In Indianapolis, Indiana an entire town has no police officers after every single one walked off the job. The officers blame the Bunker Hill Town Council for the situation.
“We have had issues with the town board and there are some activities there where I felt like they were serving their own agenda,” said former Bunker Hill Town Marshall Michael Thomison.
served as Town Marshall for four years until Monday night when he and four other officers handed over resignation letters to the council, telling them they have had enough.
“They would not communicate with us or the officers and they kept scaling back,” said Thomison.
In their resignation letters, the officers accuse council members of asking them to “do illegal, unethical, and immoral things.”
They cited examples like asking police to run background checks on other town councilors to find their criminal history. The officers also claim they were threatened when they said no.
Another issue they brought up in the letter was their safety. The officers say they were all forced to share one set of body armor, putting their lives on the line while they were out making arrests and serving warrants.
“I did not want to send someone out there with bad body armor so I would take mine off and provide it to the other officers.
I told them we have to provide this, there is an IC code that explains that and says that the town has to provide that body armor,” said Thomison.
On top of all that, Thomison says his resignation was personal. He was diagnosed with cancer last year, but when he was ready to go back to work in May, Thomison says they would only allow him to work part time. He blames the town councilors and plans to file a lawsuit against them.
“They came at me and said it is costing the town way too much money because of my insurance and they said we are taking you down to part time,” said Thomison.
Thomison and the other officers say they did not want to step down, but feel they had to. For now, the town is relying on outside help as they search for new officers.
“I know that they are scrambling and have contacted some other officers that do not want the position,” said Thomison.
Town Council President Brock Speer says they will release a statement in the near future.
“I was shocked,” Lizeth Villanueva, a 13-year-old student at Anthony Aguirre Junior High in Houston, said. “[The teacher] said, ‘Most likely to become a terrorist,’ and she said my name, and she gave me this.”
Lizeth received the award in an advanced learning program that’s supposed to help kids prepare for college. The teacher, who was not named, told the students the award was supposed to be funny, but Lizeth’s not laughing.
“It was not a joke,” Lizeth was quoted as saying. “I do not feel comfortable with this.”
Principal Eric Lathan released an apology on Twitter for “insensitive and offensive” awards, saying they were distributed after the school’s real awards ceremony had concluded.
“These award statements and ideals are not representative of the Aguirre vision, mission and educational goals for its students,” Lathan wrote. “An investigation will be launched into these events.”
Lizeth’s mother told local CBS station KHOU that the principal apologized in person as well, but said she wants the teacher to face discipline.
“Get fired, at least, or something,” Ena Hernandez said.
“It doesn’t look good at all, especially coming from a teacher, a grown-up woman,” Hernandez said. “It doesn’t look good because everything that’s going on right now.”
This story is proof that children are far more savvy than we think.
Speaker Ryan is one of the most unpopular politicians in the country — and he's polling particularly poorly among one 8th grade class.
Eighth grade students from South Orange Middle School in South Orange, New Jersey were on a school trip to Washington D.C. on Friday when they were given a very special opportunity: a photo-op with Speaker Paul Ryan. Under normal circumstances, many students would leap for the chance to take a photo with the third most powerful politician in the country.
Not these kids.
Close to 100 8th graders refused to take a photo with the Speaker and instead sat in a parking lot across the street. Speaker Ryan then took a photo with the remaining class and posted it to his Instagram.
"I can’t take a picture with someone who supports a budget that would destroy public education and would leave 23 million people without healthcare,” Matthew Malespina, a student at the school, told his local newspaper, The Village Green.
Others grounded their decision in their aversion to Trump.
“I didn’t want to be in [the picture] because he believes in most of what Trump believes in,” a fellow student, Louisa Maynard-Parisi, told The Village Green.
Parents were torn about whether the kids should have sat out on the photo. Ryan was a "legitimately elected official," one parent wrote, and they would have been offended if conservative students had done the same thing to President Obama.
Matthew Malespina's mother, on the other hand, couldn't have been more proud/.
"I am proud of my son and all the other students who chose to respectfully not to participate in the photograph with Speaker Ryan,” she told The Village Green.
Middle school #resistance is the best kind of resistance there is.
PR
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