Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• The ex-McKinney cop's lawyer made a statement yesterday and, regardless of substance, that didn't make sense to me from a PR standpoint. Back in the day, you would see a guy in his position get caught on camera and say "No comment." Then we all figured out that really comes off badly. But having your lawyer do PR work isn't much better.  There is an immediate level of public distrust and this particularly lawyer wasn't even very good at PR. 
• Substantively, the lawyer said Officer Casebolt had consoled a widow after her husband shot himself by a pool in front of his family. He took pictures of the body. He had also helped talk down a 14-year-old girl threatening to jump off her parents’ roof to kill herself. That's another layer to the story, and I'm guessing that's not your average day for a McKinney police officer. 
• I always love looking up the background of the lawyer in these situations. This one is a University of Arkansas law school graduate in 1993 and has spent her whole career representing police associations. She's been in the news before in police misconduct cases but not a whole lot.
• The boys on The Hardline suggested that the Yellow Bikini Teenager has a heck of a lawsuit against the City of McKinney. "Get out the checkbook and start writing zeros," one of them said. Nope.  Establishing liability for a civil rights violation was certainly bolstered by the chief of police throwing the Casebolt under the bus, but there's that issue of damages. She didn't even suffer a scratch. It's kind of like finding a dead mouse in a bag of potato chips. It's horrifying to see but if you didn't eat it and didn't get sick, that's not much of a lawsuit. 
• I've never called 911.
• Nine players on Mineral Wells upcoming varsity football team have quit in protest because the coach has effectively named his son as starting quarterback.  Oh, the social injustice that kids have to suffer in this country!
• Fox 4's Becky Oliver is retiring. Her crazy sensationalist style was before its time. It wouldn't surprise me if Fox 4 doesn't find someone younger who is more over the top (if that is possible.)  Sidenote: The grumpiest man on Twitter, Ed Bark, got mad yesterday when he reported that "story" first and later didn't get credit by the Dallas Morning News.  Hey, Ed, I beat you to the blockbuster story of Lari Barager leaving Fox 4 and you didn't credit me!!!! I want reparations!!!
• I haven't mentioned it but fascinated by it: The New York prison break. They planned it so well to get out they probably planned what they would do once they got out. That probably explains why they are still on the loose.