A Texas Republican city council candidate is facing felony child pornography charges after being arrested just hours before the elections.
Brad Benson, a candidate for Place #4 on the city council of Granbury, located just southwest of Fort Worth, was arrested on November 6. “I can confirm he was arrested by the District Attorney’s Office yesterday and charged with two felony child pornography charges, he should have a bond set today,” Hood County Sheriff Roger Deeds told Newsweek.
The Republican Party of Hood County (RPHC) withdrew its support for Benson after more details about the charges emerged.
I dont know anything about this individual or his political persuasions, nor do I have any information on his current legal situation, but regardless it is insane to me that we can just publish something like this. What if this person is innocent? The entire world has now seen their face and the words “child pornography” together and that is 1000% a life ruiner. Our culture regarding the legal system is fucked the fuck up man
People on the internet seem to.entirely forget the whole presumption of innocence until proven guilty. This should even apply to Republicans.
Presumption of innocence is a legal rule, not a good epistemic rule. If it turns out that he’s found innocent, then cool, good for him. However, I’m going to keep assuming that Republican politicians charged with/accused of sexual misconduct are guilty until proven otherwise because the rate of sexual misconduct among Republican politicians seems to be Insanely High, plus their ideology and policies help justify it.
Although I don’t think arrests should be public record, cops can arrest people for anything regardless of evidence and particularly for something as serious as CSAM possession it should at least have to go to trial to be made public