Cops Behaving Badly

Texas detective gets axed after insane Facebook rant about 'lazy turd bags' and killing sprees

A Central Texas detective has been fired after ranting about a killing spree on Facebook.

In the small Texas town of Marlin, a suburb of Waco, a police detective was fired after an unbelievable Facebook rant. Detective Rob Douglas posted about "lazy turd bags," presumably using food stamps to pay at the grocery store, and killing sprees.

The officer was placed on administrative leave on August 5 before getting axed on August 7. According to the Waco Tribune-Herald (which also has a screenshot of the detective's rant), the official reason the detective was fired was violating the department's rules of conduct.

"Those inappropriate and troubling comments he made on Facebook resulted in the conditions that actually were outlined in those policies," Marlin City Manager R.C. Fletcher told the Waco Tribune-Herald.

So in addition to "turd bags," what else does Douglas despise? People with tattoos on "their unclean bodies," mouthfuls of bling, expensive rims and people who buy beer on the taxpayer's dime. (FYI, you cannot use SNAP benefits to buy beer, liquor or cigarettes.)

As if that weren't enough, the detective ended his rant with, "If I ever snap and go on a killing spree, it will be in a supermarket on the first [of the month]."

Though Marlin is a small town, Douglas' tirade did not stay inside its borders for long: It has caught the attention of news outlets such as the Associated Press, FOX News and Salon.

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Bird News

Reunion Tower in downtown Dallas initiates action to save birds from dying

Reunion Tower

Downtown Dallas skyline, all lit up.

Reunion Tower, the little ball on the Western edge of downtown Dallas, is famous for its sassy light shows illuminating the Dallas skyline. But in recent years, the building has followed a bird-friendly policy of dimming its lights, and that dimming is about to get underway.

From October 1 through October 21, Reunion Tower will observe the following lighting schedule:

Sundown to 11 pm: lower its lights
11 pm-6 am: go completely dark
6 am-sunrise back to dim

The building enacts these changes to protect birds that are migrating through Texas.

Dallas is on the path of the Central Migratory Flyway, which extends from the Northwest and heads diagonally southeast through Mexico.

Every fall and spring, nearly two billion birds travel through Texas. The bird migration is one of the largest on the planet, and takes place at night. Light attracts migrating birds, making them vulnerable to collisions with buildings and causing them to become disoriented and distracted.

Birds get pulled into urban areas, collide into buildings, and die. Volunteer surveys - in which people go out and count actual dead bodies - in cities such as Dallas, Austin, Houston, and Fort Worth, finds hundreds of dead birds every night. It adds up to nearly a billion birds killed in the U.S. each year.

Dallas-Fort Worth is the third most dangerous area in the U.S. for migratory birds to travel through; Chicago is No. 1, followed by Houston which is No. 2.

As this map from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows, Dallas and Houston are both massively lit, representing major obstacles to the success and survival of the birds' migration.

Lights Out Texas was initiated as a statewide effort in Spring 2020 to protect birds from light pollution by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and BirdCast, with the essential support of founding Texas partners Houston Audubon, the Dallas Zoo, and the Perot Museum of Nature and Science.

According to Audubon, the actual critical migration period through Dallas is September 6 through October 29. A glittery skyline is surely pretty, but downtown should just shut it down during those times.

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