Brickbats
While investigating a possible domestic dispute, a DeKalb County, Georgia, police officer shot and killed a family's dog. He claimed the 2-year-old German shepherd, which was chained, lunged at him. Homeowner Anthony Currie, who ran out when he heard the shot, says the officer pointed his gun at him and threatened to "blow your brains out." It turns out the officer, who was not named by local news outlets, had the wrong house. Officials say he faces no disciplinary action.
The company that runs the Marlborough Airport in Massachusetts has sued the federal government after it refused to pay for $676,048 in damages caused when President Barack Obama landed there in 2010.
A woman who was not named in news accounts has sued the Las Cruces, New Mexico, police department for $1,222, the amount she was charged by a local hospital for a forcible body cavity search ordered by the police. The search found no drugs.
When Ginger Strivelli's 12-year-old son came home from school with a Gideon Bible, she called the Weaverville, North Carolina, school he attended to ask whether that violated the Constitution. The principal assured her it didn't because the school distributes books donated by any religious group. So she showed up with some pagan books, and the school turned her away. Now the Buncombe County Board of Education says it will re-evaluate its policy on religious texts.
Just weeks after Kelie Barnes testified against the Tulsa Police Department in a corruption trial, five Tulsa police officers arrested her on several misdemeanor traffic citations dating back to 2007. One of the officers accidentally fired his weapon during the arrest.
Georgia State Trooper Donald Crozier was involved in a collision that left one woman dead. Authorities are still investigating that accident, but Atlanta news outlets reported that Crozier has a lengthy record of on-duty traffic accidents. Since he joined the State Patrol in 2002, he has been involved in 20 accidents; internal reviews found that seven of them were his fault.
Officials in Gilbert, Arizona, have paid $37,500 to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of Kelly Shea. In 2008, when Shea was a student at Gilbert High School, a police officer pulled her out of class and accused her of stealing an iPod. The officer then searched her backpack without permission. When Shea began to cry, the officer finally told her it was all part of an experiment designed by one of the teachers to see if boys and girls react differently to false accusations.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has posted a letter on its website warning employers that requiring a high school diploma for workers may violate the federal Americans with Disabilities Act by discriminating against applicants with learning disabilities.
Charles Oliver
