Cops Behaving Badly?

It looks that way to me, though it appears to me that they are also behaving stupidly. Trinidad faces cascade of crises, city resignations

Trinidad, Texas, is about a 70 mile drive southeast of Dallas. It had a population of 860 as measured by the 2020 census.

There is plenty of cooruption in big cities, like Chicago, and the police departments in places like that can get caught up in it as well. But small town America is not immune, and the Good-ole Boy Network can often make them think that the rules are whatever they want them to be.

Their troubles started when Jennifer Combs was using F*c*book to collect reports/complaints about the water in Trinidad. Police arrested her and charged her with a felony. That was back in May.

When we first introduced you to Jennifer Combs, the facts already sounded hard to believe. The Texas mom said police arrested her after she used Facebook to collect complaints about discolored water in Trinidad.

Combs spent 23 hours in jail on a felony false alarm or report charge. A Henderson County grand jury later declined to indict her. She has since filed a federal lawsuit alleging political retaliation.

While she was in jail, a man protested outside of the jail. He was arrested. A judge dismissed those charges, and the city fired the judge. The grand jury and the judges dismissal, were in July (I think).

It was about at this time that the city apparently fired the city attorney.

Both the firing of the judge and the attorney are legally suspect, as well as morally insane. The speculation is that the attorney told the city commission that they couldn't fire the judge, so they fired him as well.

It was about at this point that the Texas Rangers got involved. From water problems to city resignations, Trinidad faces cascade of crises

Three Trinidad city officials resigned [in mid July] and the Texas Rangers have launched an investigation after an area resident filed a complaint with the law enforcement agency amid concerns about discolored water coming from the rural Texas town’s pipes.

All of that prompted the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement to open an investigation, and the county prosecutor to chime in. Henderson County won't take Trinidad police cases after controversial arrests, state investigations

Today's letter reveals that the Trinidad Police Department is under investigation by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement; the scope of the investigation remains unclear.

Speculation, mine and others, is that the arrest of Combs, and the arrest of the protestor basically come down to cops saying, "You have disrespected my authority."

In the meantime, a judge has questioned information given to him by Trinidad officers in relation to an arrest warrant, the chief of police has resigned, a few other city officials have resigned, and the Henderson County, District Attorney has cut the PD off at the knees.

On Monday, the Henderson County District Attorney's Office and County Attorney's office informed Trinidad that it will no longer take cases from the Trinidad Police Department.

Oh, and those water quality issues that led to the arrest of Jennifer Combs... Turns out there are water quality issues in Trinidad. Texas environmental report details Trinidad water issues; state issues deadline for improvement plan

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has been investigating the city's water supply. On Monday, TCEQ released their findings.

TCEQ's report found discolored water in Trinidad that "exceeded the standard."

Tests of the water found disinfectant contamination that exceeded federal maximums by more than 300%.

There are more details at all of those articles. Now this all mostly blew up a month ago, around 21 July, the letter from the DA is about a week or 10 days old. As mentioned, Combs was arrested in May. I only tripped across all of this because of insomnia, and a YouTube video.

This video is from Brandon Grable, ad Texas Civil Rights Attorney who runs the YouTube channel Clearly Established. Prosecutor Cuts off Trinidad Police Department. The video is a bit over 13 minutes. It covers all of this, and more.