Brickbat: Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Former Hialeah, Florida, police officer Rafael Otano has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison after being convicted of kidnapping a homeless man who was considered a nuisance by shop owners at a local strip mall. Prosecutors said that after a shopkeeper called police last year to complain about the man, Otano and another officer drove the vagrant to a wooded area outside of city limits that is a popular dumping site, beat him, and left him there. An off-duty Miami-Dade police officer later saw the man and called for help. The trial date for the other officer charged in the kidnapping has not yet been set.