The law enforcement officer spent months methodically gathering evidence. He leafed through thousands of pages and highlighted key passages amid reams and reams of paper. He wore his body camera to record his interactions with witnesses and suspects. And he photographed what he saw as instruments of the alleged crime:

Books.

The targets of the investigation? Three school librarians in Granbury, Texas. The allegation? They had allowed children to access literature — such as “The Bluest Eye,” by Toni Morrison — that the officer, Scott London, a chief deputy constable, had deemed obscene.

In an extraordinary look into the ramifications of the right-wing backlash against books dealing with racism, gender, sex and sexuality, an 824-page investigative file obtained by NBC News and NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth shows how, for two years, London vigorously pursued felony charges against librarians in the Granbury Independent School District.

London secured subpoenas, filed public records requests, received names of students who’d checked out certain books and, after a year, wrote draft criminal complaints.

Those charges — distributing harmful material to a minor — were never filed. The investigation came to an end in June after Hood County District Attorney Ryan Sinclair turned down London’s request to indict the librarians, citing a lack of conclusive evidence to charge them with felonies.Sinclair declined to be interviewed and did not respond to written questions. London, who has ties to the anti-government constitutional sheriff’s movement and tried to launch a local chapter of the far-right Oath Keepers militia in 2020, did not respond to questions.

  • teft@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    London, who has ties to the anti-government constitutional sheriff’s movement and tried to launch a local chapter of the far-right Oath Keepers militia in 2020

    Color me surprised. /s

    • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      The CSPOA unsurprisingly has its roots in white supremacy. The idea started through the writings of Christian Identity (white supremacist) minister William Potter Gale about Posse Comitatus which considered the county sherif as the highest government law official. White supremacist groups continued the idea throughout the 80s and 90s. When I grew up, I had always heard of talk of “constitutionalists” up in the mountains that were fine dealing with the sheriff’s departments but claimed they would shoot federal officers on site. The reality is that they were not constitutionalists at all but anti-government racists who tried to hide their racism under a very thin veneer of faux constitutionalism.

      • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        The CSPOA unsurprisingly has its roots in white supremacy.

        I am shocked! SHOCKED! Well, not that shocked.