Criminal law, International

Australian Police Abuse Man Filming An Alleged Case of Racial Profiling

We have continued to chronicle the arrest and prosecution of citizens for merely filming police in public. Some prosecutors like Anita Alvarez in Chicago have fought hard to send citizens to jail for videotaping police in public, though courts have continued to support the obvious right to such filming. This video shows that police in other countries like Australia are showing the carrying out the same abusive measures.

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Constitutional Law, Criminal law, International, Politics, Society

Egypt and Muslim Brotherhood Denounce U.N. Document Calling For Protection Of Women As Contrary To Islamic Principles

150px-muslim_woman_in_yemenEgypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Egyptian diplomats denounced the United Nation’s document calling for the protection of women as contrary to Islamic principles and Egypt is demanding that the resolution include an exception for countries that view the provisions are contrary to their values. The Egyptians called the document “deceitful” and the ruin of traditional families.

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Bizarre, Society, Torts

California Mortuary Admits It Buried Wrong Woman Despite Husband’s Objections

buried13n-3-webAfter living with the same woman for 51 years, Evan Davidson probably can recognize his own wife. However, when the management of Simpson Family Mortuary of Inglewood showed him Darlene Davidson, 82, in her casket, Evan Davidson promptly said that is not my wife. However, the mortuary insisted that he was wrong and she simply looked different due to embalming. They insisted on burying her and later learned that in fact it was a different woman.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, International, Religion

Pakistani Sharia Court Orders Soldier To Be Stoned To Death And Girl Shot After They Try To Elope

stoningA local sharia court has added a stoning death to this year’s record after a Pakistani soldier was found to have had an affair with a local woman in Northwesterd Kurram. To make matters worse, Anwar Din, 27, is a Sunni and Intizar Bibi, 19, is a Shiite girl.

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Animals, Criminal law, Environment, International

Dead Pig Count Now Past 6000 In Shanghai River But Chinese Officials Insist Water Is Fine For Drinking

China's flagWe previously saw how Chinese environmental officials are struggling to pull dead pigs out of the river in Shanghai while assuring people that the tsunami of dead pigs has no effect on drinking the water. Now the body count is up from 900 to 6000 and some articles suggest the number is more like 9000. Yet, Chinese officials insist that they are unable to locate the source.

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Bizarre, International

Cinema Communista: North Korea Runs Video Showing How Americans Are Homeless, Drink Snow, Rely On Charity From North Korea, And Shoot Their Children

kor2_1690589akor4_1690590aNorth Korea has long been an example of a clinically psychotic nation that engages in propaganda displaying wild fantasy and transference. The latest video however is truly unnerving. In a nation with extreme poverty and malnutrition, North Korea has run a video showing that (rather than it receiving aid from the U.S.) the U.S. relies on aid from North Korea and is a virtual hellscape of poverty, death, and despair. I can now understand why Dennis Rodman calls Kim Jong Un a “friend” and plans to vacation with him. It is better than eating birds and shooting children back in the states.

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Bizarre, Politics, Society

Shocking Ignorance or Misleading Editing? Biden Speech Suggests Slap Across The Face Is Not Abuse But Remarks Appear To Have Been Cut Off Midsentence

Conservative sites have exploded with a new controversy surrounding Joe Biden who appears to distinguish between true abuse or worrisome signs of abuse and a “garden variety slap across the face.” However, listening to the YouTube clip it is clear that the statement has been cut off.

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Bizarre, International, Politics, Religion

Iranian Clerics Attack Ahmadinejad For Hugging Chavez’s Mother

220px-Mahmoud_AhmadinejadThe bizarre world of Iranian extremism was evident again this week as clerics in Iran raised a hue and cry over a picture where President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is shown consoling Hugo Chavez’s mother with a hug. Clerics called the picture a sin and abomination against Islam. They also attacked another cleric, Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Mirtajeddini, who felt no moral difficulty in lying about the hug and saying that the photo was doctored.

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Criminal law, Society

Couple Appeals Case Against Walmart for Reporting Them To Police As Child Pornographers For Innocent Family Pictures

article-2290682-1888EA28000005DC-554_634x467We previously discussed the case of Lisa and Anthony “A.J.” Demaree who had their three children taken away from them after a Walmart employee reported them to the police as child pornographers for innocent pictures in a bathtub on a vacation. The absurd reaction of Walmart led to their then 5, 4 and 1 1/2 year old daughters being taken away for a month and put the family through a ridiculous criminal process due to the equally negligent acts of the police and prosecutors. Their case is now before the Ninth Circuit in seeking to be able to present their claims to a jury.

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Constitutional Law, Military, Politics

Forty Years Later: The Lessons of Watergate

180px-WatergateFromAir220px-Nixon-departToday I will join a distinguished panel to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Watergate. I will be speaking with Liz Holtzman, member of the House Judiciary Committee during Watergate; Daniel Ellsberg, of Pentagon Papers fame; and Fritz Schwarz, Chief Counsel, Brennan Center for Justice and former Chief Counsel to the Church Committee. We will be discussing the legacy of Watergate in terms of our current controversies over FISA, war powers, presidential papers, and other executive abuses.

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Criminal law, Lawyering, Society

Florida Lawyer Appears Twice In Publication With DUI Mugshot And DUI Counsel Advertisement

ASO13JBN002284-200x240This is not the advertising that Thomas Lewis Edwards was looking for in placing the ad for his firm. Edwards, a DUI lawyer, had his recent mug shot posted next to his law firm advertisement. You guessed it: he was arrested for DUI.

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Animals

FAREWELL MOLLY TURLEY

DSC_0254As I posted a couple days ago, my dog Molly was hit by a car in McLean, Virginia this week. She has been in intensive care as we tried every possible medical intervention to save her, but this afternoon we had to put down Molly. My two older sons, Leslie, and I held Molly as she was euthanized. I want to thank so many on this blog for reaching out in the last couple of days and I thought you should know. The whole family is devastated. Molly was the center of gravity for our family and I cannot express the terrible sadness that I feel in losing Molly.

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Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Courts

Big Gulp: New York Judge Strikes Down Bloomberg’s Beverage Ban

110px-Big_gulp6480220px-Michael_R_BloombergManhattan state Supreme Court Justice Milton Tingling has struck a victory for sanity (as well as individual choice) in striking down New York Mayor Bloomberg’s widely ridiculed ban on large sugary drinks. As we previously discussed, the law was a poorly drafted and poorly conceived ban that allowed a host of higher caloric drinks to be sold in bars and other establishments. Tingling found the law to be “arbitrary and capricious.” Bloomberg has appeared to have developed an insatiable appetite to dictating what others can eat, including a proposed crackdown on popcorn and milk. After the soda ban, a long list of items have been put forward to Bloomberg to ban before Judge Tingling put a halt to the feeding frenzy.

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Criminal law, Society

Florida Police Called To Home To Deal With Suicidal Man And Shoot Him To Death After He Brandishes Scissors

250px-FL_-_St._Petersburg_Police220px-Skalm_2The family and neighbors of Arthur Dixon, 43, has raised questions over his death after two St. Petersburg police officers shot him to death after he brandished scissors in a confrontation. Police were called to the home to deal with Dixon who was threatening suicide and had doused himself with gasoline. Firefighters refused to enter the home and family and friends were cleaning up the gasoline and talking to Dixon when police arrived and ordered them to leave. An hour later, Dixon was dead.

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Criminal law, International, Politics, Society

Saudi Arabia Considers Halt On Beheadings . . . Due To Shortage of Swordsmen

220px-Froissart_Chronicles,_executionAt first, this article sounded like a reform in the making out of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: the government is considering a moratorium on beheadings. However, the reason is not some sudden modernization and rejection of medieval Sharia laws. Saudi is facing a labor crisis of sorts: there are too few swordsmen to dispatch the guilty.

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