#texas department of family and protective services

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

A Travis County judge has ordered the state to stop child-abuse investigations into two families w ho are helping their transgender kids access gender-affirming care.

State District Judge Amy Clark Meachum wrote the investigations are "gross invasions of privacy" that intrude on parental rights and decision-making. The order bars the agency from expanding the definition of child abuse in order to investigate the families.

Meachum's order, delivered Friday evening, determined that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services violated state law by improperly implementing a new rule on gender-affirming care at the insistence of Gov. Greg Abbott in February.

The judge said she was still weighing whether to provide additional relief to Texas members of PFLAG, an LGBTQ advocacy group that sued to block child-abuse investigations into families who are members of the group. She's also still weighing whether to provide more relief to a third family that sued but had already been cleared of abuse allegations.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton quickly appealed, as he did with a similar injunction issued by Meachum in March.

In a joint statement, lawyers for the families praised the judge for recognizing "that being subjected to an unlawful and unwarranted investigation causes irreparable harm for these families who are doing nothing more than caring for and affirming their children and seeking the best course of care for them in consultation with their medical providers."

In her order, Meachum said the families — identified in court documents under the pseudonyms Roe and Voe — would be placed in harm's way if the investigations were allowed to continue, including depriving or disrupting medically necessary care for their transgender teens.

The child abuse policy also infringes on the parents' right to make medical decisions for their children in consultation with health care providers and inflicts trauma on the adolescents, Meachum wrote.

Meachum's injunction blocked the child-welfare agency from taking any action against the families other than to close its investigations — if that can be done without further contact with the parents or children.

The ordeal began in February when Paxton issued a nonbinding legal opinion that said gender-affirming care could be grounds for child-abuse under state laws. National medical experts said Paxton relied on false claims, exaggerations and errors to reach that conclusion, but Abbott followed with a Feb. 22 letter directing the Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate such care as abuse, and the state's child-welfare agency agreed to do so.

ABBOTT FACES LEGAL ROADBLOCKS

In the months since Abbott ordered the state's child welfare agency to begin investigating parents of transgender children for "child abuse," experts have repeatedly argued the directive carries no legal weight and legal challenges have followed.

The first lawsuit was filed by a mother, identified only as Jane Doe, who worked for the Department of Family and Protective Services and came under investigation after asking a supervisor what Abbott's directive meant for her transgender teen. Meachum responded in March by issuing a statewide injunction barring all abuse investigations based solely on providing gender-affirming care.

Paxton's bid to overturn the injunction is still before the Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals, but in the meantime, the Texas Supreme Court substantially limited the scope of the judge's order, striking down the statewide injunction in May while allowing it to apply only to the Doe family.

Experts say the Texas Supreme Court's ruling May ruling struck down the statewide injunction because the court still needs to be provided with more evidence to grant full protection to all families with transgender children in the state, not just families DFPS has already begun investigating.

"Though that protection is not at this time permanent it is because it's too early to grant final relief," Stephen Sheppard, former dean of St. Mary's School of Law in San Antonio told USA TODAY in May. "There's not been a trial yet. But this is an indication of what all three levels of Texas courts believe (will be) the outcome after the trial."

When Child Protective Services resumed child abuse investigations after the state Supreme Court's ruling, three more families filed suit, this time joined by PFLAG, a leading LGBTQ advocacy organization. Last month, a different Travis County judge responded by issuing a temporary restraining order blocking investigations into the three families and any member of PFLAG.

On Wednesday, during a daylong hearing in Austin on whether to convert the restraining order into a longer-lasting injunction, lawyers for Paxton argued state law gives the child-welfare agency the authority to protect minors from abuse, including the potentially improper use of puberty blockers and hormone therapy.

A lawyer for Texas also made false claims about the purpose of gender-affirming care and tried to broadly associate the medical care with political ideologies.

Lawyers for the families of transgender adolescents said the safety of the procedures is well established in science, and children are treated only in consultation with mental health professionals, family doctors and specialists.

Two mothers who are under CPS investigation testified about how the fear of being removed from their home worsened anxieties for their transgender teens, both of whom had to continue high school from virtually this spring.

Gender-affirmation typically begins with a social transition, with youths possibly adopting new names, pronouns and clothing that better expresses their gender identity.

Medical treatment for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, the distress caused when a person's body does not match their gender identity, can include puberty blockers to delay body and voice changes so that a teen doesn't have to develop physical characteristics of a different gender after they have already transitioned socially. The effects of puberty blockers are reversible, doctors say.

Hormone therapy, which begins after the onset of puberty, can introduce lasting body changes, while surgery typically does not occur before age 18, doctors say.

Texas families with transgender children who are worried about being investigated by DFPS can gain protection through PFLAG membership, according to the organization. Because courts have only ruled on cases involving PFLAG members, families who are not a part of the group do not have full legal protection against state investigation at this time.

Bills that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth have been introduced in the Texas legislature but have failed to become law.

[kiramoore626]

What life is like for trans youth in Texas after Abbott's calls to investigate gender-affirming care

What life is like for trans youth in Texas after Abbott’s calls to investigate gender-affirming care

What life is like for trans youth in Texas after Abbott’s calls to investigate gender-affirming care It’s been eight months since Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate the families of trans youth for providing gender-affirming care. Since then, some families have left the state. Those that stayed have weathered anxiety and the dizzying…

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

all right, I was tagged A While ago by @greater-than-the-sword to share 5 songs I actually listen to, so here are some of my top played this month:

1. Cathedrals by Jump Little Children - if this one doesn’t end up on my Spotify Wrapped, I’ll be surprised. I don’t usually listen to songs on loop, but I have listened to this one on loop.

2. Number One by Paul Williams - Surprisingly good for a song about basketball.

3. Umpqua Rushing by Blind Pilot - This one and Cathedrals both communicate yearning to me, not necessarily through the lyrics (though it is there), but in the sound.

4. In the Blood (Cover) by Nikki Phillippi, Revel Day, & Dani Moz - i’m here for the guitar riff, the key change, and the fact that i can put it in my TXDFPS playlist

5. Heavy Hands by Ryan Ike & May Claire La Plante - because it reminded me of Quincey P. Morris, rest his soul

and I tag @deadinarussianelevator @sunheart @rithmeres @freenarnian and @hollers-and-holmes if you so desire

[whatbigotspost]

If you don’t live in Texas it’s probably easy to forget that our state department of family and protective services is still under a directive from our fucking evil state officials to treat trans affirming parents as abusers.

It’s so vile. I have friends who work for other state departments who just told me at someone’s bday last weekend that TDFPS is a dumpster fire of horrific proportions.

[radiofreederry]

Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, which to be clear has been a shitshow for years, is now on the verge of absolute and complete collapse after more than 2000 agents quit rather than enforce instructions from Governor Abbott and Attorney General Paxton to regard parental gender affirmation for trans kids as a form of child abuse

[seriousposting]

The Crime

Nex Benedict (they/them) was a 16-year-old nonbinary youth living in Oklahoma. They endured a reportedly vicious beating in a high school bathroom of Owasso High School, Nex died the next day in the hospital. They were a sophomore. This was February 7 and 8th. Last week, Nex was in high school. This week, they were buried.

According to KJRH

Three older girls were beating on the victim and her daughter in the girl’s bathroom. “I know at one point, one of the girls was pretty much repeatedly beating their head across the floor,” she said. That’s when she said a teacher walked in and broke it up. “Nex couldn’t walk to the nurses’ station on their own, and staff didn’t call the ambulance, which amazes me,” she said.The woman told 2 News the victim’s grandmother, who they primarily lived with, brought them to the hospital after the fight. She said the victim was released that evening but was brought back the next day and died.

Local police are investigating, but have not issued a statement or identified the victim. There is also no confirmation may of the details – how many students were involved in the assault, how many victims, what was the sequence of events, what’s been Nex’s school experience. We don’t know that being nonbinary is what triggered the assault.

We do know that nonbinary identity is often a factor or predictor of vulnerability to bullying and abuse.

Honoring Nex

Nex was born on January 11, 2008, in El Paso, Texas. They grew up in Owasso, Oklahoma. Nex was a sophomore at Owasso High School. According to family, Nex identified as nonbinary and used they/them pronouns.

According to the obituary, Nex was a nature lover. They enjoyed caring for cats but particularly loved their cat, Zeus. Nex also enjoyed watching the Walking Dead, drawing, reading, and playing Ark and Minecraft. During the funeral, their family said they loved to cook and would often make up their own recipes. Nex was also a straight-A student.

I have not yet found any online presence for Nex.

Funeral Service were at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, February 15, 2024, at the Mowery Funeral Service Chapel in Owasso. You can read Nex obituary, but note that it refers to Nex using she/her pronouns

The Context

We also do not yet know the school’s policies, BUT it is fair to assume that they have a policy of some type that requires them to file incident reports around student violence. Furthermore, the decision to send a school based police officer to take the report at the hospital reinforces that conclusion. I expect any student experiencing that level of violence would stay with medical personnel until a family member picked them up or they were transported to the hospital. Those are basic liability issues, not unique to trans and queer students by any means.

Tell me again how in-school resource officers are effective if they don’t respond to this level of vicious violence until they get a call after school hours? Not these particular officers, per se, but the whole concept. Who was protecting Nex?

These are not extreme policies. They are pretty common. But we can definitely expect that school personnel had an obligation to address the situation before Nex went home.

Nex’s sister-in-law created a GoFundMe to raise $15,000 for the funeral scheduled for February 15.

Also unclear is why this teacher who allegedly broke it up didn’t ensure appropriate medical care on-site OR notify the police. Or the school nurse. Maybe they did? The ways that this situation deteriorated once the school was aware are endless.

Owasso Public Schools released the following statement regarding the student’s death:

“The Owasso Police Department has notified district leaders of the death of an Owasso High School student. The student’s name and cause of death have not yet been made public. As this is an active police investigation, we will have no additional comment at this time. Further inquiries should be directed to the Owasso Police Department.” “The district will have additional counselors at the school to provide support to students and staff beginning on Friday.” Owasso Public Schools

How is that not national news? A 16 year old beaten to death in a public school bathroom? By other students. All these unanswered seemingly obvious questions about what transpired, and how the adults involved acted. That should be every headline.

In fact, almost every local outlet covering the story misgender and deadnames Nex, using their same assigned at birth. The indignities pile on.

We don’t yet know if Nex’s nonbinary identity is directly tied to this incident. But, my God, it sure matters to me that this would happen to any child. A nonbinary kid assaulted in a girl’s bathroom. That outcome from the narrative of anti-trans rhetoric these past years.

Still why wasn’t this story breaking news? It involves a nonbinary student in a public school. And school violence and school police resource officers. It involves the deep fear so many trans youth have shared with me about their schools.

But false reports that the now dead shooter who invaded Joel Olsteen’s megachurch was transgender have consumed the headlines. That shooter was killed by police. Her 5 year old son was injured in the shooting. No other fatalities reported. Her identity as a cisgender woman has been clarified repeatedly, but that hasn’t stopped the false narrative.

That woman went into a church with an assault weapon and her young child. That’s horrible and newsworthy on its own. Still, the headlines fixate on the allegation she was a trans person. She was not a trans person, but the headlines stay fixated. The juxtaposition is jarring, but not new.

The shooting took place on February 11. Nex died on February 8.

Where are the these people when it comes to demanding truth about Nex’s death? Where is the outrage that any child has this experience? Who the hell is protecting other kids in that school from this outcome?

Does the media really prefer to spread misinformation about the trans community and turn a blind eye to trans victims of violence? Of course they do.

Rest in power, Nex. You endured a lot in your short life. We repeatedly did not show up for you. But you deserved better – a long, healthy, and happy life. The opportunity to simply grow up. An education setting where you didn’t fear for your life. And you deserve to be acknowledged and validated for your true identity, in your own words. I can’t imagine your terror during this assault and afterwards as your life drained away. I hope you find peace and justice now.

May your memory be a revolution.

Update – this post has been undated to correct a misspelling of Nex’s name and a reference to their name assigned at birth. One was simply a typo, but the other was inaccurate and I very much regret the harm that caused.

[coochiequeens]

It should read Man arrested for the femicide of his ex-girlfriend.

NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas - The boyfriend of a missing New Braunfels woman has been charged with her murder, says the New Braunfels Police Department.

19-year-old Adreanna Marie Flores went missing on May 19, 2023, and police launched an investigation into her disappearance.

The investigation eventually spanned over multiple jurisdictions, including San Antonio, Bexar County, Laredo and even New Mexico, and many agencies, such as the Texas Rangers, the Laredo and San Antonio police departments, New Braunfels CERT, numerous crime labs and the Comal County DA's Office.

The investigation has determined that Flores is deceased, police say.

Her boyfriend, 25-year-old Gilberto Sepulveda of San Antonio, has been arrested and charged with capital murder in her death. He is also facing other charges, including third-degree felony continuous family violence and third-degree felony repeated violation of a protection order.

Sepulveda is currently in the Comal County Jail and bond has been set at a combined $813,000. A pre-trial hearing has been set for June, according to court records.

The investigation is ongoing.

In light of Flores' death, the New Braunfels Police Department is advising anyone who is a victim of dating or domestic violence to reach out for help. NBPD offers resources to victims of violent crime through its Victims Services Division.

[rapeculturerealities]

Human Rights Campaign: Gov. Abbott “Continuing His Crusade to Harm Transgender and Non-Binary Texans” - Human Rights Campaign

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) — the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) civil rights organization — denounced Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for saying today that he will try to ban transgender college athletes from playing sports consistent with their gender identity.

Human Rights Campaign Texas Organizing and Coalitions Lead Preston Knight issued the following statement today:

“Governor Abbott is continuing his crusade to harm transgender and non-binary Texans, especially our trans youth who have faced the bulk of these legislative attacks. Gov. Abbott has already instigated a witch hunt against families simply for supporting their trans kids and directing the Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate them as child abusers.. He is once again using his bully pulpit to do just that - bully. This time, he’s threatening to force colleges to discriminate against their athletes, putting them in peril of losing major sporting events as well as setting them up to be in violation of federal civil rights law. All student athletes deserve the chance to pursue the sports they love, following the rules, all while knowing that they are valued and respected for who they are. Gov. Abbott’s comments today mark the latest in his desperate, pathetic attempts to demonize and ostracize LGBTQ+ people. He will not succeed.”

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Three families of transgender children in Texas have filed a lawsuit to try to block state investigations into them for alleged child abuse.

The families claim they are being looked into by the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) for giving their children gender-affirming care.

The suit, which requests a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to stop the investigations, targets the DFPS, its commissioner Jaime Masters, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R).

“Their actions have caused terror and anxiety among transgender youth and their families across the Lone Star State and singled out transgender youth and their families for discrimination and harassment,” reads the suit, filed in the Travis County District Court.

Abbott in February ordered the DFPS and other agencies to open child abuse investigations into transgender children receiving gender-affirming treatment.

A judge in March temporarily halted the Abbot administration’s efforts, writing that the DFPS investigating gender-affirming care as child abuse “would result in irreparable harm.” The Texas Supreme Court ruled in May that the investigations could continue, lifting a temporary injunction on the directive.

“The Governor and the Attorney General were certainly well within their rights to state their legal and policy views on this topic, but DFPS was not compelled by law to follow them,” the court wrote.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas praised the ruling, say it proved that the directive could not be enforced as law.

“The court made clear that the Governor’s letter and Attorney General’s opinion targeting transgender youth are just that: opinions. Neither change Texas law.”

[metalheadsforblacklivesmatter]

They threw a shitton more work onto the laps of already overworked employees in family services. Not to mention forcing employees to break up some of the most happy, healthy, and supportive families (because families that support trans kids are the most happy, healthy, and supportive families). And a bunch of employees quit, putting further strain on the system in the new case load.

Now kids in actual danger that are actually getting abused or neglected won't get the help they need.

-fae

[socialjusticeinamerica]

Greg Abbott is trash and must be removed from the American political scene.

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

At least nine families are currently under investigation for potential child abuse by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services for providing gender-affirming care to their transgender children.

According to the lawsuit, a 16-year-old transgender boy tried to kill himself the same day that Abbott issued the child abuse directive.

“[He] said that the political environment, including Abbott’s Letter, and being misgendered at school, led him to take these actions,” the lawsuit said.

He survived the attempt and was admitted to an outpatient psychiatric facility, where staff learned that he was undergoing hormone therapy. A week after he was discharged, an investigator from DFPS visited the family’s home and, according to the lawsuit, said that the psychiatric facility had reported the family for child abuse. The family remains under investigation.

[ausetkmt]

A German Shepherd lies on a stretcher in a sterile exam room, tucked in a fleece blanket. The room's perimeter is lined with men in crisp khaki uniforms, handguns strapped to their sagging utility belts. A shrill beep sounds over a radio, and an impassive dispatcher's voice is heard over the men's gentle sniffling.

"TBP 743, Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office to all units, clear channel for last call. Standby on all radio traffic. Sheriff's Office to K-9 Argo… End of watch for K-9 Argo. On October 10th, 2015. Rest in peace, K-9 Argo. TBP 743. Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office. Clearing out at… 11:16."

Four more beeps. The dog lifts his head, and the uniformed men step forward. "Good boy," mutters one man between sniffles, ruffling the fur on its head. The dog's jaw plops open as he pants, and the titanium caps on his incisors catch the glint of the fluorescent exam lights. Another hand reaches forward to pull the blanket over the dog's shoulders as he nestles into the stretcher and closes his eyes.

On October 15, a police dog named Argo from Hidalgo County, Texas, was facing euthanasia after a battle with an aggressive strain of bone cancer. As a local hero of the South Texas law enforcement community, Argo was granted a last radio call—a traditional ceremony which suspends activity on the police scanner to put out a final "call" for a fallen officer.

A lieutenant's grainy cellphone video of the intimate service went viral. In the following week it was picked up by The Today Show, Fox News, MSNBC, Buzzfeed, and The Daily Mail. As the video spread, the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Department was inundated with outpourings from the strangers across the world, ranging from donations and emotive poems, to an open invitation for a free fishing trip from a charter boat company across the country.

Within a few days the video had been shared hundreds of thousands of times, a spectacle of public mourning.

Argo was one of thousands of dogs in America working for the state, referred to within the law enforcement community as K-9s. The mechanism of the modern K-9, with which many are unfamiliar, delineates it as more of a weapon than a pet. Engineered and imported from Europe by breed specialists, dogs on the force are now equipped with titanium teeth and thousands of dollars' worth of protective technology, from ballistic vests to custom canine body cams.

The majority of domestic K-9s are "dual purpose," meaning they're trained rigorously to both sniff out drugs and protect their handlers by any means necessary. Traditionally and presently, most dogs are trained from puppyhood primarily to relish in the activity of biting and tearing into human limbs, and to detect of drugs or IEDs.

Tales of K-9 heroism abound, which is one reason they're so beloved by their handlers—and the public. When a French bomb-sniffing dog named Diesel was killed in a police raid following the Paris terrorist attacks in November, tens of thousands of people tweeted in support. And for human police officers, the dogs' singular sense of mission inspires their own loyalty.

"They don't sleep in our houses, and they don't play with our families," Sergeant Michael Goosby, the chief K-9 trainer for the LAPD's Metropolitan Division, told the New York Times in November. "They exist for one reason: hunting bad guys."

But these dogs are dynamic systems. Their capacity for decision and error is both their biggest flaw and greatest strength. The dog, a learning machine, makes its own exceptions to situations based on an array of variables, including tells from their handler. Since these decisions ultimately lead to reception of a reward, then they are no longer innocent agents but cybernetic mercenaries, with decision making that is open to influence.

Given their inherently imperfect judgment and the dire consequences of their mistakes, why do dogs remain in the forefront of law enforcement?

Argo was imported to Central California from a Czech kennel in 2006 by bovine genetics giant Michael Osmundson. In 1998, Osmundson's artificial cattle insemination company Creative Genetics released the ProCross system, a trademarked cross-breeding technique that is internationally renowned in the dairy cow community. The success of his agricultural empire has allowed Osmundson to pursue his true passion in the meticulous import, breeding, and training of German Shepherds. This second business, Kreative Kennels, is carried out on a sprawling property in Oakdale. Osmundson plans each litter with careful precision, considering the genetic makeup of the pup's antecedents.

"It all comes down to knowing your animals—knowing each dog and its personality," he tells me over the phone. Although he works tirelessly to strike a perfect balance of "nervy" and "stable" dogs, he says that his breeding program is attuned more to health than personality traits, attempting to overcome the genetic hips and elbow problems that have plagued the breed since its inception.

With the help of his family, a six-man staff of experienced trainers, and a group of women focused on early socialization that he refers to as the "puppy gals", Osmundson is one of the most sought-after working dog breeders stateside. The dogs available to purchase from Kreative Kennels run the gamut, ranging from family pets, to personal guard dogs, to highly attuned soldiers for use by the police and military. According to Osmundson, "probably 90-95 percent turn out exactly the way we've planned," in no small part thanks to his careful eye toward the art and science of optimal genetics. Argo, however, was not bred under Osmundson's watchful eye.

"We got him from some close friends over there," he says. "They used to be very involved with government breeding programs. We have our own agent that we have test every dog before we buy 'em."

On the KK website, he states, "we started searching in Germany and the Czech Republic for people who we could trust so we could find dogs for our breeding program. Those people have done a great job in finding excellent dogs for our program. Our breeding goals are to breed many top police-type dogs per year… We want to breed dogs that are very dominant and serious with very high drives and active aggression." [emphasis theirs]

The significance of Argo's Czech origins are not lost on Osmundson. For the duration of the Cold War, the notoriously ruthless Czech Border patrol, known as the Pohranicni Straze, created a state-sponsored K-9 breeding program. The K-9s produced were exceptionally aggressive, intended to stop any Soviet defectors to Western Europe. Current-day breed aficionados boast that the P.S. dogs caught and killed 20-30 escapees per day on the borders between East Germany and Austria. The New York Times reported that dogs on sliding leashes were stationed along the un-walled sections throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

The ruthlessness of the Czech dogs are etched into the cultural memory of the Cold War, and the Platform of European Memory & Conscience, an anti-totalitarian research group, recently called for trial and punishment of P.S. dog handlers for war crimes, although the dog breeding program continued long after the fall of the Iron Curtain. According to one former P.S. veterinarian, the police kennels produced over 1,500 puppies between 1991 and 2005.

Going back three generations in his detailed family tree, one of Argo's ancestors carries the Czech surname "od Police," which translates to "from the police"; after four generations, many of his ancestors hold the surname "z Pohranični stráze" ("of the Border Patrol"). After the Cold War, dogs like Argo's predecessors were folded into Czech and German police departments.

There are, like Osmundson's colleagues abroad, former P.S. soldiers who raise and train the descendants of war dogs under military guidelines for private clients. A fully-trained adult dog sells for between $7,000 and $10,000. The dogs are purchased by middle class families seeking a highly aggressive personal protection dog, Western European and Israeli military forces, American law enforcement departments, and intermediaries like Osmundson who can fine-tune a dog like Argo before it hits the streets.

His prices are on the higher end. But purchasing a working breed dog from a meticulous professional like Osmundson does help some people sleep at night, knowing that the dogs he designates as "green" will be ideal family companions, and that dogs he deems suitable for police are destined for a lifetime of hard work.

But working dogs like Argo face a new threat.

The introduction of Boston Dynamics' canid military robot prototype, BigDog, triggered the dystopian visions that torment our collective subconscious. Several writers have considered the ethical and dystopian implications of this self-righting mechanical monster, and most have concluded that we should accept a menagerie of robotic animals as inevitable in our military future.

The unease with BigDog is in stark contrast to the veneration of the US military's working dogs, one of which was apparently deployed during the capture of Osama bin Laden. Military working dogs are media darlings. Their adventures, both real and imagined, have recently spawned several bestselling books and at least one film, Max, which grossed over $40 million in 16 weeks.

Working dogs are engineered as much as they are bred. Several universities, including the prestigious University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School, operate multi-million dollar programs to perfect the genetics of working dogs. Add to that an entire industry dedicated to technology enhancing the mettle of K-9s, spanning from elaborate vehicle cooling systems, dog-sized ballistic vests, and head-mounted cameras with accompanying recon units, to treadmills, obstacle courses, and nutritionally-enhanced raw carrion diets to keep them in top shape.

But advanced technology does little to improve the precision of weaponized K-9s. Despite a lifetime of training, dogs are inherently imperfect machines, and high-stakes errors do occur in the field. In the event of a broken leash or a misinterpreted signal, there is little that can be done to stop an attack once it starts. The dogs are unaware of the line between excessive and necessary force, lacking the situational awareness to decipher the grey area that is our American judicial system. As a result, the dogs, when they are "on" and ready to work, tend to latch onto anything that runs. They are unlikely to distinguish between good guys, bad guys, and the fleeing innocent. An accidental death or debilitating injury can therefore be blamed on enthusiasm, a hard-working dog simply doing what it was trained to do.

Weaponized dogs have been used as tools of war and control for thousands of years, tracing as far back as Ancient Greece. Yet throughout the latter half of the 20th century, human rights groups have questioned the necessity of dogs who bite to maim, most visibly during the Civil Rights movement and again in the wake of Abu Ghraib.

In 2013, Martin Lee Hoogveldt of West Jordan, Utah, was attacked by a K-9 after he put his hands up to surrender to police, which was caught on graphic body cam footage. Earlier this year the West Jordan Police Department settled with Hoogveldt for $125,000, but said its officers acted appropriately.

In August of 2009, Argo arrived in South Texas via airmail. He was the newest addition to an armada of dual-purpose law enforcement dogs working in Hidalgo County, a small community in the southernmost tip of Texas, abutting the Mexican border.

Dr. Justin Cerelli, Argo's veterinarian, told me in a phone call that he's under contract for dozens of K-9s throughout the region, including two police departments, the Border Patrol, US Customs, the Constable's Office, and the county school district. (K-9s accompany school resource officers in this district at the behest of the FBI.)

With a per capita income of $14,222, Hidalgo County is one of the poorest counties in the United States. The Hidalgo County Sheriff's Department Facebook page is a throwback to the Wild West, continuously updated by staff with the 2015 equivalent of wanted posters fluttering in the sun-drenched Texas sky. Features such as "Wanted Wednesday" are posted to track down small town crooks like The Bubble Gum Bandit, whose total haul ultimately was worth $750.

The Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office has a long and well-documented history of corruption, with a track record of officers implicated in the drug and arms trafficking that flourishes near the Mexican border. The department has faced internal strife in recent months. On December 10, Sheriff J.E. Guerrera announced the suspension of a deputy for a DWI, the third alcohol-related offense by a deputy in the span of a few weeks.

Law enforcement in Hidalgo County doesn't balk when it comes to outfitting their K-9s with the latest equipment and care. The cottage industry of police dog technology is a booming, with popular retailers of highly specified technical gear like Argo's custom "SHERIFF" vest moving half a million dollars' worth of product per year. One of the most popular vendors is Kentucky-based Elite K-9, owned and operated by a former police officer.

Agencies like the Hidalgo County Sheriff spare no expense when it comes to veterinary enhancement. When I spoke with Argo's veterinarian, he declined to go into detail about dentistry, which is pertinent to K-9 veterinary practice. One of the only hazards, in fact, of long-range track and bite is that the bite is so hard (with a force that has been likened to getting run over by a small car) and so prolonged (it takes several minutes for officers to catch up to a dog "holding" a suspect) that the dog's incisors often break. As a solution, veterinarians across the country replace broken teeth with sharp titanium points.

Dr. Erich Rachwitz, a veterinarian in Bellevue, Nebraska, described the procedure as "blinging out" the dog. At a cost of $600 to $2,000 per tooth, the colorful expression feels appropriate.

The bling has also been heralded as an intimidation tool, presumably to warn victims in the half-second gap between the flash of metal teeth and the moment they sink into flesh.

"The four big canines are what you first see when a dog opens its mouth or bares its teeth," Jim Watson, the secretary of the North American Police Work Dogs Association, said in an interview with The Telegraph. "So having metallic canines will draw a person's attention and scare them more. If the dog is barking and someone sees the sunlight sparkling on his metal teeth, it may encourage the person to back down."

There is no escape once the jaws are set and tearing; thanks to training exercises intended to desensitize dogs to self-defense tools, the dogs bite harder when struck with sticks. Harming a working dog is considered felony officer assault. In 2013, a 19-year-old who attempted to cross the border through Hidalgo County stabbed a Border Patrol K-9 when it bit down on his leg, which he argued in court to be an attempt at self-defense. He served a six-month term in federal prison, and was faced with a $100,000 fine.

Working dogs used by military handlers are trained in IED scent detection as well as biting. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the training and work ethic of a bomb-sniffing dog can mean the difference between life and death. Although bomb-disarming bots deployed under the US military's Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (now Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Agency) have saved tons of lives, the capability of a dog's bomb-scenting abilities are beyond replication. After spending $19 billion since 2004 on attempts to create bomb-detection robots, the JIEDDO program failed to create any device that out-sniffed a dog. At $50,000 or less, a kitted-out K-9 is much cheaper.

However, the sniffing itself is not so much a problem as the fact that they bring potential bias and error to police and military encounters. In a recent study, scent detection dogs have been determined to be up to 80 percent inaccurate. A handler can also easily manipulate a dog to falsely detect drugs, a loophole that has resulted in K-9 scent detection being ruled as barely more accurate than a coin flip in a recent federal appeals court decision. Sometimes the dogs are determined to signal only in reaction to tells or small shifts in body language by their handler.

The same goes for dual-purpose dogs like Argo. As a result of years of targeted training and breeding, Argo and K-9s like him are ultimately making life or death decisions. This thought process can be seen in a video by the Durham, UK Police, which recently outfitted their K-9s with $22,000 custom canine body cams designed by Tactical Electronics. In the video, a K-9 is sent to chase someone posing as a decoy down on a field, then the back of a car, and finally running into a mockup apartment during a simulation of a no-knock raid, excitedly searching for a suspect among decoy mannequins:

Video: Tactical Electronics/YouTube

It's not just the military and police, either. As detailed in a 2006 report from Human Rights Watch, work dogs are also being used by prisons. Mike Knolls, a member of the Special Operations Unit of the Utah Department of Corrections, describes the effectiveness of using K-9s to drag noncompliant inmates out of their cells: "Obviously a dog is more of a deterrent [than a Taser gun]. You get more damage from a dog bite. I think it's right up there with impact weapons."

A Connecticut inmate describes his long-term injury from a cell extraction dog, which bit his left hand as he reflexively tried to block the dog's bite: "[I]t sank its teeth completely through my hand… I lost a lot of feeling in my middle and ring fingers and I have a 'pin and needles' feeling in my index finger and thumb. This is due to multiple nerves being severed from the dog bite."

***

And yet, K-9s remain esteemed by the general public. Dogs are the fuzzy, beloved law enforcement mascots of which PR dreams are made. Their popularity has helped police and military soften their image, as the dogs themselves are divorced from danger and menace. Many departments even use dogs as community outreach tools, orchestrating community events and school visits to put a furry face on men in uniform (this sometimes backfires).

After several decades of lionizing weaponized dogs, people like Argo's tens of thousands of mourners trust that K-9s are normal dogs with petlike motivations. Many smaller police departments are even able to use third-party nonprofits or donations from outreach events to pay for their K-9 programs.

Conservative pundits are calling for armed drones at the border, but dogs like Argo are already on the ground, without widespread pushback. Weaponized detection dogs working on behalf of the state are likely to continue to beat out replicants like BigDog for the foreseeable future, because they remove accountability from the handler for committing acts of violence and conducting unwarranted searches. And dogs, even with all the technological trappings, are a bargain.

For now, at least, they are keeping their robotic competitors at bay.

When I ask Osmundson if he remembers Argo, he sighs and recalls him fondly. I can hear the smile break through in his voice. "Argo was a great dog. A big dog, he was the ideal shepherd dog, he was very loyal, very loving, very sweet, but also very protective of his handler and very willing to go get the bad guy. He was a super super dog."

[beardedmrbean]

Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has requested the National Guard step in to help handle the arrival of thousands of migrants from the US-Mexico border, saying the nation’s capital has reached a “tipping point.”

In a July 19 request for assistance to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Bowser reported that “over 4,000 individuals arriving on nearly 200 buses” have come to DC since April, when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey pledged to put migrants on charter buses to protest the Biden administration’s immigration policies.

“Our collective response and service efforts have now become overwhelmed,” Bowser wrote.

“[O]ur homeless services system is already under great strain; and tragically, many families arrive in Washington, DC with nowhere to go, or they remain in limbo seeking onward destinations across the United States.

“With pledges from Texas and Arizona to continue these abhorrent operations indefinitely, the situation is dire,” the mayor added, “and we consider this a humanitarian crisis – one that could overwhelm our social support network without immediate and sustained federal intervention.”

Bowser asked Austin to allocate 150 DC National Guard personnel daily to ensure a “24/7 operation” in dealing with the migrants. She also requested use of the DC Armory, or “another suitable federal location in the National Capital Region, as a temporary processing center.

“These functions are not dissimilar to the use of military personnel and facilities for other humanitarian missions, including assisting Afghan refugees,” wrote the mayor.

Three days later, Bowser turned her attention to the White House, writing Homeland Security Adviser Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall and Intergovernmental Affairs Director Julie Chavez Rodriguez to ask them to support her request. 

“The DCNG was instrumental in our Public Health Emergency and can be even more impactful in addressing the needs of asylum seekers,” she wrote, before appearing to appeal to Biden himself. 

“I have great empathy for the very difficult situation people boarding buses to unknown locations are facing. I likewise am very concerned that the social safety net I am responsible for ensuring for DC residents is maintained,” Bowser said. 

“I know the President shares my empathy, and I look forward to working with the administration to secure the DCNG and a federal facility to process migrants as they seek asylum and a better life in the United States of America free of uncertainty and fear.” 

Bowser has received no response to either of her requests, according to NBC Washington, which first obtained the letters. 

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre referred questions about Bowser’s inquiry to the Defense Department and said the migrants were being “used” by the Republican governors.

“There is a process in place for managing migrants,” Jean-Pierre said. “This is not it, what they’re doing currently. That includes expelling migrants, as required by court order under Title 42, transferring them to ICE custody or placing them in the care of local NGOs … using migrants as a political pawn is just wrong.”

The first busload of migrants arrived in Washington on April 13, days after Abbott ordered the Texas Division of Emergency Management to begin the transports. 

All of the migrants who have arrived in Washington have gone there voluntarily, since they are permitted to travel within the US after being processed by Customs and Border Protection. 

Typically, when migrants are released from federal custody after crossing the border and evading expulsion, they are given paperwork allowing them to stay in the US as well as an order to appear in immigration court to appeal for asylum. 

So far, Arizona has transported 1,262 migrants on 33 buses, Ducey’s office confirmed to The Post.

The Texas Division of Emergency Management did not immediately respond to The Post’s inquiry on the latest numbers from the Lone Star State.

“D.C. is experiencing a fraction of the disastrous impact the border crisis has caused Texas,” Abbott tweeted Thursday in response to Bowser’s requests. “Mayor Bowser should stop attacking Texas for securing the border & demand Joe Biden do his job.”

Abbott and Ducey’s efforts to alleviate strain on border towns – which usually receive the bulk of migrants after processing – has been heavily criticized by both the Biden administration and other Democratic leaders. 

Most recently, New York City Mayor Eric Adams blasted the Republicans, calling them “cowards.” 

“Our country is home of the free, land of the brave,” Adams said during a City Hall news conference last week. “We do not become cowards and send people away who are looking for help.”

On July 17, Bowser called the arrival of migrants in her city a “significant issue,” telling CBS’ “Face the Nation” that “I fear that they’re being tricked into nationwide bus trips when their final destinations are places all over the United States of America.”