Brickbats
English taxi driver Tony Kemp says he lost business and his reputation was damaged after the North Yorkshire County Council banned him from taking students to school because of an allegation made against him. Someone had reported him hugging and kissing two girls outside a local school. The girls were his daughters.
Jackson, Mississippi, City Council member Kenneth Stokes is calling for an investigation of a local gun dealer who posted a sign saying that people who vote for Stokes or Barack Obama are too stupid to own a gun. "If this gun dealer feels that it's legal for him to display negative images of the president of the United States, keep in mind that he must have some kind of license," Stokes said. "We're asking the attorney general of the United States to do an investigation and let's see whether the rules and regulations have been violated."
Police in Stockholm, Sweden, have been ordered not to include race, ethnicity, nationality, skin color, or height in any descriptions of criminal suspects they release to the public. Officials say they don't want to appear to be racist.
Danish police say they will likely charge a 17-year-old girl who used pepper spray to fend off a man who knocked her to the ground and tried to remove her clothes. It is illegal to possess or use pepper spray in Denmark.
Robert Weide, a sociologist at the Los Angeles branch of California State University, doesn't think much of that school's chapter of Young Americans for Freedom. After the group announced it would host a speech by the conservative author Ben Shapiro on "When Diversity Becomes a Problem," Weide posted on the group's Facebook page, comparing them to white supremacists and saying the event would need police protection. When other commenters pushed back, he challenged them to a wrestling match but warned, "I lift bro."
A British court has ordered a York man acquitted of rape to alert police 24 hours in advance each time he plans to have sex with a woman. The man must provide the woman's name, address, and date of birth.
The Monticello, Utah, City Council has fired Police Chief Kent Adair after his department refused to answer a 911 call about one of its officers. The estranged wife of Sgt. Cole Young called 911 to report he'd broken into her house and assaulted a man there. But when the dispatcher tried to get an officer to respond, they all declined. When the dispatcher called Adair about the issue, the two were recorded laughing about the matter. A San Juan County sheriff's deputy eventually answered the call, and Young has since been charged with felony burglary and misdemeanor assault.
Charles Oliver
This article originally appeared in print under the headline "Brickbats."
