Gangsters in Blue

• Here’s a good SOPA/PIPA protest roundup from Reason.
• Also, the fact that Chris Dodd was recently a powerful politician is a pretty damned good argument against giving politicians more power.
• Maryland photojournalist harassed, arrested for recording police.
• U.S. government is abandoning the Iraqis who helped troops during the war, and who now face threats to their lives.
• The story is light on details, but a Connecticut assistant medical examiner has been charged with perjury.
• Dan Auerbach and Bon Appetit eat Nashville.
• Puppycide.
• Headline of the day.

• New Florida Marlins acquisition Mark Buerhle can’t live in Miami because he own an 18-month old Staffie, and Miami-Dade County has a dumb ban on “pit bulls.”  I explain the numbskullery of breed-specific legislation here.
• Ken at Popehat draws the line between recording police, take-down notices, and SOPA.
• Alabama minister sues after his photo was posted to the local sheriff’s “most wanted” web page. It was posted after a tip from an informant.
• U.K. couple cleared in the midst of a shaken baby trial after post-mortem exam reveals the child had rickets.
• Veteran photographer threatened by L.A. cop for violating the cop’s “right to privacy.”
• Tumblr of the moment: Ron Paul meets Ron Swanson.
• The threatening letter that the FBI anonymously sent to Martin Luther King, Jr.

•  Jose Guerena family to file $20 million lawsuit.
• “Kids for Cash” judge gets 28 years in prison.
• The philosophy of Louis C.K.
• Writer watches every Coen brothers movie.
• Crappy Crime Lab of the Week Award: Houston! Houston is a repeat winner of this award.
• Bad idea of the week: Anti-discrimination laws for the unemployed.
• Wait, shouldn’t all those cold medicine laws have us winning the war on meth?
• Soldier kills himself while facing ninth deployment to a war zone.

• Tennessee legislature takes on the dangerous threat posed by raunchy bumper stickers.
• LAPD L.A. Sheriff’s Department to stop suspending cops who “have used excessive force, driven while intoxicated, falsely imprisoned people or committed other serious misconduct.” Instead, they’ll now get a stern warning.
• Speaking of L.A., the city will settle with the family of a teen shot and killed by an LAPD cop after video evidence shows the cop lied about the incident. It’s the second time video has contradicted his testimony. Yes, the cop is still on active duty.
• Really fantastic ProPublica investigation into how the criminal justice system handles the deaths of children. Answer: Not very well.

• Mayor says Detroit police chief won’t be disciplined for crime lab fiasco, which may have tainted evidence in thousands of cases.
• Italian seismologists charged with manslaughter for not predicting earthquake.
• Long but important post from Julian Sanchez on location tracking and the PATRIOT Act renewal.
• Public health fanatics take aim at hookah bars. The last quote in the article is especially rich.
• Miami police confiscate, destroy cell phones of people who recorded officer-involved shootings.
• Tennessee’s troubled history with medical examiners. At least they do care enough to investigate the bad ones, here.
• Thank God this monster is off the streets.

• Never leave your kid in the car, even for 30 seconds. Not because it’s dangerous, but because someone may call the cops on you.
• I blame gay marriage.
• “Patrol officers in some police agencies and the state highway patrol were evaluated and given pay increases, in part, according to how many traffic violations they issued to motorists. That can no longer be a basis for performance evaluation under the new law.” Rather unfortunate that this needs to be codified into law in the first place.
• The “bite-mark experts” fight back.
• The column itself is just inane. The police responses to it in the comments section are horrifying.
• Sheriff’s deputy resigns after shooting, killing a vicious chihuahua.

I’m flying back to D.C. this afternoon, so there will likely be no more blogging today. Please, do chat amongst yourselves.

• The Zoopreme Court.
• Medical marijuana shop inadvertently violates zoning ordinance. So naturally the city sent the SWAT team.
• More skepticism of Shaken Baby Syndrome convictions.
• Interesting post on a wrinkle and possible double standard with the onerous Illinois wiretapping law. I don’t have the law in front of me at the moment (I’m at the airport, WiFi is spotty), but I believe there’s an exception for people who reasonably believe they’re recording criminal activity. The problem of course is that if that you can’t use video to show you weren’t doing anything criminal. And if you record on-duty cops engaging in activity you think is criminal, you do so at risk of getting hit with a felony charge.
• Feds tell local school officials they should be monitoring their students on Facebook.
• DOJ investigation finds lots of problems with the New Orleans Police Department.
• Headline of the day.
• Nassau County, New York to pay for retesting in 3,000 drug cases possibly corrupted by faulty crime lab.
• Just a Friendly Reminder: Please Shut the Hell Up.

• Another isolated incident. And this time, a particularly inept one.
• Long and stabby things.
• I’ll be writing about this in my column on Monday, but here’s another study showing problems with the use of police dogs. My favorite bit is how the tests designed to fool the handlers were twice as likely to produce false alerts as the tests designed to fool the dogs.
• Father gets a $275 ticket for not wearing a helmet at a skateboard park. It apparently doesn’t matter that he wasn’t skateboarding.
• Man convicted of murder despite no body, no physical evidence of a crime, and no proof the alleged victim is actually dead.

• One of the victims of the Tucson shootings issues death threat to a Tea Party leader. I don’t really know what to make of this. Other than that it’s sad.
• Sorry your infant daughter lived only an hour after birth. But you owe the government a $50 “death tax”.
• Mississippi’s autopsy system: still a mess.
• Fox responsible for another shooting.
• Bring back the woolly mammoth!
• Maryland man says he was pepper sprayed, arrested after trying to videotape a police officer on public property.

• To hell with your standard poodle. It’s all about the Brooklyn Mutt Show.
• Cop’s dash video differs from police report in alleged police brutality case. Naturally, they fought like hell from releasing the video to the guy filing the civil rights suit.
• More fun with Barack Obama’s Facebook feed.
• Omaha trial of CSI investigator accused of tampering with evidence begins.
• IRS sends agents to harass car wash owner over a four-cent tax bill.