Monday, February 24, 2014

Chief of Police Responds to Controversial Arrest with Hostility

     The Daily Texan Editorial board published an article criticizing Austin Police chief, Art Acevedo. When confronted by the press about an arrest made last Thursday morning, Acevedo responded in an “alarmingly aggressive” manner. The incident involved a jogger, 24 year old Amanda Jo Stephen. Her initial violation was “failure to obey a pedestrian control device.” At the time, Stephen was wearing headphones and did not hear the officer approach. Unable to verbally gain the assailant's attention, the APD officer grabbed Stephen by the arm and arrested her. According to an eye witness, she refused to identify herself and was yelling at the cops that were pinning her to the ground. A video taken by an onlooker quickly went viral and evoked a “swift, negative and complex” public reaction. In a press conference Art commented this: In other cities there’s cops who are actually committing sexual assaults on duty, so I thank God that this is what passes for a controversy in Austin, Texas.” This hurt the situation and negatively affected the trustworthiness of the Chief of Police. The author explains that “officers should have the discretion to enforce the spirit of the law, not just the strict text of it.” In their opinion, the arrest was unnecessary as was the hostility of Acevedo's response to it. I agree that he absolutely could have handled the situation more maturely.






Monday, February 10, 2014

New Degree Available for Around $10K, Books Included

Since Rick Perry called for a new program in which a bachelor's degree could be attained for only about $10,000 back in 2011, several have been announced. Only recently, however, has a degree been released- by Texas A&M-Commerce and South Texas College- in this price range, that includes the price of textbooks. Their "bachelor’s of applied science in organizational leadership" degrees which is completed online, costs students around $13,000-15,000 (cheaper if students already possess some college credit) and will take around three years to attain. Dan Jones, president of A&M-Commerce commented that “accreditation and innovation are not always aligned. But SACS worked with us and recognized that this is a legitimate form of instruction and something we’re going to see more of, not less of, in the coming years.”