There is a disturbing case out of the Leesburg Virginia (near my home) where Dallas Northington, an eight-year employee of Target, has been fired as he reportedly caught a Fairfax County sheriff’s deputy shoplifting. He filed a report and was told that both his manager and the investigator recognized the culprit on a videotape. However, when he returned to work, he was canned by Target. In the meantime, despite the alleged identification and two color videotapes of the shoplifting, the police have yet to charge the officer (who reportedly left the force).
Category: Criminal law
In a clear victory for both the public and basic notions of decency, the Manassas City Police have announced that they will not execute the abusive warrant discussed yesterday to force a 17-year-old boy to be photographed with an erect penis — including the authority to force an erection with the administration of drugs if the boy did not “cooperate.” However, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Claiborne Richardson is still pursing the teen for two major felonies for sending his 15-year-old girlfriend an explicit video. There is still no word from Paul B. Ebert, the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Prince William County (right).
Continue reading “Manassas Police Refuse To Execute Warrant To Photograph Teen’s Erect Penis”
There is a bizarre search warrant that has been obtained by the Manassas City Police to photograph the erect penis of a 17-year-old facing felony child-pornography charges. The charges are based on the teen sending an explicit video to his 15-year-old girlfriend. Worse yet, if the boy does not “cooperate,” the police intend to take him to a hospital to have him aroused by injection. [Update: police have said that they will decline to execute the warrant after the public outcry].
Continue reading “Virginia Police Secure Warrant to Force Teen To Be Photographed With Erect Penis”
I wanted to share an opinion this month out of Wisconsin where Fourth District Court of Appeals Judge Paul Lundsten overturned the conviction of Thomas Smith for criticizing his local police department on Facebook. Prosecutors charged Smith with disorderly conduct and unlawful use of a computerized communications system after he made vulgar comments on a police department’s Facebook page. It was an abusive charge by the police and an abusive prosecution. Unbelievably, the lower court allowed this citizen to be convicted for the misdemeanor offenses. Prosecutors argued that Smith, 25, used profanity and vulgar language to comment on a police posting that thanked local citizens for their help in apprehending two black juveniles in the area. It was clearly protected speech but Smith was forced to go through a trial and an appeal to find a judge who upheld the first amendment claim. Below is the full decision.
Below is my column today in USA Today on the Obama Administration’s decision to cut off water to legal marijuana growers. Notably, the business concern today for the rollout of legal pot sales in Washington is greater demand than supply. I previously wrote about how a little known board had effectively moved to end the debate over the Redskins name, an example of agencies increasingly intervening in social and political disputes. This move by the Bureau of Reclamation is a prime example of such intervention into political disputes and a troubling precedent for the future.
Continue reading “POLITICS BY OTHER MEANS: OBAMA’S WATER WAR OVER POT”
We only recently passed the 21,000,000 mark last April but we just hit 22,000,000 today, according to WordPress. Congratulations everyone. This has been a banner year for the site with a continuing increase in traffic, links on other sites, and new voices on the blog. These milestones are coming faster and they give us a chance to look at the spread of our regular readers and commentators. As always, I want to offer special thanks for our weekend contributors: Mark Esposito, Eliane Magliaro, Mike Appleton, Larry Rafferty, Charlton Stanley, Darren Smith, and Kimberly Deines. The increasing traffic on the site is gratifying and reaffirms that there are many people looking for mature and civil debate. Even among the top ten sites, I believe that we offer a unique forum of different views and backgrounds in the discussion of law and politics (and a few quirky items).
We have long discussed the erosion of civil liberties in the United States, including the attacks on privacy and other rights by the Obama Administration. It appears that we are not alone in those concerns. A new Gallup poll shows a record drop in the satisfaction of Americans over their freedoms. The massive drop is matched in such countries as Egypt, Pakistan, and Venezuela.
Continue reading “Gallup Poll: Satisfaction With Their Freedoms Has Record Drop Among Americans”
Pamela Konchinsky, 56, was headed to work on June 17th in her silver 2004 Toyota minivan when she was pulled over by two police cars — one with its lights going. The officers spotted a joke bumper sticker on the minivan window reading “Unmarked police car” and were not amused. The officers made Konchinsky pull off the bumper sticker. The Indianapolis police department is now being sued for good reason for the abusive stop and treatment. The ACLU has filed the case.
There is a controversy in Simi Valley, California where a police officer refused to take the statement on a car accident of a man who wanted to videotape their conversation. While the officer in the video below acknowledges the right of the citizen to videotape, Simi Valley police officer Corey Baker states that he is not going to allow the man to effectively portray him as causing some violation by filming him. While the officer cannot refuse to take a statement on this basis, the man in the video (identified as Jeff Knapp) struck me as highly rude in his encounter with both the other driver and the officer.
In Michigan, religious radio host John Balyo has been arrested for allegedly raping a child and paying a third party to arrange sexual encounters with children. Police say that a bondage kit was found in a storage locker maintained by Balyo.
Continue reading “Christian Radio Host Arrested For Raping 11-Year-Old Boy”
Geoffrey Hawk may soon have the reputation of gun displays that are a tad too realistic for customers after he accidentally shot a customer while displaying a gun for sale. Hawk, 44, could be criminally charged for the shooting.
Continue reading “Woman Asks For Demonstration at Gun Show . . . Dealer Then Shoots Her In Thigh”
Arachnophobia can come at a cost but rarely do those costs include criminal charges and a torched home. Ginny M. Griffith, 34, of Hutchinson, Kansas is accused of burning her home in an effort to kill a spider. She allegedly used a cigarette lighter to set some towels on fire and destroyed not just her home but half of a duplex.
Continue reading “Kansas Woman Charged With Burning Home To Kill Spider”
There is a growing controversy in Arizona over the arrest of Arizona State University Professor Ersula Ore who refused to show her identification to a police officer and ended up being thrown to the ground and arrested — a scene captured on the videotape below.
Today’s ruling in Hobby Lobby is the type of decision that tends to suck the oxygen out of the room. For that reason, the important decision in Harris v. Quinn could be overlooked. At issue in the case is the viability of Abood v. Detroit Board of Education— the 1977 opinion held that the government could constitutionally condition a person’s employment in the public sector on the paying fees to a union. As I mentioned on CNN last night, this is a major decision that is being pushed from the coverage but deserves more attention. As anticipated, Justice Alito wrote the decision and ruled against the union.
Continue reading “Harris v. Quinn: The “Other” Supreme Court Decision Today”
One of the concerns about the increasing number of gun permits and open carry laws is road rage. Those concerns magnified this month with a number of road rage incidents involving guns. In Sacramento, a man punched another man in a traffic argument and was shot in the face. Of course, gun advocates could argue that road rage can involve a variety of lethal weapons, including the car itself. A case in point would be another case in California where Dante Stewart, 63, set another car on fire in a road rage incident with the flare gun.
Continue reading “Dante’s Inferno: California Man Charged In Use of Flare Gun In Road Rage Incident”