Weekly Daily Brickbats Archive 2009 December 8-31

When a man broke into the house of Tony and Lesley Arambula in Phoenix, Arizona, Tony got his gun and captured the man. Then they called the cops. That was a bad move. When the police arrived, Lesley Arambula went outside and told Sgt. Sean Coutts that her husband was holding the intruder at gunpoint inside. Coutts failed to pass on that information to the officers who actually went into the house. Officer Sean Lilly shot Arambula six times in the back. The Phoenix police department cleared Lilly of any wrongdoing. The Arambulas are suing the officers, the police department, and the city of Phoenix.

In England, the Southend Council has fined shopkeeper Mark Howard £180 for not producing any garbage. Howard says he recycles all the cardboard boxes his bicycles come in by using them when he sells second-hand bikes or using them at home as bedding for chickens.

Chicago police have charged Samantha Tumpach with felony copying of a movie. Tumpach taped part of a surprise birthday party for her sister at the Muvico Theater and captured about less than four minutes of the film Twilight: New Moon. She faces up to three years in prison if convicted of the charge.

Randolph Forde, who teaches at Mundy's Mill High School in Georgia, has been charged with making terroristic threats against a student. Forde allegedly threatened to hit the 16-year-old boy and later reportedly offered to pay another student to kill him.

Students at Stevenson High School in Illinois say that not only did school administrators force them to remove articles from the school newspaper dealing with smoking, drinking, and teen pregnancy, they forced the kids to write other articles or get a failing grade. Student staff members of the newspaper say they were given just two hours to write and put together a new issue of the paper.