Brickbats: November 2021
News of politicians, police, and bureaucrats behaving badly…
A family has sued Kentucky's Jefferson County Public Schools after their then-6-year-old daughter was dragged 1,147 feet by a school bus in 2015. The girl's backpack got caught in the door as she stepped off. The driver did not watch to make sure she safely exited as required by the driver's training and realized the problem only after a nearby car's driver started honking its horn.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said the country will open its borders again and end lockdowns when 80 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. As of August, just 18 percent of the population had been fully vaccinated against the virus, one of the lowest vaccination rates among developed nations. In the meantime, the country has sent soldiers to Sydney to enforce the lockdown.
Bacon and other pork products could become hard to find in California starting in 2022. That's when state regulators begin enforcing an animal welfare law approved by voters in 2018. The law requires specific amounts of space for pigs, egg-laying hens, and veal calves. Egg and veal producers say they should be able to meet the requirements, but only 4 percent of pig farmers nationwide currently provide the mandated space. Farms that don't meet those standards won't be allowed to sell pork in California.
China's Ministry of Culture is banning some songs from karaoke bars. In a statement on its website, the agency said karaoke bars must remove any songs that "endanger national unity, sovereignty or territorial integrity, or harm national security, honor or interests" or "incite ethnic hatred." The statement said only "healthy" songs that "promote positive energy" should be performed.
In Cape Town, South Africa, two police officers have been charged with kidnapping, obstructing justice, and fraud. The two reportedly grabbed a man off the street to replace a man arrested for theft who had escaped their custody.
Officials in Gold Coast, Australia, have fined a woman 1,300 Australian dollars ($960) for violating her hotel quarantine by having cigarettes delivered to the balcony of her room by a drone. The operator of the drone may also be fined for violating safe flying rules.
French judicial authorities have fired Olivier Bailly, vice president of the family law court in Dijon, after he admitted to uploading a photo of his 12-year-old daughter on a swingers website and offering her for sex. Bailly and his wife, who is also a judge, are swingers. Bailly claimed he has been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder for more than a decade from the trial of a rapist and serial killer in which he acted as prosecutor. He claims he never planned to follow through on arranging the sexual abuse of his daughter. He faces criminal charges of corrupting a minor and provoking pedophile crime and could get up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Former Miccosukee, Florida, police officer Michael Martinez has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of two counts of extortion and two counts of unlawful compensation. In 2016, Martinez stopped Kyle Shoulta and Remy Riley, both then 18, after Shoulta ran a red light. The pair had alcohol and marijuana in their car, but Martinez didn't arrest them. Instead, he told them to follow him to a secluded area and ordered them to take off all their clothes and run around.