shoot federal officers on site. The reality is that they were not constitutionalists at all but anti-government racists who tried to hide their racism under a very thin veneer of faux constitutionalism.

[-] TexasDrunk@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

The CSPOA unsurprisingly has its roots in white supremacy.

I am shocked! SHOCKED! Well, not that shocked.

[-] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 16 points 3 months ago

They’re gonna keep throwing this shit at the wall until something sticks

Somehow, some way, they’re going to start being able to put “woke” educators (I.e. the ones that won’t explicitly give support to their side of the culture war) in prison, if they’re allowed to keep pushing with this.

[-] Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

Depending on the court's reaction, you might already be there. Let's hope some kind of common sense prevails and all these charges are tossed and the cop reprimanded.

Ah well, a guy can dream.

[-] expatriado@lemmy.world 15 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

These guys care too much about the availability of certain literature in libraries in this age of the internet. This is pure ideological battle with very little impact, which may actually backfire, making those titles more prominent

[-] BlackLaZoR@kbin.run 6 points 3 months ago

Oh god, in the age of the internet, they're bothered by some spicy literature?

this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2024
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