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Ken Armstrong
@bykenarmstrong
Reporter/editor @business. Ex: @ProPublica @MarshallProj @seattletimes. Co-author, Unbelievable. Law school dropout/honorary doctor. Perturbable.
Seattle, WA
linkedin.com/in/armstrongke…
Joined September 2010
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    Ken Armstrong
    @bykenarmstrong
    Oct 8, 2021
    Three police officers went to an *elementary* school in Tennessee & arrested four Black girls. One girl fell to her knees. Another threw up. Police handcuffed the youngest, an 8 yo with pigtails. Their supposed crime? Watching some boys fight — and not stopping them. (THREAD)
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    Ken Armstrong
    @bykenarmstrong
    May 4, 2022
    In Justice Alito’s draft opinion reversing Roe, he writes about “an unbroken tradition of prohibiting abortion on pain of criminal punishment,” up until Roe in 1973. He cites, as historical authority, Sir Matthew Hale. Let me tell you about Hale & his views toward women. THREAD
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    Ken Armstrong
    @bykenarmstrong
    Oct 8, 2021
    Replying to @bykenarmstrong
    2/ The police wound up arresting 11 kids in total, using a charge called “criminal responsibility.” The arrests created outrage. State lawmakers called the case “unconscionable,” “inexcusable,” “insane.” So how did this happen?
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    Ken Armstrong
    @bykenarmstrong
    Oct 8, 2021
    Replying to @bykenarmstrong
    14/ One commissioner, who used to work in a post office, came up with the charge of “criminal responsibility for conduct of another.” The problem? There’s no such charge. These kids were charged with a crime that doesn’t exist.
    Black Children Were Jailed for a Crime That Doesn’t Exist. Almost Nothing Happened to the Adults in...
    From propublica.org
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    Ken Armstrong
    @bykenarmstrong
    Oct 8, 2021
    Replying to @bykenarmstrong
    3/ These arrests took place in Rutherford County, which had been illegally jailing kids for years, all under the watch of Judge Donna Scott Davenport.
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    Ken Armstrong
    @bykenarmstrong
    Oct 8, 2021
    Replying to @bykenarmstrong
    5/ In this deposition, a lawyer asks Davenport about taking the bar exam. It took her nine years and five attempts to pass. Three years after she got her law license, she was on the bench.
    00:00
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    Ken Armstrong
    @bykenarmstrong
    Oct 8, 2021
    Replying to @bykenarmstrong
    4/ Donna Scott Davenport is the only elected juvenile court judge the county has ever had. She oversees the courts. She oversees the juvenile jail. She directed police on what she called “our process” for arresting children.
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    Ken Armstrong
    @bykenarmstrong
    Oct 8, 2021
    Replying to @bykenarmstrong
    8/ Under Davenport, Rutherford County locked up a staggering 48% of children whose cases were referred to juvenile court. The statewide average was 5%. This graphic shows detention rates for juvenile courts in Tennessee. Rutherford County is on the far right.
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    Ken Armstrong
    @bykenarmstrong
    Oct 8, 2021
    Replying to @bykenarmstrong
    12/ The police officer who investigated this fight was Chrystal Templeton. She wanted to charge every kid who watched. She believed charging them was helping them. By the time of this investigation, Templeton had been disciplined at least 37 times, her personnel file shows.
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    Ken Armstrong
    @bykenarmstrong
    Oct 8, 2021
    Replying to @bykenarmstrong
    21/ To report this story, we filed 56 public records requests, got 38 hours of audiotaped interviews from an internal police investigation and watched >100 public meetings spanning 12 years. For more on our reporting process, check out the methodology section at the story’s end.