Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality

https://reclaimthenet.org/texas-woman-arrested-for-facebook-post-about-town-water-quality

by abawany • 2 months ago

803 305 2 months ago

reclaimthenet.org

nadermx• 2 months ago

Imagine the town of flynt getting arrested for having your government fail you.

bfkwlfkjf• 2 months ago

Land of the free

6stringmerc3• 2 months ago

World Cup Tourists about to get some “civic lessons” if they buy that too much, mmmhmmm.

vjvjvjvjghv3• 2 months ago

I assume you mean "Land of the fee"

nozzlegear2• 2 months ago

This is newsworthy because it's a clear and flagrant violation of her rights.

Source: I was threatened with a lawsuit by my own town for criticizing them online, but the ACLU helped me counter sue and win a settlement for violating my first amendment rights.

poly2it• 2 months ago

Was the comment you are replying to edited?

markoman3• 2 months ago

'Equal Justice Under Law'

nxm2• 2 months ago

Yea compared to Europe where you get arrested for memes

snvzz• 2 months ago

In Europe, this sort of thing is routine and doesn't make the news.

6stringmerc3• 2 months ago

Not surprised. Tarrant County told the US Marshals my styrofoam cooler with vomit in it was a “bomb threat” and charged me with use of a DEADLY WEAPON. Honestly. If my public defender hadn’t colluded with the Prosecution it wouldn’t be on my record today.

This is going to get a lot worse before it gets better in the US. I’m a nonviolent cripple. Meanwhile a pardoned Jan 6 rioter just told a City Counsel “they should be strung up” and isn’t even being charged. Totally depends what team you’re on right now.

vjvjvjvjghv3• 2 months ago

"Meanwhile a pardoned Jan 6 rioter just told a City Counsel “they should be strung up” and isn’t even being charged."

A great candidate to get some money from the lawfare fund.

Duwensatzaj• 2 months ago

Is this from 2024? The news article mentioned a threatening note. Curious what it said.

6stringmerc3• 2 months ago

It said they were covering up abuse by a Deputy and that they should clean house old school out front of their HQ. There was a drawing of a noose on it. At no point did the note say anything about action being planned or threatened against them, only that they should do it themselves. I’ve got a copy of it if you’re interested to see the real thing. that.sam.cliff via the mail service of the company under alphabet.

Even my public defender read it line by line with me and admitted “there’s no threat here” but he’s a fat drunk dependent on them giving him work. He even told me about his “chats” with the Prosecution attorney to “negotiate” the plea deal. Totally rotten. Turned my life around since then but by no means was justice served…I keep my squeaky clean self out of the County as much as possible.

FWIW 70 inmates have died in custody in the past 5 years. Place is understaffed by 100+ officers.

vjvjvjvjghv3• 2 months ago

I assume she will get a settlement, the city (the taxpayer) will pay for it and nothing else changes. There will be even less money for infrastructure repair and people will keep voting for the same people.

snazypaparazzi5• 2 months ago

I think everything is consistent with the perspective Texas represents toward the united states. It's fine if Texas doesn't implement reforms and fails. (There are 49 other states and may the ones that invent or adopt the best practices survive.)

smt88• 2 months ago

What do you think “fails” means exactly? How does Texas fail in a way that doesn’t harm innocent people in both Texas and the rest of the country/world?

Texas is larger (in both population and economy) than most countries in the world.

luxuryballs3• 2 months ago

fine for who? Texans? this is a silly mentality, no need to compare any other location, Texas as a standalone entity and the many stakeholders wouldn’t reasonably think it’s fine

epistasis2• 2 months ago

That's not a fair assumption in the current political environment.

Those who have lots of money will get fair hearings under the court, but those with less power might not. There's a reason people like Elon Musk write into agreements that they must be settled in particular Texas courts.

aliasxneo3• 2 months ago

I don't think that's the full picture. Activist judges have been a problem for awhile now, and it seems to be mostly influenced by ideology rather than purely money.

ryandrake2• 2 months ago

The point of the arrest was not to win. The point was to inconvenience the whistleblower, cause her grief, and maybe as a bonus make her spend a night or two in jail. Nobody doing this remotely believed that they wouldn't have to settle. They did it to show that if you speak out against them, they'll arrest and inconvenience you. So the next person who gets a thought to speak out might decide not to bother.

Same for the guy in TN who got arrested for posting that anti-conservative meme. Nobody thought they would win, but they want to make everyone else think twice about criticizing a particular political side.

john_strinlai2• 2 months ago

They did it to show that if you speak out against them, they'll arrest and inconvenience you. So the next person who gets a thought to speak out might decide not to bother.

some of my students have expressed that they wish they could get arrested for a meme and walk away with a couple hundred grand.

i, of course, have told them that they would be playing with fire. but they are still viewing it as a potentially life-changing payday. so, for some subset of people, they might be having to opposite of the desired chilling effect.

eduction• 2 months ago

Much like peter thiel’s lawsuits against Gawker, which included funding a guy who dubiously claimed to have invented email and sued Gawker for pointing out this was absurd.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/peter-thiel-email-inventor_n_...

YC and its founders worship him like a hero.

obsidianbases1• 2 months ago

Mostly this

They did it to show that if you speak out against them, they'll arrest and inconvenience you. So the next person who gets a thought to speak out might decide not to bother.

That needs reiterating because an uncomfortable amount of people think this sort of thing simply doesn't affect them.

efitz• 2 months ago

The process is the punishment.

cortesoft3• 2 months ago

This is why the saying “you can beat the rap but you can’t beat the ride” exists.

They know the charges won’t stick, they are using the process of fighting the charges itself as the punishment.

SilverElfin2• 2 months ago

The craziest part is the police defending this action as a “cut and dry” case. Meanwhile the lawsuit this woman just filed will hurt taxpayers and not the corrupt city officials and police that caused this. We need to ban all forms of immunity - none for cops, politicians, or judges. They need to be personally liable for their actions.

rightbyte• 2 months ago

Exactly which types of politicians, judges etc would be targeted by liability do you think? The unrighteous politicians? The judges in favour of those in power?

SilverElfin2• 2 months ago

I mean that when someone files a lawsuit to defend their civil/constitutional rights and wins, the penalty must be paid by the offenders and not taxpayers. For example the police who made the arrest and their supervisors.

Bilal_io2• 2 months ago

I hear you, but there has to be some balance between full immunity and no immunity at all. The one thing that comes to mind is rich and powerful people, because they have unlimited resources to sue and ruin the lives of cops, judges and politicians, which would lead to these officials avoiding to hold rich and powerful individuals accountable even when they have committed crimes.

ben_w• 2 months ago

I'm not a lawyer, but what you're describing sounds to me like an example of strategic lawsuits against public participation, just where the targeted "public" isn't a member of the general public but a public servant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_lawsuit_against_publ...

thot_experiment5• 2 months ago

You're so close! Instead of patching the issue maybe let's solve the root problem of spiky power distribution among humans. We don't need to make sure cops have immunity to prosecute powerful people. We need to not have powerful people.

(though realistically speaking yes there's probably some level of procedural immunity that probably makes sense, similarly with business bankruptcies not ruining the people who start the business)

mcdonje4• 2 months ago

"would"? There is currently a disparity in how rich and poor people are policed.

I get the point that there should be some limited immunity so they can do their jobs. Debatable, but worth the debate.

The argument about the repercussions of eliminating immunity is logical. It just seems like one of those things where there are multiple factors contributing to undesirable outcomes, and that makes it necessary to talk to experts.

jghn• 2 months ago

These lawsuits need to be charged against the police pension funds, not the city coffers

thot_experiment5• 2 months ago

It's absolutely not the slightest bit crazy if you've paid attention to how cops behave at any point in the last history of the country. 100% agree about personal responsibility. You must understand that when the cops says that oversight means they can't do their job, that means they view their job as bullying, harassing and killing citizens, so yea, we should put a stop to that. 1312

ggoo• 2 months ago

It's absolutely not the slightest bit crazy

Imo, speaking like this normalizes their behavior - it was crazy then and it's crazy now.

Bender3• 2 months ago

I will not put the blame on the bobbies, that's too convenient. Someone had to order them to do this. That's who needs to be permanently ousted from all levels of government and their voting rights rescinded.

queenkjuul4• 2 months ago

[redacted] all police but don't pretend it isn't crazy. Not every country is like this.

thinkingtoilet• 2 months ago

Just more actions from free speech loving Republicans. Exactly like that guy in Tennessee who got $800k.

nozzlegear2• 2 months ago

In my experience (I sued my town for violating my first amendment rights), the city will have insurance that will cover any damages or settlement they have to pay. Their premiums will likely go up, but the impact to taxpayers is probably minimal.

sirsinsalot2• 2 months ago

Perhaps in the first order, but when premiums go up and go up across all policies due to the acceptability of litigation... Everyone pays eventually.

Its a bit like saying driving dangerously is OK because you have insurance. Until everyone drives dangerously and insurance is sky high for all.

That said, they should be sued.

casey2• 2 months ago

Even making them pay their own lawsuit insurance premiums would be enough to stop 90% of abuse.

No change will happen until cities stop using police revenue for discretionary spending.

z3c0• 2 months ago

Nazi Germany wasn't chaos, just a lot of people following "cut-and-dry" protocol.

crnkofe• 2 months ago

This entire debacle weirds me out. Surely the police is aware of the water issues. They drink from the same tap as the locals do. What would a sane person call arresting people that publicly call out that your water supply is obviously contaminated?

georgeecollins• 2 months ago

That would not necessarily be the case in my town. We have police who don't live in the county and fireman who don't live in the state. (Los Angeles)

nkrisc• 2 months ago

Yikes, they’ll have to arrest most of the current federal administration if they ever set foot in Texas if that post meets the criteria for that particular law. That’s going to cause problems.

dpe82• 2 months ago

Oh don't worry, the enforcement is extremely selective.

kibwen• 2 months ago

Never heard of Ken Paxton, I suppose?

skrebbel2• 2 months ago

who?

dylan6045• 2 months ago

ahem, that's senator paxton /s

LocalH3• 2 months ago

"For my friends, everything. For my enemies, the law."

markoman3• 2 months ago

This type of treatment of citizenry by the State of Texas, and its various (and especially red) localities should be all one needs to see of where conservatives (and Christian Naitonalism) will take our country in the future -- should they get their way. Republicans hope to enable just such a future by scaring Americans with made-up visions of transsexuals 'grooming' their children, yet they cleverly hide what awaits behind the curtain. The is the same curtain that hides why Israel is supposed to be so very, very important to the U.S. but not so much that we make them state #51. This is the magical (read: Biblical) rationale that the U.S. makes excuses for Israel's attack on its own USS Liberty in 1967.

Saying nothing of the future of abortion & contraception, U.S. conservatives base their worldview on sexuality & reproduction and seek to burden it with fixtures that we have already spent hundreds of year to free ourselves from. At the same time, they take their eye off the ball of keeping our country competitive in the world. How embarrassing it is now to have the Chinese president suggest that the U.S. is in decline and that it shouldn't get caught in a Thucydides Trap.

Yet, that is where Trump has put us indeed.

jyounker4• 2 months ago

Well said.

dlubarov2• 2 months ago

the U.S. makes excuses for Israel's attack on its own USS Liberty in 1967.

It's strange how this 59-year-old incident keeps getting brought up. Friendly fire happens all the time, and Israel apologized and paid reparations ages ago.

samrus• 2 months ago

The conspiracy theory is that it wasnt just friendly fire but an attempted false flag. Make if that what you will

markoman3• 2 months ago

Except they don't happen all the time, because this incident killed 34 Americans & wounded 171. Is that not remarkable enough for a 'blue-ribbon' commission of investigation? If one of our European allies had done this, wouldn't a commission be held to review all the evidence and make a determination as to cause?

One needn't dig too deep to see there isn't too much wiggle room for mere misunderstanding. The nearly defenseless ship suffered 2 hours of withering attack by both waves of jets and torpedo boats; this with an American flag and its hull number in open display as it operated in international waters. The context was that this ship was an intelligence ship bristling with antennas and recording everything it could from the combatants in the ongoing six-day-war in 1967.

If there's any conspiracy, its how for years afterward whenever a congressman sought an investigation as requested by one of the family of those killed, the effort was silently killed despite its impact, over and over.

There are a lot of details involved and many actions to be assessed on both sides, but it should merit more than a Navy Court of Inquiry. When the captain of the ship received his Medal of Honor for saving his ship while injured, it was awarded to him by the Secretary of the Navy quietly at the Washington Navy Yard. The usual procedure is that the MoH be presented by the president in the White House in a ceremony. So, there's that.

mvdtnz2• 2 months ago

How does a town in the richest nation in the history of the planet not have the resources to get clear drinking water flowing through their taps?

beAbU• 2 months ago

Presumably because they are spending their money prosecuting people complaining about bad water.

Money does not grow on trees, you know!

umvi• 2 months ago

Water is handled at the city level, not the federal level. If you have incompetent local leadership, this can happen. Incompetent local leaders can (and have!) bankrupted their cities.

azinman2• 2 months ago

Texas also is all about no/low taxes.

queenkjuul4• 2 months ago

Cuz all that wealth belongs to about 14 people and everyone else gets police harassment and poison water

autoexec3• 2 months ago

We have more than enough resources, but a lot of people don't want to pay taxes to clean it or restrain corporations from polluting our water supply inn the first place. I'm guessing that plenty of people in this woman's own town were cheering Trump's slashing of the EPA's budget and deregulating clean air and water. Just this week the administration announced plans to kill off or delay limits in the amount of PFAS in the drinking water. They argue it's too expensive to limit or filter the poison but then give no-bid contracts out to their unqualified friends for tens of millions of dollars and spend a trillion bombing other countries for no reason so it's pretty clear where the priorities are and it isn't with us.

stevepotter• 2 months ago

You are mixing local and federal politics. This is a town issue and would likely have happened regardless of who occupied the Oval Office

balderdash3• 2 months ago

complete and utter incompetence by local elected officials. If one of the richest towns in America (average home price of >$2m) can do it - just imagine how bad it can be in "average" towns...

https://observer.com/2010/07/the-collapse-of-east-hampton-ho...

dfxm12• 2 months ago

The country is the richest, but the money is not distributed equally. One factor to keep in mind is that the state would rather give the richest man in the world tax breaks rather than make sure everyone has safe drinking water.

scoofy3• 2 months ago

How can X in the richest nation in the history of the planet be...

I've honestly grown absolutely sick of this type of comment as I get older. If you're not from the states, it's maybe understandable, but throughout my life most of the folks with me on the left that make these statements are completely ignorant of how their own government works and just assume "shit should be taken care of" without actually having to put any work in. It drives me crazy.

The vast majority of our electorate doesn't pay attention to politics, and then votes for feel-good measures (often very expensive), and almost universally avoid actual long-term net positive investments, like urban density and avoiding bond issuances wherever they are impractical.

As you see small towns welcoming -- even courting -- data centers while everyone in the town hates and protests them... yea, it's almost certainly because the town is broke, and the only folks who realize it are the city officials.

How does a town ... not have the resources to get clear drinking water flowing through their taps?

Many, many, many, towns in America are functionally insolvent! The amount of cost it takes to maintain our road/sewer/water/refuse/emergency/energy systems is very often more than the tax revenue that the town can bring in. This is literally the entire point of the Strong Towns organization: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020-5-14-americas-growt...

Rebuilding a water system is one of the most significant municipal finance events that a city will have to deal with, and more and more cities across the nation are requiring federal bailouts; e.g., the Jackson, Mississippi water crisis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson,_Mississippi,_water_cr....

It's just so frustrating as someone who cares about municipal finances that American cities' sustainability that most people think that it's just supposed to work itself out when cities are just lighting money on fires... often to the cheers of the electorate who voted for it.

mvdtnz2• 2 months ago

Well I'm not from the states and I stopped reading at that point. If you're "absolutely sick" of this conversation don't participate in it, but if you're going to you should do so politely and in good faith, not starting with a tirade like that.

sirsinsalot2• 2 months ago

Because the US is a third world country cosplaying as a developed nation. Much like their president is a corrupt and morally bankrupt fool cosplaying as a politician.

It doesn't matter in the US. Just pretend.

owenversteeg2• 2 months ago

The US is a huge country. In general it has excellent water; the US averages better than the EU. The Environmental Performance Index is a report that measures many things, and they have a handy section where they measure DALYs lost from sanitation and drinking water. For this section the US scores 96, within a few points of Switzerland (100), Sweden (97), Austria (96), Denmark (94), Belgium (93) and comfortably above the Netherlands (91), France (88), Poland (80), Czechia (79) and Japan (78.)

There are isolated incidents of poor water quality in each of those countries, and especially in small towns of eight hundred people in rural areas, but generally speaking, clear drinking water that is free of bacteria is standard.

lysace3• 2 months ago

On the other hand the US often relies on relatively crude chlorination to reach those levels, which those 'top' European countries don't. They instead put a strong emphasis on protecting the source water and then treating it via ozone, UV, biofiltration and slow sand filtration.

The taste of chlorinated water generally isn't tolerated.

16594470915• 2 months ago

How does a town in the richest nation [...] not have the resources to get clear drinking water

It's a large country. Texas is a very large state, larger in size than France.

Texas recently voted to approve a $20 billion investment in water.

https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/04/texas-elections-2025...

pstuart2• 2 months ago

This is a textbook free speech issue, versus not being able to post your conspiracy theory on some web site which has nothing to do with free speech.

Lionga• 2 months ago

Who decideds what is free speech and what is a conspiracy theory?

For a long time saying tabaco creates lung cancers was basically a conspiracy theory and saying it is healthy was free speech.

jyounker4• 2 months ago

Since at least the 70s everyone knew that it caused lung cancer. It's just that industry spending prevented anyone from doing something about it, in the exactly the same way that we've been seeing with global warming.

infinite_spin2• 2 months ago

I'm not a lawyer, but I think qualified immunity should not apply to constitutional violations. Giving an opt-out for those violations is antithetical to the very substance of our (US) constitution.

jazzypants4• 2 months ago

Qualified Immunity should not apply ever. Period. No one should be above the law for any reason ever.

pdpi• 2 months ago

Let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Qualified immunity, as a concept, makes perfect sense. Police officers are not jurists, and they will make mistakes in enforcing the law. Making those officers personally liable for honest mistakes is, IMO, excessive.

The issue isn't qualified immunity itself, but rather the maximalist interpretation that seems pervasive in the US justice system, and the overwhelmingly broad definition of "honest mistake" that seemingly applies to the police, and the police alone.

balderdash3• 2 months ago

yup, i think a majority of people would agree with you, so why hasn't it happened? I think the answer is that elected representatives are more beholden to public sector unions than their constituents.

estearum2• 2 months ago

Texas: Famously pro-union

jopsen• 2 months ago

It's weird to me that courts don't at-least attempt to review if the conduct was in good faith and plausibly reasonable given the facts know at the time.

The idea that officials aren't personally liable for mistakes made in good faith isn't bad. But somehow the US tends to produce a lot of cases where good faith requires a lot of faith :)

Gibbon1• 2 months ago

You would think using your office to file false charges against someone would be corruption just like using your office to embezzle money.

cortesoft3• 2 months ago

It literally is not supposed to. The ruling that is currently used for the precedent is Harlow v Fitzgerald, which states:

The Court held that "government officials performing discretionary functions, generally are shielded from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known."

It seems to me that a reasonable person would know this violates constitutional rights if you arrest people that criticize the government.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlow_v._Fitzgerald

underlipton• 2 months ago

Qualified immunity shouldn't even be a thing at all, as far as state and local officials are concerned. It was a "mistake" (emphasis on the quotes).

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/15/us/politics/qualified-imm...

pfdietz2• 2 months ago

The problem with that is sometimes it's not clear if something is a constitutional violation. Here, it was clear, but in general you don't want to do that.

Something that should be exempt from qualified immunity are actions that go against court orders.

thekevan• 2 months ago

The city issued a boil water advisory about about 13 or 14 days after her arrest.

luxuryballs3• 2 months ago

they said to make sure you boil it slowly though, so the local frogs don’t jump out! /s

vsgherzi• 2 months ago

This is dumb af. There should be an extremely small subset of things you can say online that get you arrested. This is definitely not one of them. I hope she she’s and it’s sets a precedent for cases after. I’d hate to see a ruling like the UK. While is vervently disagree with some of the awful things they post they shouldn’t be arrested for it.

coderintherye• 2 months ago

Somewhat similar premise to the recent settlement that came out for the man arrested for posting a meme in Tennessee https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/a-tennessee-man-was-ja...

rami3l• 2 months ago

I was immediately reminded of this old piece on water quality issues and local politics...

An Enemy of the People [..] is an 1882 play [..] that [..] centers on Dr. Thomas Stockmann, who discovers a serious contamination issue in his town's new spas, endangering public health. His courageous decision to expose this truth brings severe backlash from local leaders [..]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Enemy_of_the_People

alsetmusic8• 2 months ago

This is the sort of comment that really enriches my life. Not only would I not have known about this author (I'm an english-only speaker), but I clicked onto another work ("Ghosts" in english, possibly more accurate as "Again Walkers" per the wiki), and this quickly grabs my interest:

"Because of its subject matter, which includes religion, venereal disease, incest, and euthanasia, it immediately generated strong controversy and adverse criticism."

This author wrote stuff that broke norms with taboo. That alone doesn't make the work meaningful, but the accolades mentioned in the article make me think of him as a P.T. Anderson of his time. Thanks for the reference and link!

thekingshorses• 2 months ago

This week, there was two different settlement close to $800K related to someone posting and getting arrested about what charlie kirk said.

This woman shouldn't settle for anything less.

p_j_w3• 2 months ago

Do you have information on this? I’m curious to see.

jkestner• 2 months ago

https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/17/politics/retired-cop-jailed-o...

paconbork• 2 months ago

Here's a post about it from FIRE, the org that defended him https://www.fire.org/news/victory-tennessee-man-jailed-37-da...

scoofy3• 2 months ago

The charges have already been dismissed: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/charges-dismissed-against-...

Good on the grand jury for not indicting this ham sandwich.

pfdietz2• 2 months ago

That town now has not just a bad water problem, but a large free speech lawsuit problem.

Maybe they could dock the Chief's retirement account?

conductr• 2 months ago

Should be a “cut and dry” decision just like how he described the arrest

p_j_w3• 2 months ago

The chief of police stands proudly by his decision. This will happen again.

cortesoft3• 2 months ago

They always knew the charges wouldn’t stick. The punishment they were handing out was she had to spend a night in jail and spend money on a lawyer.

They already dished out the punishment, so they don’t care that it was dismissed.

gblargg• 2 months ago

"The punishment is the process."

sidewndr462• 2 months ago

Bonus points if they can ransack the person's car or house searching for evidence of the crime. They could also seize all weapons and cash they find since those were used in the commission of a crime.

rolph• 2 months ago

upon inspection of images pertaining to water at the point of usage, i declare said water to be Alaskan well water.

use a 5micron, and 1micron particulate filter in series, and it looks like it came from a bottle.

you would be well advised to test for heavy metals, esp. arsenic

most people here dont use softening or reverse osmosis

userbinator• 2 months ago

Apparently people here will also censor speech that doesn't align with their narratives, but will complain loudly when speech that does is censored.

nnutter• 2 months ago

It seems suspicious to me that they do not include the "offending" Facebook post. It seems like this is it, and it seems completely in the realm of journalism,

https://scontent.fcps4-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/6654022...

xeromal• 2 months ago

This link doesn't seem to load

jolmg2• 2 months ago

The domain only has an IPv6 address, so the link doesn't work on IPv4.

culi• 2 months ago

Not sure why they used that link (though it works fine for me). Here's the same screenshot from the article

https://media.reclaimthenet.org/2026/05/N35Bezr1GdxG.jpg

It's facebook post. Firefox's "copy text from image" gives this unformatted blob:

Southern Belle Watch • 1h • 2 Author We have received reports that some citizens have been hospitalized due to bacteria in the water. This is a serious public health concern that deserves immediate attention. If your water looks discolored, contains sediment, has a strong odor, or you have experienced related health issues, please send us a message. We are gathering information and reporting findings to the state. We are aware that not all areas of Trinidad are experiencing these issues. However, if your water is affected, your information could help identify patterns and ensure the problem is addressed properly. Please include: • Your area or neighborhood (no exact address needed • Photos or videos of the water (if available) • Dates and times the issue occurred • Any notices you may have received • Any health concerns you're willing to share Your information can help bring attention to the issue and support efforts to improve water quality for everyone. If you have information or your water looks like this, please send us a message Reply

jolmg2• 2 months ago

It's in the article. The pictured post by "Southern Belle Watch".

sidewndr462• 2 months ago

wouldn't they be guilty of the same crime?

metalman• 2 months ago

I once stated to one of my fathers aqaintences in the local town council that I was considering refuseing to pay my water bill on the grounds that water is defined as a coulorless, odourless liquid, and what comes out of my tap is niether, his imediate request was "can I use that?" and so, not too long after we got a significant upgrade to the towns water, which is now of a much better quality, withmore upgrades all the time.

arjie• 2 months ago

These small towns are often just armed HOAs and the law is usually secondary to administration whim. One would imagine that state and federal police are the weapons to bring to bear on them.

thiht• 2 months ago

Is America great yet?

jimnotgym• 2 months ago

Saving this one for the next time an American says, 'In your stupid European country you can get arrested for simply saying something online'

dylan6045• 2 months ago

You left out the word legally. You can legally be arrested for simply saying something online. This was not a legal arrest. Small difference

wokkel• 2 months ago

Semantics. The result is the same. The cause: no repercussions for missing the system that is in place is a bigger fallacy imho

gib444• 2 months ago

Doesn't 'legal arrest' have a specific legal meaning? How have you ascertained it was an illegal arrest? And what made it illegal?

computersuck• 2 months ago

so much for democracy

dylan6045• 2 months ago

you forgot to date that properly, 20 January, 2025

jmyeet• 2 months ago

If you look at the legal system through the lens of "what benefits the wealthy or powerful?" you will more accurately guess what is going to happen and this goes from local issues such as this one all the way to the Supreme Court.

We just had the Broadview 6 case dismissed (with prejudice) this week. The Broadview 6 included former Chicago Congressional primary contender, Kat Abugazaleh. It was a bullshit set of charges for daring to protest an ICE facility. It was always going away but what was more disturbing is the prosecutorial misconduct [1]. The level of misconduct should rise to the level of disbarment. It will get referred to the bar and it'll probably be some slap-on-the-wrist sanctions however.

Prosecutors hold a lot of power and can make your life hell. They need to be held to a very high standard and any whiff of this kind of misconduct should forever bar you from being a prosecutor or a judge.

In this case the prosecutor basically engaged in witness tampering (effectively) with the grand jury proceedings and then tried to cover it up by redacting those parts of the grand jury transcripts. Those redactions basically amount to committing perjury, making false filings to the court under oath.

That's the lengths prosecutors will go to to crush protests. This goes equally for exposing incompetence, negligence or corruption by the town for mismanaging the water supply. This kind of overreach and misconduct is all too common.

[1] https://capitolnewsillinois.com/news/broadview-6-trial-cance...

oooyay• 2 months ago

The statute requires that a person knowingly circulate a false report. Combs says she was repeating what people told her. Gregory says she should have verified it with the hospitals first

It would be a violation of HIPAA for a medical system to disclose that to a private individual. The State Health Services or TCEQ would need to conduct that investigation and ask those questions. Both of those are state level agencies and would require significant momentum for a small town like Trinidad to trigger their attention. Ironically, it sounds like her social media post and the Streisand effect around it have triggered a TCEQ boil water notice and (likely) an investigation.

It is absolutely bizarre for a municipal or county law enforcement agency to take interest in this kind of thing. Texas Rangers and federal authorities should be looking at what triggered her arrest and whatever investigation came before it. That's assuming Greg Abbot, Dan Patrick, or Ken Paxton haven't totally compromised them at this point.

themafia• 2 months ago

It would be a violation of HIPAA for a medical system to disclose that to a private individual.

If multiple people told her they were hospitalized then you could ask and answer about that in a general way without violating HIPPA. "Were the multiple cases of hospitalization due to water quality issues in the recent month?" As long as individual data isn't revealed then there is no violation. Which is obvious when you think about any generalized health statistics.

Which isn't to defend the Trinidad Police department, but to point out, if their concern was community awareness, then they could have asked any news outlet to do this same reporting as a matter of public interest.

Instead the police decide that it's better to use their limited resources to take a citizen into custody over factually ambiguous statements. We live in disappointing times so it's not hard to imagine a friend or colleague pressured the police into violating this woman's civil rights in an effort to shut everyone up about the sorry state of their infrastructure.

thisisidiotic• 2 months ago

I was almost arrested a couple days ago because i walked to the nearest grocery store with my backpack on. I needed to visit a specialty shop nearby and put the goods in my backpack. I travel with a backpack. It holds my money, identification, nicotine, other odds and ends, some aleve, and also a foldable cane, an assistive device that I need when my bad knee goes out (tibial plateau). The store was willing to confiscate my bag for me, but are naturally not responsible if it all goes missing, or if the cash goes missing, or if my cards get skimmed, or if someone social engineers another employee into handing the bag to them. So in order to protect the stores green beans, I am ordered to forfeit all my personal property and identity information as well as my assistive device. When i refuse, they called the cops and attempted to insinuate over the phone to the cops that I "may have weapons" and "may be dangerous" even though I am just literally an austistic disabled person walking a mile to the store because it was too rainy to ride my motorcycle. In either case, I would be wearing a backpack. This is essentially the same as a woman carrying a purse. I am at a point I no longer want to participate in this society or even live amongst anyone here. I can no longer function except in full isolation apparently because everything I am, and everything I've done for four decades on this planet, is being attacked and criminalized with prejudice. I am constantly kicked out of stores for existing, i cannot go anywhere without people yelling at me or threatening violence against me. I despise existence and everyone that has enabled this society to become this way. There is nothing good here anymore.

sbochins• 2 months ago

Texas is a quasi fascist state at this point. I wouldn’t hold your breath about Greg Abbott coming to the rescue. This type of interaction with their constituents is common now.

iririririr• 2 months ago

hippa is not that. well, it more than one person was involved.

it only prevents personably identifiable information to be shared with institutions that are not hippa compliant. nothing else.

xp842• 2 months ago

HIPAA or not, I assume the hospital wouldn’t tell a private citizen anything concerning anyone else, just on general principles. There’s no FOIA or something like that to force them to.

alsetmusic8• 2 months ago

But they don't have to disclose identifying information to say, "yeah, we've had more XYZ cases," or some other statistic. I'm not saying she should have to contact the hospital to exercise her right to free speech. I'm just saying that HIPAA doesn't mean healthcare institutions are a black box. I find that idea strange because I can immediately see how to ask questions to work around it while still protecting individuals.

worik2• 2 months ago

The city’s mayor, Dennis Haws, told reporters the pipes date back to the 1950s

How long should water pipes remain useful? Am I outrageously naive to think more than 75 years?

Perhaps they have been doing no maintenance....

LocalH3• 2 months ago

All arrests that don't result in a conviction should be completely expunged.

xtiansimon2• 2 months ago

"[Chief Charles] Gregory says she should have verified it with the hospitals first."

What is a hospital going to tell a member of the public with HIPPA laws? As police chief he has a great deal of deferred power. Officials will talk to him. Private citizen making an inquiry is going to get crickets. Heck--have you ever been walking down the street or walked outside your home and found a police or fire department cordon? Asked what's going on and the fire department won't respond to your questions and the police department will tell you to go back in your house or move along.

One point of Devil's Advocate. Social media, YouTube and mobile phone video has created a very difficult situation. People who are untrained in reporting are making wild statements. And Evil People are undermining good faith everywhere (news, politics, public safety, health, citizenship, the rule of law).

I've never ever seen so many legal cases taking this strong line against free speech in my lifetime. These are extraordinary times.

sigbottle• 2 months ago

And they said it wouldn't happen.

Everything is an accident, an anecdote, only trust the state with your authoritative quantitative data! There's surely no philosophical issues with that! There's no issues with definitional authority!

gigatexal• 2 months ago

I hope she sues the city and everyone involved personally for tens of millions. This is insane. The water is brown. Do not drink it. Instead boil it. Posts that it’s bad. Get jailed. Wtf?

ninjahawk1• 2 months ago

I see so many shitpost twitter and facebook pages that claim actually harmful misinformation, absolutely disgusting levels of picking one and ignoring the other. Especially when given the evidence now, she was sharing legitimate information.

rimeice• 2 months ago

All the criticism the UK and European countries get from American tech billionaires for censorship…then…this. No one anywhere could argue this post is some sort of hate speech to even mildly cover their arses.

dudul2• 2 months ago

The difference with Europe may be that in this case the charges have already been dropped. Not saying it's great, but at least it was stopped, and she may sue for reparations. I don't think the "hateful posts" cases in the UK or Germany end up like this.

jimt1234• 2 months ago

[The mayor] acknowledged discussions about forming a committee to address the issue.

Sounds like concepts of a plan. So, they ain't doin' shit, except arresting people who speak up.

dudul2• 2 months ago

I got to admit, whoever at the town hall or whatever sent the cop to this woman's door really has some balls considering the color of the water. I feel like when this is the water your citizens get out of the faucet you should be busy doing something else instead of trying to jail people who complain about it.

EchoReflection• 2 months ago

I predict it won't stand.

“We have received reports that some citizens have been hospitalized due to bacteria in the water. This is a serious public health concern that deserves immediate attention. If your water looks discolored, contains sediment, has a strong odor, or you have experienced related health issues, please send us a message. We are gathering information and reporting findings to the state.”

that is pretty solidly "free speech", not defamation, not allegations of anything, not "libel"‡

‡libel noun 1. a published false statement that is damaging to a person's reputation; a written defamation

Example: he was found guilty of a libel on a Liverpool inspector of taxes

-defamation -defamation of character -character assassination

2. (in admiralty and ecclesiastical law) a plaintiff's written declaration

verb 1. defame (someone) by publishing a libel

Example: the jury found that he was libelled by a newspaper

---- But law can be complex and "injustices" happen all the time, so we'll see...

varispeed• 2 months ago

Where is JD Vance preaching about free speech like he did in the UK. Twat.

goofy_lemur2• 2 months ago

100% of all law enforcement is criminal. Nobody makes laws except criminals

justsid• 2 months ago

I don’t agree with the arrest and definitely not every law either, but this has got to be rage bait. I’m quite happy to live in a society with laws

goofy_lemur2• 2 months ago

When people are paid to hurt others, they will always hurt the weak, not the evil.

jdjdndj2838ejd• 2 months ago

Looks to me like a pre-emptive fence electrification

“Don’t share concern about water quality online, or else”

marsxr360• 2 months ago

I would love to hire myself as legal professional in cases like this.

In fact I've already started collecting evidence on a no-win-no-fee basis.

Ready for action

yowo• 2 months ago

Wow, many dictatorships wouldn't mind this level of speech.

wbshaw• 2 months ago

"We have received reports..." Is factually true and plausible given the accompanying photo and statements from city officials.

yawz• 2 months ago

The water is brown. The city admits it.

No kidding! Looking at that picture, I would be beyond worried if that was my tap water.

Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality

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