A teenager on a field trip to see a Detroit court ended up in jail clothes and handcuffs because a judge said he didn’t like her attitude.

A teenager on a field trip to see a Detroit court ended up in jail clothes and handcuffs because a judge said he didn’t like her attitude.

Judge Kenneth King even asked other kids in the courtroom Tuesday whether the 16-year-old girl should be taken to juvenile detention, WXYZ-TV reported.

  • snooggums@midwest.socialEnglish
    2801·
    3 months ago

    Judge Aliyah Sabree, who has the No. 2 leadership post at the court, released a statement Wednesday night, saying King’s conduct “does not reflect the standards we uphold at 36th District Court.”

    If someone does a thing and isn’t stopped or reprimanded then their actions do reflect the standards because those things happened. If your court lets a judge treat a child like a criminal for falling asleep, that is who you are as a court.

    Fuck anyone who says “this isn’t who we are” and doesn’t actually do anything to prove that is the case.

    • Frozyre@kbin.melroy.org
      411·
      3 months ago

      I know right?

      It’s just PR to protect themselves, not about actually doing fuck all about what just transpired. Many people like this show such cowardice to make a difference.

    • JigglySackles@lemmy.world
      27·
      3 months ago

      I want to say that the issue in this case with stopping him is that the other judge wasn’t present to alter it. But then you are still right because presumably that other judge is never there to stop this kind of thing.

      • Dasus@lemmy.world
        3·
        3 months ago

        As if it’s just “one bad apple” and if someone else had been there this person would’ve been reprimanded for this arbitrary scared straight bullshit.

        Nah, even if there had been a second judge and they had been there and thought it crazy, they probably still would’ve defended their judge friend’s decision.

        You know, like cops do.

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
      2·
      3 months ago

      Michigan district Court judges are elected. You can’t just fire an elected official. His term ends January 1, 2027.

        • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
          3·
          3 months ago

          Fortunately this particular judicial position does require the officeholder to be a licensed attorney in good standing and answerable to the bar, which gives extra disciplinary and training options.

          Amazingly, most judges do not have that requirement. In fact, even SCOTUS justices don’t have to be attorneys. They all are, but there’s not actually a requirement for it.

  • NegativeInf@lemmy.world
    228·
    3 months ago

    If I got arrested for every time I fell asleep on a boring field trip, I’d have been arrested 0 times. Because Texas doesn’t fund education.

  • haunte@leminal.spaceEnglish
    223·
    3 months ago

    King told WXYZ that he spoke to the girl’s parents and offered to be a mentor.

    This guy is a psychopath. He just traumatized this girl and now he wants to have influence in her life? Yikes. It sounds like he wants to finish the job of making her life hell.

  • sorrybookbroke@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1341·
    3 months ago

    Don’t worry guys, the judge offered to be that girl’s mentor. Asked her parents and all, so he sees no problem with this usage of power. You can absolutely trust him to be alone with a child and “teach her right”

  • thesmokingman@programming.dev
    1261·
    3 months ago

    Teens are constantly sleepy because that’s how teens work. School start times especially make it impossible to for them to get proper sleep. I’d say it’s ridiculous that someone who has authority over teens doesn’t understand the fucking basics of teens but it’s the Us criminal justice system where authority is made up and the credentials don’t matter.

    • JigglySackles@lemmy.world
      57·
      3 months ago

      Just not the lesson he intended. Always good to learn that the justice system is against you and will abuse it’s power to “make an example” of you.

    • Warl0k3@lemmy.world
      243·
      3 months ago

      Separation of powers. Executive has the DOJ and friends, Congress has the Sgt at arms and Judiciary has contempt. All three are, in theory, immune to interference from the other branches, to allow said branches to defend themselves. Stupid, stupid idea.

  • don@lemm.ee
    41·
    3 months ago

    Put that shitty excuse of a judge in prison so he can reflect on his crimes.

  • Rob T Firefly@lemmy.worldEnglish
    36·
    3 months ago

    “I wanted this to look and feel very real to her, even though there’s probably no real chance of me putting her in jail. That was my own version of ‘Scared Straight,’” King said, referring to a documentary about teen offenders in New Jersey.

    For those unfamiliar, Scared Straight! was roundly debunked after the fact as a stupid fucking thing to do which did the opposite of what it was supposed to, and attendees of the program ended up more likely to reoffend.

    • rickyrigatoni@lemm.ee
      17·
      3 months ago

      They even had a “where are they now” at the end of each program that showed it didn’t work.

  • Scrungo@lemmy.mlEnglish
    312·
    3 months ago

    I got put in silent lunch one time because I fell asleep during a guy describing his time in Japan as a teacher by my asshole homeroom teacher (she thought I was acting up because another teacher woke me up and she only saw that). That was unfair and I absolutely hated middle school, but this is a whole new level of fucked.