We often discuss the transformative role of video technology on the prosecution of police abuse, particularly the ubiquitous presence of cellphones with video capability. However, this is not a one way street. The technology also clears some officers rather than implicates them in crimes. One such case is the controversy at a traffic stop in New Jersey after Hyacinth Peccoo, 50, of Irvington, accused Officer Daniel Caffrey of yelling and pulling a gun on her. A dash cam video not only showed that Caffrey not only did not do so but actually appeared to cut her a break on a violation.
Category: Bizarre
Alaska Airlines in San Jose International airport has a bit of a problem after its employees were filmed throwing suitcases on a concrete war in a contest akin to tossing the caber. In this case it was a rolling bag, but the concept appears the same.
Continue reading “Alaska Airline Employees Videotaped Tossing Bags In Caber-Like Competition”
Monte Leon Hanson, 59, has a curious concept of a pious life. Hanson ordered a “red beer” (a mixture of beer and tomato juice) from his neighbor, Joe Lewis, who works as a bartender at the Rainbow bar in Hamilton, Montana. After drinking the red beer, Hanson learned that Lewis used Clamato tomato juice made from clam broth. He became irate that he did not use straight tomato juice because the Clamato juice was not kosher for his Jewish faith.
Continue reading “Jewish Montana Man Shoots Neighbor And Dog Over Serving Non-Kosher Drink”
Continue reading “Cosmetic Surgeon Removes Model’s Ribs To Look More Like Jessica Rabbit”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Chelan County resident Martin Hoyer will not be enjoying this holiday season. He might also want to consider a new year’s resolution of finding a new illicit drug.
Hoyer admitted to smoking meth for two consecutive days and began hallucinating, hearing voices through a vent to his neighbor’s apartment. He convinced himself that the neighbor and “A bunch of Mexicans and White Guys” were conspiring to rob him.
You can only imagine how quickly things devolved from there.
Continue reading “2015 Was A Very, Very Bad Year For Chelan County Meth User”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Seattle Police reportedly stopped a seventy-three-year-old man for driving without his headlamps on during hours of darkness. It could have been just a warning for the driver but after the officer returned from checking the driver’s status and vehicle registration he found something truly unexpected–the driver snorting cocaine.
Circuit Judge Jack Schramm Cox has made a rather ignoble entry into national news with a clearly unconstitutional order to the Palm Beach Post to unpublish material from its website. The act of prior restraint violates core first amendment protections and will achieve nothing since the information was part of a public filing. The utter lack of legal judgment (and knowledge) shown by Cox in this order is deeply troubling.
Continue reading “Florida Judge Issues Shocking Order For Newspaper To “Unpublish” News Story”
The massacre in San Bernadino, California is as baffling as it is chilling. I am very familiar with the Redlands and San Bernadino areas since I would spend summers in the area growing up and still have relatives there (including one of the officers responding to this shooting). What is so chilling is the lack of any indication of such an act from a couple that seemed to be living the American dream with a good income and new baby . . . and highly supportive colleagues who they proceeded to slaughter.
Jamie Lee Sharp, 25, currently needs to find another line of work. Sharp and his friend James Honeywell, 26, allegedly stole a Porsche Boxster and Sharp proceeded to videotape himself driving the sports car and texting friends. He then crashed the car and trapped himself within it for the police to collect.
Kean University in New Jersey has been struggling with racial protests that were magnified by the report of racist threats on the Internet to kill black students on campus. Police say that they have the culprit and that it was one of the protesters who was most vocal in decrying the threats in protests. Kayla-Simone McKelvey, 24, is a black alum of Kean who graduated in May and is now face with a third-degree charge of creating a false public alarm.
There is a highly disturbing criminal case out of Mecosta, Michigan where Keith Wood, 39, has been charged with a felony for obstruction of justice and misdemeanor of tampering with a jury. His felonious conduct? Passing out fliers about jury nullification rights on the sidewalk of the Mecosta County courthouse. The fliers from the Fully Informed Jury Association describe juror rights that some complain are omitted by judges and prosecutors in explaining jury service before trial.
Sunni leader Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musalyar (head of one of the traditionalist Sunni Muslims in Kerala, India) has reportedly confirmed that worst expectations of women and civil liberties advocates in India with recent comments calling the concept of gender equality “un-Islamic” and saying that women could never equal men as “they are fit only to deliver children.” It is a chilling reminder of the intense prejudices and oppression faced by women in many traditional Islamic areas.
Like most of the world, we have watched the rapid decline of civil liberties in Turkey after the election of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his coalition of Islamic parties. Just last month, we discussed the arrest of Mehmet Emin Altunses, 16, who allegedly committed the crime of “insulting” Erdoğan. calling people who use birth control “traitors” and saying Muslims discovered America, you are not allowed to be disrespectful or insulting in discussing Erdoğan. Then there was the prosecution of model and former Miss Turkey Merve Buyuksarac, 26, for criticizing Erdogan for quoting a few lines from a poem called the “Master’s Poem” from weekly Turkish satirical magazine Uykusuz. Erdogan’s totalitarian measures have earned him the nickname “Buyuk Usta” (the Big Master). The fact is that censorship and repressions is that it tends to become increasing absurd as leaders try to punish those who would insult them or question their leadership. This week is another case in point for Erdoğan. His government is investigating physician Dr. Bilgin Çiftçi for allegedly insulting Erdoğan after sharing a meme comparing Erdoğan’s facial expressions to the Gollum character in the “The Lord of the Rings” movies. Now here is the truly wonderful part: a court has reportedly demanded an expert examination by two experts to determine if a comparison to Gollum’s character would be an insult.
The University of Missouri has been battered by protests over racial relations on the campus for weeks, including the recent resignation of a faculty member who tried to silence a student reporter. Now, an assistant professor at the University of Missouri is under arrest on suspicion of child abuse after Benghazi native Youssif Z. Omar reportedly attacked a female 14-year-old relative for not wearing a hijab to Hickman High School. The University says that Omar has not worked at the university for months. Students were reportedly not fond of Omar and some noted his explosive temper, yelling at students, and poor English.
We have often discussed the various protests, often violent, in Islamic countries over alleged blasphemous statements or images. These usually involve depictions of Mohammad or religious symbols. In Mumbai, however, Muslim protesters found a new blasphemous symbol: the use of a piggy bank to show where ISIS gets its money to conduct worldwide terror campaigns. This is a standard illustration of a “piggy bank” to show the savings of a group or person. Yet, some took this from a different perspective.