Texas Bill Would Allow Teachers to Use Deadly Force Against Students

Fox News

A proposed bill would allow teachers in Texas to use deadly force against students and be protected from any kind of prosecution.

The Teacher’s Protection Act would allow these teachers to use force against students or anyone else on school grounds if they feel threatened. Educators would avoid prosecution for “injury or death that results from the educator’s use of deadly force” under the new legislation.

Texas law already protects teachers from disciplinary measures if they use reasonable force against a student. The law proposed by Republican Rep. Dan Flynn would allow deadly force.

Association of Texas Professional Educators managing attorney Paul Tapp told the Houston Chronicle that teachers in the state already have some legal protections that allow them to use force under reasonable circumstances.

Jury Acquits Texas Dad in Shooting Death of Drunken Driver who Killed his Sons

After being acquitted for murder (right) David Barajas hugs and gets a kiss from his wife (left) Cindy Barajas while addressing the media at the Brazoria County courthouse Wednesday August 27, 2014. David Barajas, 32, was accused of shooting Jose Banda, 20, after he struck his two sons, aged 11 and 12, on a rural Texas road in 2012. 

Local news reports

The bereaved father who witnessed the death of his two young children did not murder the drunken driver who killed them, a jury here in Brazoria County decided Wednesday, a coda that ratcheted up the emotions already thought to have peaked when both sides lost loved ones.

The jury acquitted David Barajas, who faced a murder charge in the shooting death of a 20-year-old man, Jose Banda. Banda drove his Chevrolet Malibu into the children while they pushed their father's stalled Ford 250 truck on an unlit road near Alvin to their nearby house. In a fit of retaliatory rage, prosecutors argued, Barajas returned to his home, retrieved a pistol and fired away at Banda's head with revenge.

But prosecutors faced an uphill climb in erasing any reasonable doubt in jurors' minds. Police failed to produce a murder weapon linked to the killing, gunpowder residue tests on Barajas' hands were negative and no witnesses saw anything that transpired on the dark December night. Though Barajas' attorneys could not identify who else could have killed Banda, who had a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit, the lawyers managed to create enough ambiguity that pushed a conviction out of reach.

Texas Gun Owner Owes $100K Over Toddler's Death

Courthouse News Reports

A man who let toddlers play alone in an office where there was a loaded gun owes $100,000 to the father who found his son's "brain on the floor," a Texas appeals court ruled.

     John Burton had brought his wife and two children, 2-year-old John Edward and 4-year-old Nicole, to Ft. Bend Collision Auto Repair on March 5, 2008. While Burton loaded scrap metal onto a trailer, his wife painted an office and the shop's owner, Daniel Plasencia, let the children into another office on the premises to play.

     Later on, Burton heard a shot, ran to the room where his children were playing, and found his son John Edward dead, next to a shotgun.

     Burton testified that, after hearing the gunshot, "I jumped off the trailer, went to the office, and I seen my son's brain on the floor. ... I seen the shotgun on the floor as I picked up my son and took him out."

The court also affirmed the award, finding it would "fairly and reasonably compensate Burton" for his son's death.

Lawful Houston Gun Owner Gets Away with Illegal Shooting

The Houston Chronicle reports

A man told Harris County sheriff's deputies he saw someone breaking into his car about 6 p.m. on Thursday outside a shooting range.

The owner told deputies he fired at least four shots at the stranger because it appeared he had a weapon in his hand, authorities said.

He fired at least two more shots when the burglar fled in a waiting Chrysler sedan. The man told deputies he may have struck the back window, officials said.

Whether the stranger was hit was unclear. They did not have a detailed description of him, sheriff's deputies said.

First of all, it sounds like bullshit that he thought he saw a weapon in the burglar's hand. People breaking into cars are usually not armed unless you count one of those metal strips they use to pop the locks.

So the first four shots were criminal acts.  Then, shooting two more times at a fleeing car is just unbelievable. That is extremely irresponsible behavior with a  gun.

The shooter should have been arrested, but you know what, in Texas that just don't happen.

Whatp s your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Accidental Shooting of Texas 3-year-old by her Granddaddy - Incredibly No Charges

Local news with video

A grandfather is feeling guilty after he accidentally shot his three-year-old granddaughter. The man says he was aiming at a stray cat but the bullet hit the girl instead.

Gary Van Ness admits he shot the girl as she stood behind his home with her father. He says the neighborhood is overrun with strays. And, some have even snuck into his home.

“The cats are brave enough to come in there and got him a couple of loaves of bread,” he said.

Van Ness noticed a cat by his shed and grabbed his .22 caliber shot-gun and aimed. “I took the opportunity to shoot it,” he said.

He didn’t know his son and granddaughter were in the same area. The bullet went right through Brianna’s leg.

Investigators consider the shooting to be an accident and no charges are expected.

The reason this is outrageous is that with the same negligent action he could have killed her or someone else. In Texas, though, if you're a white old man and do something stupid with a gun, you're very likely to get off.

This is the ironic opposite of the proverbial Texas Justice.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Accidental Shooting of Texas Teenager - Manslaughter Charged

The Brownsville Herald reports 

Eliezer Sanchez Jr., 19, was arraigned on a manslaughter charge Sunday afternoon for shooting Jessica Saldivar in the head about 5 a.m. Saturday.

Sanchez told police investigators that he had pulled the trigger of the .38-caliber revolver not knowing that it was loaded, according to the criminal complaint. Four witnesses provided sworn statements that the shooting was accidental. 

Saldivar was rushed to the hospital where she later died about 3 a.m. Sunday.

Pharr police Chief Ruben Villescas said Saturday that Sanchez was charged with aggravated assault, a second-degree felony, for recklessly causing serious bodily injury to Sanchez. When Sanchez died of her injuries, the charge was increased to manslaughter.

In Texas (and not only there) Brown people get a different kind of justice. Compare to this one, or this one, or this one.

Don't get me wrong, I believe the responsible people should be held accountable for their actions, but it should be evenly applied. There is a terrible racism that runs through the application of gun laws.  Often it's too severely applied to non-whites and not applied at all to whites.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Saddle Up, It's Rodeo Time

BBC News has the video.

Mark Stroman is scheduled to be executed today. That would be Texas-sanctioned pre-meditated murder. The unusual thing about this case is the only surviving victim has forgiven his attacker and opposes his execution.

What's your opinion? Is the death penalty warranted in cases like this?

A Proper Texas Gun Attitude

This is a fascinating story. 

A Texas City is accused of pulling a gun on a group of children after school and locking them inside the business following a shoplifting incident.

An 8-year-old girl later told her mother that she was held at gunpoint.

Several children were in the store Friday when the clerk spotted two of them stealing candy, officials said. They ran outside, dropping some of the stolen items on the ground.

The girl was not among the children suspected of shoplifting. She told her mother a clerk pointed the pistol at her.

The pistol was not fired and there were no reported injuries, officials said.

The girl's mother called Texas City police later that evening.

On Monday, police said they will consult with county child advocates before interviewing the girl.

Texas City police recovered a Glock semiautomatic pistol from the store that resembled the handgun described by the girl. They also want to review any possible store security tapes.

The clerk has not yet been questioned. Police also want to question the other children and an adult customer who reportedly was in the store as well.

"We are not filing criminal charges based just on what she (the 8-year-old) said," Goetschius said.

You certainly can't take an 8-year-old's word that a man pulled a gun on her, she's not responsible enough for that. Yet, if she takes her daddy's gun and gets caught, she'd definitely have to answer for that one.

Doesn't it sometimes seem that in places like Texas, they bend over backwards to excuse the misuse of guns, at least when it's done by one of their own. If it's a kid or a drug addict, there's zero tolerance, but if it's one of the so-called legitimate gun owners, they get plenty of slack.

Why is that?  Please leave a comment.

Plano, Texas Cop - Accident or Murder?

To me it sounds like one of two things, either a summary execution of the suspect, or an inexcusable accident. The only way to prevent cops from acting like trigger-happy vigilantes is to make the sanctions for having an "accident" so severe that no one would consider it as an excuse, unless it were the truth, of course.

What's your opinion?  Is it plausible that he tried to switch on the flashlight and fired the gun instead? If that is what happened, is he the kind of guy you'd want carrying a gun for work?

Please leave a comment.

Doing the Right Thing

Even in Texas, death penalty cases are diminishing.  Some people don't like that.



What's your opinion? Is this really about doing the right thing or is it about revenge? If it was wrong for those boys to kill the cabbie, how could it be right for the State to kill them?

It's not. It's wrong.

What do you think? Please leave a comment.

Texas Man Shoots His Son

The Dallas News reports on this unusual domestic shooting.

I know I always support the bad guy and question the good guy with the gun, but I couldn't help wondering where the young man learned how to drink, become belligerent and disrespect his mother like that. I wondered if dear old dad had anything to do with that.

In any case, as bad as spitting on one's mother is, I don't think the appropriate answer is a bullet to the stomach. What do you think?

Please leave a comment.

Probation for Shooting

Does it sometimes seem that in Texas there's a big disparity in the sentencing of one case compared to another. Here's a case in point.

More on Texas Justice

News 8 Austin reports on this, what some people might call, stiff sentencing.

A repeat DWI offender was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday.

Bobby Joe Stovall, 52, was convicted in July 2010 of felony driving while intoxicated. Tuesday, Judge Billy Ray Stubblefield sentenced him to life in prison.

In early July 2009, Stovall crossed several lanes of traffic on East Palm Valley Boulevard in Round Rock without yielding. Another driver hit his truck, and his female passenger was taken to the hospital.

According to police, Stovall’s blood alcohol level of .32 and his passenger’s level was .38. The legal blood alcohol limit is .08.

Stovall had eight previous DWI convictions from several different counties.

Previously, he served time in prison for burglary and credit card abuse.

What's wrong with those people in Texas who support this kind of excess? Is there no other way? Considering what it's going to cost to keep him in prison for life, is there nothing else that can be done?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Billy Joe Shaver Gets Some of that Texas Justice

Google News reports on the sentencing of a country singer on gun charges.

WACO, Texas — Texas country singer-songwriter Billy Joe Shaver has been fined $1,000 after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor gun charge.

The charge arose from a 2007 shooting outside a Waco-area saloon. In April, a jury acquitted the 70-year-old Shaver of aggravated assault in the wounding of Billy Coker outside the saloon near Lorena. Shaver contended he shot Coker in self-defense.

He pleaded no contest to the gun charge for allegedly having a .22-caliber pistol in the bar, which is illegal. He agreed to forfeit of the gun.

So, he forfeits the offending gun but gets to keep the other 15 he keeps at home. That's Texas Justice for you - white guy with guns, slap on the wrist, black guy with guns, straight to Huntsville. I know I'm exaggerating a little, but you get the point.

What do you think? Please leave a comment.

Houston Cop Acquitted of Shooting Robbie Tolan

The New York Times reports on the acquittal of Sgt. Jeffrey Cotton in the shooting of Robbie Tolan. We discussed it here when it first happened and here when the trial began recently.

Sergeant Cotton and another officer forced Mr. Tolan and his cousin to lie face down on the ground at gunpoint after the young men had gotten out of their car in front of Mr. Tolan’s house. The officers mistakenly believed that the car had been stolen and that Mr. Tolan had a weapon. Mr. Tolan survived the shooting, though a bullet punctured his lung and lodged in his liver.

The article focuses on the racial profiling aspect of the case, in fact the police are being sued in civil court for discrimination. For me though, it's not so much a racial thing as a power thing. The cops who abuse their power and get away with it are a plight on our nation.

Police officers who misuse their firearms, like they did in this case, should be appropriately punished and new police recruits should be properly screened. Obviously neither of these things is taking place.

What's your opinion? Is this another case of Texas justice or is it just another case of the police being held to a different standard?

Please leave a comment.

Austin Police Officer Fired

The Houston Chronicle reports.

AUSTIN, Texas — An Austin police officer who fatally shot a man in 2009 has been fired after being arrested in January for alleged drunken driving.

Police Chief Art Acevedo on Thursday fired Quintana, who in May 2009 fatally shot Nathaniel Sanders II.

A grand jury declined to indict Quintana. Sanders had been sleeping in a car that police were investigating as possibly being used in crimes.

A disciplinary memo says Quintana went out Jan. 11 and drank alcohol, then drove to Leander. A 911 call about a traffic accident led to his arrest.

Quintana's arrest came hours after he was questioned as part of a federal civil rights lawsuit into the fatal shooting.

I'm not sure if I understood it correctly, but I think they said he shot and killed a guy who was sleeping in his car, and the "grand jury declined to indict." Well, that certainly sounds like Texas and it certainly sounds like how they treat cops, not just in Texas, but other places too.

Then, I guess the bosses just had enough with his drinking and finally fired him.

What I'm wondering is this: will he now be just another unfit Texas gun owner with a drinking problem? If they didn't indict him for the shooting and he lost his job for the DWI, he should still be entitled to his sacred 2nd Amendment rights, don't you think?

I guess what it boils down to is he'll not take his place among the Famous 10%, until, of course, he does something else stupid enough to be classified as an out and out criminal.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

More Texas Justice

Tobaccoland.us reports on the latest law-and-order initiative in the Lone Star State.

Texas jury jails man 35 years for marijuana possession | Raw Story: "For being caught with just over a quarter pound of pot, 54-year-old Henry Walter Wooten will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars, thanks to a jury in Tyler, Texas.

His prosecutor, Smith County Assistant District Attorney Richard Vance, originally sought a sentence of 99 years over the 4.6 ounces of marijuana police found in Wooten's vehicle, according to published reports."

Texas (except for the 14th Congressional District) please hurray up and leave the Union.

What do you think? Is there any excuse for this?

Please leave a comment.

More Texas Justice

"Hopefully, I mean if he's stupid enough to come back around, we can git him."



I couldn't help but notice that not a word was said about the shooting being justified or not. That's Texas justice for you, the offender was so despicable in what he did, that no one even considered if the woman's actions were correct. The cop did indirectly address this, I suppose, when he said she was afraid. I wonder about that. I thought she might have been outraged that "he's back," or angered at his audacity.

Do you think the fact that he was not wounded is because she fired only a warning shot or was she a poor marksman (markswoman)? If she fired a warning shot while outraged or frightened or angered at his audacity, I say that's wrong. If she shot at him and missed him while either frightened or angered, I say that's wrong.

As sick a bastard as this guy is, the criterion for getting shot at should be much higher.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Death Penalty in Review - 2009

The New York Times reports on a fascinating phenomenon taking place in the administration of capital punishment.

Death Sentences Dropped, but Executions Rose in ’09

More death row convicts were executed in the United States this year than last, but juries continue to grow more wary of capital punishment, according to a new report.

Death sentences handed down by judges and juries in 2009 continued a trend of decline for seven years in a row, with 106 projected for the year. That level is down two-thirds from a peak of 328 in 1994, according to the report being released Friday by the Death Penalty Information Center, a research organization that opposes capital punishment.

“This entire decade has been marked by a declining use of the death penalty,” said Richard Dieter, the executive director of the group.

It must mean that each year there are fewer people on death row than the year below. But killing them off doesn't seem like the right way to do it. If the use of capital punishment is declining as reflected by the sentences handed down, the incidents of carrying out those sentences should also decline. Hopefully we're heading towards abolition and these guys who are being executed in increasing numbers won't be around to have their sentences changed to life without parole.

The sentencing drop was most striking in Texas, which averaged 34 death sentences a year in the 1990s and had 9 this year. Vic Wisner, a former assistant district attorney in Houston, said a “constant media drumbeat” about suspect convictions and exonerations “has really changed the attitude of jurors.”

Whatever the reason for the sentencing drop in Texas, doesn't the fact that it went from 34 to 9 indicate that some of those 34 got a bad deal? Isn't that a sort of proof in and of itself? If in 2009, the juries decided in 25 or so capital cases that a life sentence was the right punishment, what does that say about the ones who received the death penalty before?

I say the administration of capital punishment is so broken it should be halted immediately.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Probation for Killing ex-Officer

The Houston Chronicle reports on the sentencing of the wheelman in a drive-by shooting that left an ex-officer dead.

A Houston judge on Friday sentenced the wheelman in a drive-by shooting that killed a retired police officer to 10 years of probation after a deal was struck with prosecutors for his cooperation.

State District Judge Susan Brown could have sentenced Raziel Jesus Munoz, 23, to a maximum of 15 years in prison after he agreed to testify against two co-defendants in the shooting that killed 78-year-old Velia “Belle” Ortega, who had been the Houston Police Department's first Hispanic female officer.

Instead, Brown sentenced Munoz to 10 years of deferred adjudication on a charge of felony murder, which means he would not have a conviction on his record if he completes probation.

At first it seemed quite incongruous that in Texas such a light sentence could be issued for such a serious crime. What do you think? Was the prosecution's case too weak to make convictions without Munoz' cooperation? Is anything Munoz says to be considered credible since he's gaining so much by saying it?

I love to read into these things, so tell me how this works for you. First of all, the victim was Hispanic and in Texas everyone knows they don't count quite as much as your regular white folks. Secondly, everyone involved in this messy case knows the chances of Munoz completing his probation without any additional criminal arrests are about zero. The results being, he'll be doing life along with his buddies sooner or later anyway.

The problems are two. Raziel Jesus Munoz should probably be taken off the streets now and not later after someone else dies. And, when he does eventually go to prison, it will really be a death sentence for having ratted on his partners.

What's your opinion? Do you think I'm reading too much into the case? How do you see it?

Please leave a comment.