Brickbats
Early one Sunday morning, drivers started calling the San Antonio police to report a Bexar County constable's car moving recklessly through traffic, with the emergency lights being turned on and off. The driver appeared to be drunk and seemed to be trying to pull people over. When the cops caught up to the car and stopped it, they found that the driver was Lt. Arthur MacCubbin and that he had three other men in the car with him. MacCubbin was charged with driving while intoxicated.
The British Performing Right Society has apologized to Sandra Burt, an assistant at a grocery store in Clackmannanshire. Burt sometimes sings while stocking shelves, and the group had threatened to have her prosecuted for not having a performance license.
Murfreesboro, Tennessee, teacher Angela M. Strube has been charged with stealing lunch money from her third-grade students.
The government of Riverside County, California, has paid Salvador Pina, a retired sheriff's deputy, $125,000 to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit. Pina claimed sheriff's deputies illegally beat and detained him at his home, even after former colleagues recognized him and a sheriff's technician told them they were at the wrong address. The incident was filmed by the TV show Cops, but producers told the court they had destroyed the footage.
The Watford Borough Council in England has barred parents from watching their children while they play at two adventure playgrounds run by the council. The only adults allowed in the playgrounds will be council staff members who have passed a criminal record check. All other adults, including parents, must stay outside the fence. Council members say the rule will protect children.
Ceara Sturgis, a lesbian, wants to wear a tuxedo in her high school yearbook senior photograph. She doesn't even own a dress. But school officials at Wesson Attendance Center in Jackson, Mississippi, say only boys can dress in tuxes.
In England the Dagenham Council has banned people from swimming the length of a council pool; they now must swim the width instead. Officials say the switch makes it easier for lifeguards to protect everyone.
In Dolton, Illinois, police officer Christopher Lloyd was caught on video throwing a special needs student into a locker, then slamming him to the ground, breaking his nose. Apparently the boy had violated the dress code by not having his shirt tucked in. While the authorities investigate that case, Lloyd has landed in some more trouble: He was arrested in Indiana for allegedly raping a woman. Last year the same cop shot his ex-wife's new husband 24 times outside their home, killing him. The Chicago police, for whom he worked at the time, called it self-defense.
City officials in Kensington, Maryland, have barred children older than 5 from Reinhardt Park between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. The move is aimed at preventing students at a nearby private school from using the park during recess.
Charles Oliver
