Brickbats

Edin Mehic received a 70-euro fine after burping near a police officer in a public amusement park in Vienna, Austria. The officer said the burp violated public decency.

On one single day, Tennessee Circuit Judge John McAfee overturned three rulings by General Sessions Judge Amanda Sammons that had removed a total of four children from their homes over the objections of the Department of Children's Services. The agency told Sammons not only that it did not wish to remove the children from their homes but also that it saw no legal grounds to do so. McAfee says he routinely has to issue emergency stays of Sammons' removal orders.

Officials in West Chester Township, Ohio, conceded that Melissa Warren and Eric Adams did everything by the book when they issued them a zoning permit and license to operate a swingers club. But after the two invested considerable money in the project, the township rescinded their license and permit and banned such businesses.

In order to host a Beach Volleyball World Tour tournament, the Iranian government promised the sport's organizing body that it would allow women to attend. But when the event began, women were turned away at the gate.

In Menifee, California, officials at Ethan A. Chase Middle School encouraged students to dress up as Disney characters for a school spirit day. But when Austin Lacey, 13, showed up dressed as Elsa from Frozen, the principal ordered him to take off the costume. Superintendent Julie Vitale claims the action was taken to prevent disruption.

Officials at the Wildern School in England called the cops after they found a 15-year-old student had looked at the website of the anti–European Union U.K. Independence Party and watched an English Defense League video at school.

Dutch police detained Edwin Wagensveld, of the anti-immigrant group PEGIDA, for "provocative behavior." He had put on a hat shaped like a pig's head after cops ordered another protestor to take it off.

Former Alabama state trooper Samuel McHenry II has been sentenced to six months in jail for sexual misconduct. After responding to a report of a car accident, McHenry handcuffed a woman involved, put her in the back seat of his car, and told her if she didn't have sex with him he would arrest her. After she complied, the trooper dropped her off outside a closed store.

A production of the satirical musical The Producers caused some controversy at New York's Tappan Zee High School, resulting in the removal of some banners with Nazi insignia on them. "There is no context in a public high school where a swastika is appropriate," said South Orangetown Superintendent Bob Pritchard.

University of Wisconsin–Whitewater Chancellor Beverly Kopper sent out a campus-wide email condemning a "disturbing racist post" by two students that was "hurtful and destructive to our campus community." Kopper believed the two had shared a photo of themselves in blackface. In fact, they were wearing exfoliation masks.

Charles Oliver