Mistakes & Fakes: Why You Shouldn’t Believe Everything On Lubbock Mugshots

Mugshots, and the charges attached to them, are public information. Here in Lubbock, we have whole Facebook pages dedicated to publishing mugshots. People understandably have a fascination with them- they tell us who amongst us is up to no good. Or do they? 

I feel like I should be very clear, even if it should be very obvious, that the people in the mugshots have not yet been found guilty of the crimes listed with their mugshots. They could be completely innocent. Or, as in one recent case, the information could have been incorrectly entered, and the person was not ever suspected of that particular charge. Case in point: Katrina Brown.

As listed on the Facebook Page, Ms. Brown appears to be up to something very sinister. One of the charges levied against her is listed as "FAILS REP HUMAN REM (ON VIEW)" which would mean she failed to report a dead body. This led to all kinds of speculations in the comments- that she stole from a dead body, or that she was helping to conceal a murder. But here's the thing- it was just a clerical error.

I've worked clerical jobs- it's easy to make a simple keystroke mistake. What isn't easy is stopping gossip and rumors once they are out in the wild. This woman has not yet even been convicted of the real charges, all theft-related, and people have already judged her guilty of some mysterious dead body crime that never happened.

While we are on the topic, I'd also like to express my disgust with other types of comments on mugshots- namely body-shaming and bullying. There are people on there who have only been charged with the most minor crimes, like speeding, and they are being dragged in the mud because of their hair, makeup, weight, etc. I think people suppose they have "permission" to be awful because this person did something "wrong". It's not okay, and it makes the commenter look ignorant and petty.