Brickbats
Parents of some students at California's Albert Einstein Middle School are upset that Sacramento County sheriff's detectives pulled their children out of class, interviewed them, and took DNA samples without parental permission as part of a murder investigation.
The state of Nevada and the city of Henderson have agreed to pay a total of $292,500 to Adam Greene and his wife to settle a lawsuit the couple brought after police officers and state troopers beat him during a traffic stop. Officers pulled Greene over when they saw him weaving. They thought he was drunk, but he was actually suffering a diabetic shock. Dashboard cameras taped the officers as they repeatedly kicked the unresponsive Greene while shouting at him to stop resisting.
In an effort to lobby against laws allowing citizens to openly carry firearms, an Orange County, Florida, sheriff's captain sent out photos of eight individuals he claimed were outlaw bikers who had concealed carry permits. That violated a state law against identifying those with concealed carry permits as well as a law barring the release of driver's license photos. The sheriff's department cleared the captain of any wrongdoing, saying he hadn't realized the photos were driver's license photos or that it was against the law to release information about people with weapon permits.
Juliet Pries wanted to open an ice cream store in San Francisco's Cole Valley neighborhood. She eventually succeeded. But Pries said it took her two years and tens of thousands of dollars just to get all of the permits and complete the paperwork required by the various bureaucracies she had to deal with.
Louie Castro received a less-than-honorable discharge from the U.S. Army back in 2002. What he didn't realize was that the thick file of papers he got from the Army when he left didn't contain a DD-214, an official release from active duty. He found that out almost a decade later when returning from a trip to Europe. When he went through Miami International Airport in January, computers flagged him as AWOL. He spent 12 days in jail before the Army agreed to release him. But officials still wanted him to fly to Fort Carson in Colorado to officially process him out of the Army. After local media outlets picked up the story, the Army decided it didn't need Castro in Colorado to complete the paperwork.
Victoria Baca called the New Mexico State Police to report that she had been victimized by an Internet scam. Officials told her they couldn't immediately send an officer, so she asked them to call before coming. Instead an officer came by without calling while Baca and her family were gone. The officer jumped a fence with a "Beware of Dog" sign and shot and killed one of the family's dogs. State police officials say the officer was acting in self-defense and no action will be taken against him
Charles Oliver