There have been a long list of studies and articles on the problem of false testimony by police officers. Most officers that I have met or represented would not testify falsely. However, there is cultural pressure to hold “the thin blue line” to support other officers. That appears what is occurring in a recent scandal out of Chicago. In a Skokie courthouse, five officers (three from Chicago and two from Glenview) took the stand and lied about what occurred in a drug arrest. What is relatively rare is that the prosecutors appear to be seriously considering criminal charges.
Year: 2014
A website has posted an extraordinary video (below) showing not only the abusive treatment of a citizen by border and local police, but highly compelling evidence of a false police report by a driver to cover up his own illegal turn that caused an accident in New York City. The driver, Ted, had installed a Timetec Roadhawk Dashcam out of fear of unlawful traffic stops. It was a fortuitous decision because it would capture what he says was a false charge and abusive treatment by law enforcement officers — following by a false police report. By the way, the postings report this as a Border Police vehicle but it appears a van from the Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
A story this week caught my eye: Paris’ Pasteur Institute has disclosed that it lost thousands of tubes of samples of the deadly Sars coronavirus. I read the story with a mix of astonishment and irritation. As I have previously discussed, I represented Dr. Thomas Butler, a former Texas Tech professor, who was criminally charged after he revealed that a small number of vials containing bubonic plague samples had disappeared — possibly sanitized by accident. Butler self-reported the loss and was immediately the subject of a bizarre FBI investigation by the Bush Administration and former Attorney General John Ashcroft. He was later hit with a series of national security charges and labeled “Dr. Plague” by the media. While the jury rejected virtually all of the national security counts but a minor allegation on shipping (unrelated to the missing vials), the world’s leading expert on plague was still sent to jail. The Pasteur Institute lost 2,349 vials and the French government is correctly treating it as a non-criminal matter.
Continue reading “French Institute Loses Over Two Thousand Vials Of SARS”
The United Nation’s appears to be addressing a few matters other than Crimea. The Children’s Fund of UNICEF has launched its campaign Poo-to-Loo featuring Mr. Poo, a singing pile of human feces for reviewing in India. The video is below if you have finished your breakfast.
Continue reading “Meet Mr. Poo, The United Nations’ Latest Public Health Mascot”
The Brennan Center is an impressive public interest organization with an equally impressive staff of lawyers who advocate for legal reforms. While widely viewed as a liberal and pro-Obama organization, it often offers well-reasoned and compelling legal analysis. It is out of this respect for its work that I have to take a moment to criticize an aspect of its recent publication of “15 Executive Actions” for President Obama to take to counter opponents in Congress. Authors Michael Waldman and Inimai M. Chettiar are both highly credible and respected individuals in this field. I clearly do not agree with them on their view of Obama’s unilateral actions. I recently testified (here and here and here) and wrote a column on President Obama’s increasing circumvention of Congress in negating or suspending U.S. laws. However, one argument appears to have become a “talking point” with the White House and, in my view, should not appear in any serious academic or legal analysis: the simple comparison of the number of executive orders by presidents as a measure of their relative circumvention of Congress.
Two high school students at St. Anthony’s High School in Long Island have been suspended indefinitely after they walked into an after-hours sporting event wearing a Confederate flag draped over their shoulders. We recently discussed another suspension of a student involving a Confederate flag. I have the same free speech concerns in this case. The question is whether other flags would also be confiscated and the student suspended in my view. While I can certainly understand how this flag represents racism for many, others view the flag as a symbol of Southern heritage and heroism. I often see them in Virginia and recoil a bit due to the association with slavery. However, my concern is where the school is drawing the line on speech.
I have to say that a story in the New York Observer (from Reddit) caught my eye for a reason other than the account of cockroaches falling on people eating at Blue Ribbon Sushi in Soho in New York City. People eating said that the insects dropped from the ceiling and one crawled up the leg of a diner. Here is the thing I thought was most amazing: the owners of Blue Ribbon Sushi reportedly addressed matter by offering to charge only half for the meals of the affected customers. Really? Cockroaches fall around the plates of your customers and crawl on the tables and floors and you offer a half-off meal? Please tell me that this is a false report by the Observer.
Various countries, including the United States, have been choking under China’s air pollution which is circling the globe. While China has steadily diminished the health of its own people with a disastrous priority on production at any cost, it is now affecting not just the pollution levels of other countries but, according to a new report, weather in the United States. New data released on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that Chinese pollution is altering weather patterns in North America and causing the recently intense weather patterns from cyclones, heavy rains, and other erratic weather events.
I recently wrote a column on the expanding scandal over General Motor’s release of the Cobalt and other vehicles with a defective ignition switch that may have killed over a dozen people and injured scores of others. The defect was reportedly found during testing and constituted the perfect storm of negligent designs: it would first shut off the car; cut the steering; and disable the airbags. Mary Barra, the newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of GM, told Congress that GM never puts costs ahead of safety (even though documents show GM pricing out the fix and rejecting it as too expensive). Now Barra and GM have quietly asked a federal court to protect it from product liability lawsuits due to its bankruptcy. It is like a second bailout from the government — this time through the courts — so that the company can keep billions in the federal bailout while barring recovery of billions for deaths and injuries caused by the company.
Happy Passover to all of our Jewish bloggers and readers! We had our Seder on the third night with friends and it was an amazing meal. There has been a long suspicion that I married a Jewish girl because of a notorious addiction to Matzo ball soup. Leslie just happens to be a world class cook. She spent days preparing for this meal and is and her home-made broth and Matzo balls were the best that I ever had. (I was allowed to baste the brisket through the day, but that is the closest that she would let me get to the preparation of the meal).
Continue reading “Happy Passover!”
On Reddit, a poster said this was his dog’s first such attempt . . .
Continue reading “There Was A Hush As Buster Attempted The Tricky Mid-Air Treat Catch”
Our government has long seemed to be descending into a type of Orwellian universe of double speak. The Libyan War was not a war but a “time-limited, scope-limited military action” under Obama. Torture of detainees was not torture but “enhanced interrogation” under Bush. Now it appears open bribery of foreign officials is not bribery but “incentives” to implement policies favorable to their own people. Congressional members are moving to address what is being called a “slush fund” with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) where millions are paid to political figures in foreign countries. We have previously discussed such payments by the CIA to the openly corrupt Afghanistan government, including suitcases of cash to President Helmit Karzai. What is most interesting is that an act that is a federal crime for citizens doing business abroad can be not only legal but an official program by government officials. It appears that in the handshake shown on the USAID seal, there is often a sawbuck or two in the palm.
Continue reading “Congress Investigates “Slush Fund” At USAID Used To Get Lawmakers To Pass Reforms”
Erie County District Attorney’s Special Victim’s Bureau Chief Roseanne Johnson appeared recently in court with an alarming report. She told the judge in the midst of jury selection for a rape trial that she had a statement to read from Assistant District Attorney Kristi Ahlstrom. Ahlstrom informed that court that the defendant, William Payne, 48, had tried to kill her by running her over in the street. Johnson denounced the attack as an effort to intimidate the prosecutors who were in the jury selection process for the rape trial. A mistrial was declared. The problem is that Payne was not in the car and a video tape of the street contradicts the account of Ahlstrom. Yet, the trial was halted, Payne was held in jail for seven days pending investigation, and there is no indication of any discipline for the prosecutor.
Dallas attorney James Lee Bright faced a dilemma: he had to appear in court but he recovering from knee surgery with a large leg brace and an ice machine attached to his leg to stop swelling. He could not fit his pants over the hardware so he wore a shirt, tie, jacket, and shorts. That did not go over well with Judge Etta Mullin (left) who refused to hear his motion to dismiss a weapons charge for a client because he was wearing shorts. It was a rather unsympathetic and inflexible decision but it was not the first for this particular judge. However, it is the mounting criticism of Mullin that raises the question of why the Democratic party has pushed for her reelection and why the state bar has not investigated allegations of injudicious conduct.
Christopher Nicholas Hiatt, 34, is charged with a rather novel form of assault in Montana: he licked the eyeball of an arresting officer. For that bizarre act, he is charged with felony assault on a peace officer and assault with a bodily fluid in addition to two other charges.
Continue reading “Montana Man Charged After Licking Officer’s Eyeball”