It is often difficult to get actual charges against a police officer, but former St. Louis Officer Rory Bruce, 35, was an exception. After all, it was a police video that clearly showed him verbally abusing a teenager and then sucker punching him while handcuffed. One would think it would be an easy conviction, even without the testimony of the 16-year-old boy. That is if the judge watched the video. She did not. Judge Teresa Counts Burke showed no reason to actually watch the video before ruling and now the police union is demanding that the department rehire Bruce.
Category: Bizarre
Remember that whole business in the Third Amendment about not having quarter soldiers in private homes without the owner’s consent or that stuff in the Fifth Amendment about takings of property or that other stuff in the Fourth Amendment on unreasonable searches and seizures. It does not appear to apply to police in Henderson Nevada. The City of Henderson is being sued with its police chief Police Chief Jutta Chambers (left) as well as the City of North Las Vegas and its Police Chief Joseph Chronister (right) for a bizarre takeover of a home for a stakeout. Anthony Mitchell says that he was told that police needed to occupy his home to get a “tactical advantage” on the occupant of a neighboring house. When Mitchell refused, the police ultimately, according to his complaint, busted through his door, hit him with pepper balls, and put him into custody. The lawsuit also names Officers Garret Poiner, Ronald Feola, Ramona Walls, Angela Walker, and Christopher Worley.
You thought you had trouble choosing between one percent and two percent milk? Go to China. Poor young mothers are being hired by agencies to breastfeed rich adults in the south China city of Shenzhen for between 8,000 yuan (US$1,303) to 15,000 yuan a month. Some Chinese believe the breast milk has healing qualities not available in that stuff you buy in the carton. It apparently makes for a great chaser with that tiger bone and other endangered species products.
Continue reading “Human Dairy: Chinese Adults Paying To Be Breast Fed By Poor Nursing Mothers”
James Kistler is in the midst of an expensive row with the city of Delmont over his pets Larry, Moe, Curly and Fred. In May, the city sent Kistler a notice that he was in violation of the city ordinance on domestic pets and that he could not keep ducks as pets. The letter states that he will be subject to a $500 day fine unless he gets rid of the ducks.
Basic environmental and scientific programs suffer but the State Department felt free to spend more than $630,000 on advertising campaigns to boost the number of Facebook “likes” for the agency’s pages on the website between 2011 and March 2013.
Texas has been the scene of intense protests and debates over a senator’s filibuster to block an abortion bill. As reporters were threatened with arrest and other controversies mounted, this scene unfolded in the gallery. According to reports, a 74-year-old woman was arrested for assaulting an officer after the Lt. Governor ordered the gallery to be closed. Troopers then encountered Martha Northington who did not move fast enough out of her chair. Continue reading “Trooper Grabs 74-Year-Old Woman And Then Arrests Her After She Hits Him With Her Purse For Being Rough”
Prosecutors in the George Zimmerman trial are facing a collapsing case and renewed question over whether Angela Corey succumbed to the political pressure and overcharged the case. The prosecution’s case has thus far been a disaster and many are now questioning whether charges should have been brought at all, let alone charged as second degree murder. For some inexplicable reason, the prosecutors led with Rachel Jeantel, who was one of the least compelling witnesses that they could have called from earlier perjury to ever-changing testimony. Now Angela Corey (right) and her office appear to be turning toward alternative areas of prosecution involving the daughter of one of the defense counsel.
We have previously discussed stolen valor cases where police arrest people for pretending to be former decorated veterans and heroes. But what if the man is not only the police but the police chief? When Robert Kerkorian joined the Waukegan, Ill., police department 26 years ago, he said that he was a Navy Seal (a common claim for stolen valor cases). That may have remained his secret until he was promoted to chief and a little checking led to a big embarrassment. Kerkorian was in the Navy for only six months and never even made it to Seal training.
Continue reading “Stolen Valor: Illinois Police Chief Demoted Over False Claim Of Being A Seal”
This is yet another video of a citizen confronting a police officer about his taking her iPad because she was using it to film him in the course of a stop or arrest. The officer tells her that she can pick it up tomorrow and that she is risking an arrest by continuing to confront him.
Continue reading “Officer Seizes iPad and Threatens Arrest After Being Filmed in Public”
Something to get you ready for the morning commute
We have previously seen how Christian leaders like Pat Robertson routinely attributed natural disasters like Katrina to God’s revenge for everything from gay rights to abortion to secularism. Not to be outdone, according to various sites, Colorado pastors Kevin Swanson and Dave Buehner have informed the faithful that the recent deadly forest fires were punishment for gay rights and abortion even though they struck the conservative areas of Colorado Springs rather than places like Boulder. Presumably, God also wanted 19 fire fighters killed in Arizona under the same theory.
Continue reading “Christian Pastors: Colorado Fires Were God’s Retribution For Gay Rights and Abortion”
The police in Mayfield Heights, Ohio are clearly put out that the Supreme Court has ruled out checkpoints for drugs. They have come up with what they believe is the next best thing: fake drug checkpoints. They are effectively threatening an unconstitutional stop to see which drivers flee . . . and then searching their vehicles. It turns out that Police Chief Fred W. Bittner has support from the local prosecutors in threatening police abuse as a basis to stop cars.
In Florida, Thomas Elliot Huggins, 25, has been charged with strangling a family puppy, chopping it into pieces and cooking its ribs on the stove. In this case, however, he could face significant jail time unlike many other cases where such cruelty is treated as a misdemeanor. However, there is a statutory interpretative issue that could present a novel defense challenge.
Continue reading “Florida Man Charged With Strangling And Cooking Family Puppy”
The video below is an unnerving video that shows a man, Sammie Wallace, walking through a store clearly looking for a child and then snatching a two-year-old girl. The clearly deranged man then held a knife to the little girl and told the terrified mother to call police. In the end, the officer walked up and shot Wallace point blank in the head when he moved the knife to the girl’s throat and started a countdown.
Continue reading “Deranged Man Shot After Kidnapping 2-Year-Old Girl At Oklahoma Walmart”
By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
University of Virginia student Elizabeth Daly thought she was doing a good thing buying some La Croix bottled water and cookie dough ice cream from the Harris Teeter Supermarket to share at a charity event. It was 10:15 p.m. and the twenty-year-old, along with her female roommate were trying get to a police sponsored “Take Back The Night” event where she thought she would be listening to stories from sexual assault victims and developing strategies to combat the scourge of most college towns. Instead, as she crossed the dark parking lot and got into her vehicle, she was set upon by six people, one of whom jumped on the hood of her SUV and another who pulled a gun.
“I couldn’t put my windows down unless I started my car, and when I started my car they began yelling to not move the car, not to start the car. They began trying to break the windows. My roommates and I were … terrified,” Daly stated. Not wanting to become a victim herself, Daly heeded the words of her panic-stricken front seat passenger and took off. As she did, she grazed two of the assailants.
“They were showing unidentifiable badges after they approached us, but we became frightened, as they were not in anything close to a uniform,” she recalled Thursday in a written account of the April 11 incident.