The Denver Police Chief is promising extra training and a review on the use of new flashlight equipped guns after a series of cases where officers fired a round while trying to find the switch for the light. This accident-waiting-to-happen technology could spawn a series of lawsuits for both negligence in the officers the Department as well as product liability claims.
Category: Criminal law
Kenya’s parliament has passed a law intended to codify the existing customary law allowing for multiple spouses. However, the legislators went further and removed a provision that would give the existing spouse or spouses the right to veto a marriage. After female legislators stormed out of the session in protest, MP Junet Mohammed explained “When you marry an African woman, she must know the second one is on the way, and a third wife… this is Africa.”
Continue reading “Kenya Passes Law Legalizing Polygamy Without Approval Of Existing Spouses”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
With many states grappling with the need for tax revenue and the otherwise laudable effort to curtail cigarette smoking among their citizens, laws of supply and demand are beginning to having unexpected consequences to some. Rises in taxation of cigarettes with prices in one location as high as $15.00 per pack, the majority of cigarettes consumed by smokers there are now bootleg. According to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, nearly $5 billion in revenue in 2010 was lost because of smuggling. But this figure is very likely to rise dramatically since many states since enacted even higher levels of taxation.
The situation has formed a fertile ground for illegal cigarette trafficking and there have been inroads into organized crime. Sources of illegal cigarettes have been neighboring states where tax rates are lower, Native American reservations, and even foreign sources of the same brand names, often from Vietnam, Thailand, and Eastern Europe. Wholesale illegal supply chains are becoming increasingly significant. While cigarettes are otherwise available, albeit at a higher price, these states are beginning to see a softer form of prohibition. But there is also a very dark side to smoking bootleg cigarettes. Illegal cigarette trafficking has been used as a vehicle to channel money to foreign terrorist organizations. Are the benefits worth the costs inherited from high taxations?
Continue reading “The Smokeasy: Bootlegging Returns To America”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
In what is proffered to be helpful in the combat of prostitution and the underlying organized crime that often promotes this, members of the Honolulu, Hawaii police department have requested legislative authority to engage in sexual relations with prostitutes in order to further infiltrate the illegal profession.
This was an amendment to a bill that would expand the enforcement and prosecution of sex industry players that has passed the state House and is coming before a Senate committee.
Authorities say they need the legal protection to catch lawbreakers in the act, and strict internal controls prohibit misconduct. But is this a novel idea to break up the sex traffic industry or one that may lead to exploitation of its vulnerable members?
Continue reading “Honolulu Police Department Asks State Legislature To Allow Officers To Have Sex With Prostitutes”
We recently discussed the controversy surrounding a confrontation between Thrin Short, 16, and her sister Joan, 21, and Feminist Studies Associate Professor Mireille Miller-Young. Miller-Young has now been charged with criminal conduct including Theft of Person; Battery; and Vandalism. All are misdemeanors.
There is a bizarre case out of Tampa where Candace Patricia Hauser is facing one charge of aggravated cruelty to animals . Brenda Hines, 31, brought her Mastiff, Nadia, to Hauser’s house to see if she could help deliver puppies. Nadia was able to delivered (with help) the first 12 puppies but had trouble on the last two. Hauser proceeded to do a canine Caesarian and cut open Nadia to deliver the final two puppies. She then used standard, non-surgical glue to close the wound. This was all done without anesthesia and Nadia died.
Continue reading “Florida Woman Arrested After Performing C-Section On Mastiff Without Anesthesia”
The Kansas House Standing Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice has introduced an extraordinary bill that would allow citizens to be criminally charged if they bring abuse or misconduct charges against police officers are that later dismissed by the police department. They would be subject to a felony charge for perjury in such cases — a clear threat that will chill anyone considering such a charge in the future.
We recently discussed a controversy involving the censorship of an article on rape by a high school student in Wisconsin. The article, entitled “The Rape Joke: Surviving Rape In A Culture That Won’t Let You” was written by Fond du Lac High School senior Tanvi Kumar described a “rape culture” at the school. The school officials immediately moved to censor and block the publication. Fond du Lac High School Principal Jon Wiltzius objected to both the text and a picture in the article. In criticizing the actions of the school, I offered this blog as a forum for publishing the uncensored article. I was contacted by Kumar who said that she would like to avail herself of that opportunity. Photographer Gabi Padovano also agreed to have her remarkable photographs shown on the blog. I am also particularly proud to announce that Kumar will be attending George Washington University in the fall as one of our undergraduate. I wish I could take credit for that last fact but Kumar did that all on her own. So, without further ado, here is the uncensored “The Rape Joke.”
Continue reading “[THE UNCENSORED] RAPE JOKE: AN INVESTIGATIVE REPORT BY TANVI KUMAR”
There is a disturbing lawsuit filed this month in Tennessee against CCA Silverdale and Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Hammond (left). Charity Flerl was incarcerated when she went into labor last summer. The police proceeded to force her to give birth while shackled because, as explained by one individual in this article, because “They’re criminals, so you never know what they might do.” Now here is the kicker: Flerl was not in for some violent offense. She was in for failure to pay child support. It is not clear what “they might do” in such a case: failure to pay child support on the new baby?
Continue reading “Tennessee Sheriff Sued Over Shackling Woman While She Delivered Baby”
We previously discussed cases of tourists demanding art in efforts to get memorable photographs, including a recent incident involving an American tourist. We now have an even more egregious incident where a tourist actually climbed on the leg of an early 19th Century statue entitled “The Drunken Satyr” to take a selfie and caused the entire leg to snap off.
Jordan Wiser, a student at Ashtabula County Technical School in Jefferson, Ohio is rightfully confused after being being arrested for bringing a weapon into school. The “weapon” was a pocket knife that he had in his EMT medical vest . . . that was locked into the truck of his car. That’s right, in the latest example of the insane application of zero tolerance rules, the school officials called police after searching the trunk of a locked car to find a pocket knife used by a senior in his work as a EMT. He was then fed into a legal system that refused to show discretion in his prosecution. Notably, prosecutor Harold Specht ran for office based on a pledge that he would maintain a “hardline, zero tolerance policy” as a prosecutor. It was the perfect storm for Wiser: zero tolerance administrators handing a student over to a zero tolerance prosecutor. But it gets worse . . .
We have yet another atrocity by religious protesters responding to a rumor that a Hindu had desecrated the Koran. These Muslim protesters than had no qualms over burning down a sacred Hindu temple in protesting a possible act of blasphemy. Last December, we saw a similar riot following a rumor involving a Koran.
Continue reading “Hindu Temple Burned Down After Rumor Of Man Desecrating Koran”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
In another example of felons making law enforcement easier Jules Bahler allegedly posted onto Facebook images of himself toting a sub-machine gun the same day he reportedly robbed a Chemical Bank branch in Bay City, Michigan. He is also accused of two more robberies over an eight day period.
On March 5, Bahler reportedly walked into a Chemical Bank branch in Bay City and “displayed what appeared to be a black sub machine gun and demanded money,” according to an affidavit sworn by FBI Agent Sean Callaghan. After a teller gave Bahler $7000, he fled the bank. The prior Pontiac robberies, Callaghan noted, netted Bahler a combined $8300.
Continue reading “Bank Robbery Suspect Nabbed After Allegedly Posting Selfie With Sub-Machine Gun”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
In an outrageous lack of discretion, some members in the animal control and court system in Havre de Grace, Maryland put 81 year old great grandmother Mary Root through a harrowing ordeal.
Mary Root says her pets somehow got loose from her yard several times. A neighbor took pictures of the dogs running down the street and reported her to Animal Control.
The agency slapped Root with a $7,000 fine or she could spend nearly a year in jail.
“I’m struggling to pay my house taxes. I couldn’t pay it. It’s a different thing when you leave your dogs out and you don’t care. But I do care,” Root said. But when the cancer survivor failed to show up at court on her doctor’s orders, a judge had Root arrested.
She was booked, fingerprinted and issued a striped jumpsuit. She waited to see a judge in a cell without her cancer medication.
Continue reading “81 Year Old Woman Jailed Two Days For Allegedly Violating Pet Ordinance”
It is a good thing that it is not April 1st because this would an obvious April Fool’s joke. Then again most of the fatwas coming out of Saudi Arabia seem like jokes to most people living in the 21st Century. Saudi cleric Saleh al-Fawzan has issued fatwa against all-you-can-eat buffets in Saudi Arabia — declaring that the popular lunch establishments will now be viewed as unlawful under Sharia law. You might want to get Sharia defense counsel before going to that Smörgåsbord in Jetta.
Continue reading “Getting The Fat Out Of Fatwas: Saudi Cleric Declares Buffets To Be Anti-Islamic”