Highland Park Responds to Cop Shooting With America's Most Wanted-Style Documentary

[TexasTowelie]

Highland Park police seem to have a pretty strong case that they were justified in shooting David Hartman last summer.

Granted, they should have done a more thorough search of his cargo pants, which contained a gun, and made sure he couldn't slip his handcuffs over his legs and reach his pockets, but as a general rule, when a suspect starts firing shots from inside a squad car, returning fire is a reasonable response.

Dash-cam and in-car videos from the incident show this all very well, and your average police department would be content simply to provide unedited copies to the media.

The Highland Park Department of Public Safety, however, is not your average police department. To better present their version of events, they produced what is essentially a nine-minute segment from America's Most Wanted, complete with actors, a voice-over, and sepia-toned reenactments, all punctuated by explanatory clips of an authoritative talking-head interview with the Public Safety Director Chris Vinson.

More at http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2014/03/highland_park_responds_to_cop.php .

Related story at the Dallas Observer:
Highland Park Cops Won't Be Charged in Town's First-Ever Fatal Police Shooting

[TxDemChem]

1. Highland Park can sure throw money away.

[DFW]

2. You should see the local high school!

Half the private boarding schools in New England would be jealous.

[TxDemChem]

3. Don't I know it.

Wish they'd spend more on teachers.

[DFW]

4. Yeah, my daughter had mixed results there

In Germany they encourage you to take a semester or two abroad during high school, and she elected to go to the big bad exotic USA. As I still maintained my US residence there, I was entitled to enroll her in the local high school, so I did. But what a performance to get her in! I had to furnish a W-2, driver's license, and two or three other documents to prove my residence. I asked why the whole bureaucratic circus? They told me that since the other Dallas public schools were so rotten, parents from all around tried to fake residence documents to get their kids into HPHS. They had never seen a case where someone appearing out of nowhere, trying to enroll a kid who had never had a day of school in her life in the USA, had a perfectly legitimate claim to a place in the school. But my docs checked out, and so they welcomed my daughter. She said the math teacher was a disaster, but everyone else in her class thought so, too, and he was replaced within a week. She loved her journalism and astronomy teachers (how many high schools offer them anyway? Mine sure didn't, and I ended up graduating from one of those fancy places where the Bushes went). She took Spanish and English, but neither apparently left big impressions on her.

At first, she rode a bicycle to school, as she did in Germany. They looked at her as if she had come from another planet. HPHS kids ride in new 16th birthday present BMWs, not bicycles. After about ten days, she got tired of all the comments, and just either walked, or got rides from other kids in the neighborhood. She did her first driver's license there, since she had turned 16, but never had her own car until years later when she went back to the States to go to college.

One of the funniest things happened in the first week, while I stayed to make sure she didn't have a meltdown in the "new (for her, anyway)" environment. After the first few days, I asked her if she was adjusting OK.

She said, yeah, it was all good, although she found some of the rituals very odd. I asked rituals? WHAT rituals? She said that at the start of each day, every got up and started some unison ritual chanting. I was pretty sure that HPHS was not a Buddhist school, so I asked what they chanted. She said they mostly mumbled and most of it was incomprehensible, as everyone turned into bored expressionless zombies while they chanted.

This sounded too weird, not to mention unconstitutional. I asked if she caught any of the words, and she said it always started out with "I spread the peaches." This was beyond weird. She doesn't make shit up like that, so I didn't doubt something was going on, so I asked for more details.

She said every one got up, put their hands on their chests and mumbled some chant that started with "I spread the peaches" and then sat down when they were done. She hadn't the faintest idea what they were doing, but it seemed so routine, she was scared she would come off like a idiot if she asked what in the world they were doing.

I finally saw the light bulb go on above my head and asked if they might be saying "I pledge allegiance." She said maybe. Her English was good, but we never used the words "pledge" or "allegiance" in everyday conversation in Germany, so she had never heard them in any kind of context before. I explained what was going on. She was a little surprised, but said, "whatever."

In Germany, overt displays of organized patriotism like that are frowned upon (the Nazis left a bad taste in the local psyche) these days, and they would never think to institute something like in public schools. I had completely forgotten about it, and so never warned her it would happen.

[TxDemChem]

5. I wish I could have studied abroad.

It sounds like an awesome experience (in reverse of what my sister did). I love experiencing different cultures.

HPHS sounds like a nightmare. Lol I love the "spread the peaches" part. I never thought about it until now, but I can see how the pledge would be odd to others.

Our overt patriotism caused some problems at my high school. A classmate in my home room refused to do the pledge (his parents were hippies like my dad), and our home room teacher went off. He cussed her out and she eventually relented. We can be so weird.

Thanks for sharing. I was really entertained by both you and your daughter's experiences.

[DFW]

6. Actually, it wasn't a complete nightmare, probably less so than Andover was for me

She found her small group of outsider friends, and hung with them. The BWM-at-16-and-cocaine-on-weekends crowd of ultra-rich (and completely neglected) kids did their thing, and she did hers. My Dallas family adopted her for the duration, and she did a lot with them, too. Her counselor was a great guy. He was the HPHS soccer coach, and he really cared about the kids. Her journalism teacher was thrilled to have a student whose grandfather was president of the Gridiron Club and hung around with the President (Clinton at the time).

At Andover, as a boarding school, they had control over you 24/7, and it was NOT pleasant. I was not happy at all there, and escaped whenever I could. My biggest coup was a religious conversion of about 6 students between fall and spring semesters--not bad for an irreligious Andover man, eh? You'll like this one too:

At Andover (at least in those days), we were required to attend religious ceremonies once a week. At the school, they even handed out "religion tickets." I swear I am not making this up. You had to hand in religion ticket A at the first Sunday chapel, and one each week after that if you attended the school's chapel. But if you were Catholic or Jewish, or something else, you were allowed to attend those services, instead (how enlightened). I looked over the choices, and one of them was Unitarian. I said oh, well, if I MUST attend something, then I would go for the least offensive. So I became the sole Unitarian student at Andover. Members of the Andover Unitarian church would pick me up from campus and deliver me back afterward.

The first Sunday, some very nice people picked me up, and we drove the 15 or 20 minutes to the church. When we got there, I was asked, "do you want to sit for the service, or hang out in the kitchen with the other young kids until it's over?" THIS WAS AN OPTION? Yeeeee HAAAAH! (I translated for them). So, not only did I hang out in the kitchen, but I was asked if I wanted to come to the informal thing on Sunday nights? I asked what that was. They said, well, officially, it was the Unitarian youth gathering (the LRY= Liberal Religious Youth), but all it really was, was a place to hang out and play music and talk. I had been the bassist and keyboards player for my band in the DC area. Have you ever asked a keyboardist if he would turn down the chance to play the long version of Light My Fire on a huge loud church pipe organ? I told the school, of course, that I was really getting involved with my "church" and they granted me a special dispensation to leave campus on Sunday evenings to attend the "LRY" meetings in the church. Usually the locals hated the Andover (i.e. Phillips Academy) kids, and with good reason--bunch of stuck-up rich snobs for the most part--but I was tolerated as a genetic anomaly who definitely didn't fit in with the majority of Andover students. Indeed I didn't, and am still proud of it.

Needless to say, after having told a few of my classmates, including our class president, about my religious "experience" with the local Unitarians, a few of them, including our prez, "converted" and became Unitarians for the Spring semester. Lord, my work is done here LOL!!

[TxDemChem]

7. I am so glad your daughter friend her own group.

Those other kids were a bad influence. She made a good choice. I love when kids can find those teachers whom they can connect with. Sometimes, just one teacher can make all the difference in the world.

Lol, wow, you had quite the experience. That Unitarian church sounds like the place I'd be if I were required to go to a religious service. Actually, my grandma went Unitarian about 5 years ago. She got tired of all the fire and brimstone sermons at her old church.

I play piano. Give me the chance to play a huge pipe organ and I am so there.

You and your daughter are so well-rounded.

[justabob]

8. HPHS is what you make of it

There are some truly horrible kids there (and neglected as you say), but it is possible to avoid the worst of it. I did.... way back in the 80s. It sounds like your daughter found her way ok. My son is there currently and doing ok too. My son went through DISD until last year. Since landing at HPHS, he has blossomed and is thriving in a way he never has.... he doesn't HATE going to school anymore either. I can't tell you just how huge that has been for us.

Your boarding school sounds horrible. I finished high school at boarding school in Virginia and it was the very best thing I ever did. I loved my school. Even though we were fairly tightly controlled, we found all kinds of ways to make mischief and have a great time.

[DFW]

9. That's the impression I got

My daughter went to the States to learn something, not to get high. I almost wish she had stayed longer at HPHS, but she hadn't decided what she wanted to do yet, and in Germany, unless you completed your 13th year, you didn't get to go to a university. So she went back and got her German "Abitur." And then went off to college in the States and never came back (except for short visits). But she's happy as a clam in NYC, just (as in 48 hours ago) promoted to a full buyer's position at Lord & Taylor, and who's to argue? Her sister went to a boarding school and loved it, so different strokes for different folks. Of course, HER boarding school was on the Big Island of Hawai'i, so she had a wholly different set of classmates and environment. Her roomie lived on the Island, and took my daughter home with her on weekends to her house on the water. Nothing like having breakfast among the Aloe Vera plants, watching dolphins play in your "front yard" while you eat fresh pineapple and lilikoi (passion fruit) , right?

My boarding school WAS horrible. The academics were so-so, and I had the distinct impression it was coasting on its laurels. Bush Sr. was my interviewer, as fate would have it. He was just a Congressman back then, and if you told me that someday this guy would head the CIA and then be president, I'd have told that you whatever you were smoking, you were smoking too much of it. I met the new (-est) headmaster 28 years after I graduated, and she (!!!) told me the place had changed radically, and was actually a pleasant and academically top end school. She also saw I had a bright, bi-lingual, attractive 13 year old daughter with me, so she may have been on the lookout for some recruits as well. For all I know the place HAS changed for the better, but I carry my own memories with me, and they can't be improved with time. There are still plenty (I'm sure) of classmates of mine who think their Andover experience was wonderful. Let them give money to the place. I was a one-year senior, never had been to boarding school before, and thrust from the complete freedom I had in 11th grade in Spain to barracks life a Andover. I did not adjust well. My only friends there were the black guys brought in from around the country on scholarships to show how "tolerant" the school had become. Much of the faculty disliked them, which I found to be a big point in their favor. They eventually decided that I must have some African blood in me and accepted me as one of their own, since I didn't get along well with most of the preppies. I don't, but they were still the only crowd I could hang with at Andover for more than half an hour without wanted to get fresh air.

You could make some minor mischief, but only the preppies had a great time (I'll bet W fit in just fine), and that pretty much meant by definition that I wouldn't.

[justabob]

11. boarding school is an interesting thing

I am pretty sure I was just very lucky as to when and where I chose to go away to school. I came late, indeed they made me repeat my junior year instead of joining the senior class because I went to "public school". Never mind HPHS was one of the top schools in the country back then, and my boarding school wasn't known for its academic rigor. lol That was actually a really good thing, I ended up getting included in the extracurricular stuff and traditions that I would have missed only attending the one year. I also got really lucky with an excellent roommate. I was never going to fit in with the preppie crowd ... I didn't in Dallas and I didn't in VA. I made friends with the day students and 5 day boarders who lived around the school. That was the secret to my joy and happiness at boarding school. Plus I had a family friend who lived in the town and that family let me hide my totally forbidden car at their farm. As long as I got the phone call from home springing me from campus to go to a local friends house, I had free roam pretty much. We went into DC, to the races, all kinds of adventures into the country side.... The preppies never had that kind of freedom. LOL

Congrats for your daughter's promotion!! That is a big job.

[DFW]

10. Going abroad was THE best thing we all did

It is just so vital to get a different perspective on life from another culture. I went to Spain, and my two girls went to different parts of the USA, which was a foreign place for them to live, even though they had visited often. Learning to speak Catalan was one of the coolest things I ever did, and there is no way I would ever have done that if I had not lived in Barcelona. I go back there regularly even today, some 45 years later.

As for my girls, the one that went to school in Dallas is now happy as a clam in Manhattan, and the other one got her hot shot job in Frankfurt because she got her law degree (and did her bar exam) in the USA and is fully bi-lingual in English and German. The German arm of one of the top British law firms was looking for just such a person and was willing to pay well for any qualified applicant. Now after less than 4 years there, she is making 5000 euros a month AFTER the high (over 50% in her case) taxes, and doesn't ask us for anything any more except for a bed when she comes to visit. If she had never gone abroad, none of this would have happened. When she got into an American college after graduating from her school in Hawai'i (she stayed on instead of coming back after her "first" year abroad--can you blame her?), the bureaucratic German school system demanded she come in and fill out forms. Intrusive as always, the Germans wanted not only to have her de-register from the school, but demanded she fill in the name of the new (high) school she was going to attend, and in what city it was located. She filled in George Washington University, and Washington, D.C. USA. The snooty bureaucrat at her (now former) high school was speechless, and could only say, "viel Erfolg (much success)." We were able to stifle our laughter until after we got out of there.