Educator. Organizer. Engineer. Yalie. Blogger. Detroiter. Black. Imagining and creating a better world. He/Him

Houston, TX
Joined June 2012
There are so many possibilities opened up by proportionally small investments in community safety initiatives outside of policing and incarceration. I just want Houston's pools and libraries to be open at times people will use them!
Detroit saw declines in homicides and youth violence this summer as city officials pointed to investments in policing, prevention and youth programming. mrf.lu/2rPx1
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But some individuals absolutely CAN solve systemic problems. She may have overestimated her influence as a prestigious journalist in this situation but I think we underestimate how many problems we face collectively could be solved by a single person changing their stance.
This entire Nicole Hannah-Jones thing can be summed with: You cannot individually solve systemic problems.
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I think about this A LOT when it comes to local politics and how a single decision maker appears to be the reason a major policy was implemented (or not), for example. But politicians arent the only people with the clout to make stuff move. Wealth, obviously. Why not media?
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Gonna share some moments from NHJ's first piece that inform my reading of this latest article. I appreciated how she laid out the debate between her and her husband. Their ultimate position was pretty clear.
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Early on, NHJ's daughter seemed to be getting the best of both worlds, at least with regard to the major concerns of academics vs emotional development.
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Even as issues arose with the school, what we see here doesn't sound like a "failing school"
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The phrase "failing school" never sits right with me. Especially in a convoy like this. On one hand, I don't trust the metrics. On the other, we're talking about an individual child and there's never a guarantee that a school will be right or wrong for a specific child.
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I'd really like to know how people's children respond to this piece
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This reminds me of a public info request I submitted for ShotSpotter microphones in the area. Spring Branch ISD tried to appeal to the AG and ended up giving me redacted docs. The funny thing was HPD had already given me their data which included SBISD.
SBISD paid Flock Group Inc $53,200 for license-plate cameras — two checks on the public register. That’s money that didn’t go into a classroom. If the district wants plate readers for safety, fine — but a school district police department shouldn’t be running a surveillance network that can search cameras across Houston and beyond. Put Flock under the local police department, with real rules, real audits, and elected accountability. School money belongs in schools. Street cameras belong with street cops. Who asked for this? Who can search it? How often are they searching cameras outside Spring Branch? We’re filing the records. Stay tuned. matthewtcone.com/sbisd-check…
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New Flock pitch just dropped. "If you don't like Flock cameras, you must want children to be kidnapped." I think it still needs to be workshopped a bit.
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'the police report states: “HPD did not assist ICE.”' This seems like a strange phrase to include and I'm unclear on what purpose it would have outside of shaping public perception. What do we think HPD is attempting to do by putting this in their police reports?
Houston police need to answer questions about what happened here: After a man called Houston police this weekend to report an active shooter outside a Home Depot, ICE agents *arrested the man who reported the shooting* houstonchronicle.com/news/ho…
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Bringing back this meme from last year
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“If pre-AP was full,” she said, “I’ll take any Algebra II class; just get me out of this remedial class. I already know fractions, decimals, and percents.”
From Daniel Dawer and Ruth Kravetz: Nearly 2,000 juniors at 16 high schools in Houston ISD were pulled from Algebra II and placed in remedial math. At some schools, about 70% of juniors were similarly demoted. It wasn't due to poor grades ... texasobserver.org/the-housto…
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The police are defunding us
How can we tell if Harris County is broke or not? What do you think?
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How can we tell if Harris County is broke or not? What do you think?
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Jaison Oliver retweeted
See these headlines and research what’s happening in your city or your town. You will see these are patterns not aberrations.
How can we tell if Harris County is broke or not? What do you think?
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I guess I’m a bit confused how we decided cops need money but school kids don’t?
How can we tell if Harris County is broke or not? What do you think?
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How can we tell if Harris County is broke or not? What do you think?
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If you have thoughts about how we're spending our county tax dollars this is your last chance to complete the survey riceuniversity.co1.qualtrics…
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