Saturday of Woodstock
You know how people talk about Woodstock being so incredible? I think this Saturday evening lineup is a good reminder of what it was:
- Grateful Dead
- Creedence Clearwater Revival
- Janis Joplin
- Sly & The Family Stone
- The Who
- Jefferson Airplane
Nobody Wants This (2024) - 4 out of 5 l'chaims
Just finished the first season of this show. It's a cute romantic comedy that is smartly written and, while predictable, I enjoyed it start to finish. Looking forward to the second season.
250-person Texas city had 50 police officers
The story doesn't go the way you expect it will.
"Fifty cops in a town of 250 — that's an interesting story," Rogalski said. "That's a talker."
Still, Rogalski and his colleagues on the investigations team weren't sure whether it was a story for them. For one, Coffee City is more than three hours north of Houston, outside of KHOU's viewing area. Would their audience even care? Rogalski also recognized that digging into the tip would require a lot of work. He would need to submit dozens of requests for the personnel files for each of the officers.
He decided to do just that. Rogalski made nearly 100 requests to all of the officers' past departments, asking for their personnel files, including any disciplinary actions and the reasons for their departures. The requests cost roughly $1,000 and resulted in nearly 9,000 documents.
"That's how we were able to determine that this wasn't just a story about a small town writing a bunch of tickets," Rogalski said. "Coffee City, Texas, was a magnet for troubled cops, and more than half of those officers had dubious work histories."
Those dubious work histories included suspensions, demotions and terminations. KHOU found officers with histories of excessive force, public drunkenness and criminal charges that included aggravated assault and family violence. One officer was fired from their previous job for telling a citizen on Facebook, "You should kill yourself, do the world a favor."
"This project was a little ironic in that what was interesting technically wasn't illegal. Them being a 'speed trap town' — perfectly legal. Them having 50 officers on the roster — while it's unusual, not illegal," Gibson said. "When we get to part three, what is illegal is they're not paying the minimum wage. That's technically against the rules. And how interesting is that?"
To hook the viewer and "bring some energy" to the piece, Gibson wanted to start with a trope that everyone could relate to — the small town that will pull you over. He worked to make sure that the headline — a town of 250 with 50 cops — would stay with the viewer no matter how far into the weeds the story got as it explored the various issues with the department.
The reaction was swift. Within two weeks, the city council had voted to fire Portillo and disband the entire police department. In December, Portillo was given six felony charges for tampering with government records by failing to disclose his DWI charge on his Coffee City job application. Several other former Coffee City officers face felony charges.
Automated Archives for October, 19th 2024
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