Members of the Lawrence County, Tennessee, sheriff's department drug unit burst into John Tidwell's home with guns drawn. They handcuffed him and his father before figuring out they were at the wrong half of a duplex. He and a neighbor say that before the deputies left, they scratched an "A" off the duplex wall to make it look like there was no way to know the duplex wasn't one house.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer explains why we shouldn’t worry that her state’s new law (allowing the police to demand identity papers from anyone who looks like they might be an “illegal” immigrant) won’t lead to racial profiling or other abuses (as if “the thing itself” were not abuse enough …):
We have to trust our law enforcement. Police officers are going to be respectful. They know what their jobs are; they’ve taken an oath. And racial profiling is illegal.
Oh well, nothing to worry about then.
It doesn’t seem so outrageous when it happens in Britain, because the write-ups are filled with those quaint British affectations.
“Stab-jacket!” “…on their patch…” “…cup of tea!”
British police stopped Rodney Knowles on suspicion of drunk driving. His blood alcohol was below the legal limit, so they couldn't make that charge stick. But they found apenknife in his glove box and charged him with possession of a weapon. After he pleaded guilty, Knowles received a conditional discharge and £40 fine.
Dumb, probably drunk kid knocks on an off-duty cop’s door, then runs away. The cop comes out in street clothes, hunts the kid down in his squad car, then lays him over the hood while he calls for backup. According to the cop, the kid then jumps the cop, smacks the cop’s head on the pavement, and reaches for the cop’s gun. So the cop kills him. The kid’s only prior was a 2007 DUI conviction.
I guess the first question here is why you jump in your squad car to hunt someone down for such a petty infraction. And why you make an arrest for it. And why you need backup.But putting all that aside, the ensuing narrative doesn’t smell right, either. Why would a kid who seemed to have his life in order knowingly take on a cop on the side of the road, in front of witnesses?
Then there’s this:
The Sheriff’s Office did not release details about the case Monday, but officials say they expect the investigation into the actions of Deputy Carlos Verdoni, who shot Spann, to be completed by the end of this week.
The inquiry into the shooting is divided into two parts: a criminal investigation of the shooting; and an administrative look at whether Verdoni followed procedures when he left his home in shorts, a T-shirt and sandals to track down the pranksters who banged on his door and ran off…
Sheriff’s officials are investigating the shooting even though it happened within the Venice city limits. The Sheriff’s Office says it handles all officer-involved shootings in the county, except for those in the city of Sarasota, through an agreement with the smaller police agencies.
Followed by:
Sheriff Tom Knight has said that he believes Verdoni’s actions were justified and that the investigation will clear the nine-year veteran.
So three days after the incident, and days before the investigation is complete, the guy in charge of the department conducting the investigation says he already knows the cop will be cleared. You’d think he’d at least pretend to be impartial.
Maybe this kid had something illegal in his house, and wrongly decided it would be better to kill a cop than subject himself to a possible search. Maybe he just had a moment of derangement. Or drunken idiocy. So yeah, maybe this shooting was entirely justified. But given that Sheriff Knight already seems to have made up his mind, I’m not sure how much stock we should put into his department’s investigation.
The Prince George's County, Maryland, police force has suspended one officer and may take sanctions against others for the unprovoked beating of a University of Maryland student. The officers attacked John McKenna during a celebration of Maryland's win over Duke University in basketball. The officers had charged McKenna with assaulting an officer and disorderly conduct but after local media showed video of the incident to the prosecutor's office all charges were dropped and the police department began an investigation of the officers.
SWAT cop detonates a flashbang grenade under the bleachers during a high school convocation.
Just for funsies.
(Thanks to Benjamin Baeker for the link.)
Four Atlanta women were standing on the sidewalk talking about funeral plans for a friend when a police officer ordered them to move.Three of them did, but one, Minne Carey, asked the officer "Why?" "Because I said so," said the officer, who then handcuffed her and hauled her off to jail for disorderly conduct. Charges against Carey were ultimately dismissed, and the city's Citizen Review Board found the officer violated department policy and falsely arrested Carey, but there's no word on whether the officer will be punished.