Brickbats: July 2025
News of politicians, police, and bureaucrats behaving badly from around the world.
Police in Miami suspended an officer pending an investigation into an incident in which she sat in her patrol car while numerous bikers assaulted a man in front of her. Video shows the bikers not only beating the man but jumping on the hood and roof of his car and breaking his windshield, while the officer never left her vehicle.
The Massachusetts Office of the Inspector General says the city of Everett wrongly paid Mayor Carlo DeMaria $180,000 in bonuses. The city enacted a rule in 2016 giving mayors $10,000 after each term, but a last-minute word change instead gave mayors $10,000 for each cumulative term. The change allowed DeMaria—then in his fourth term—to pocket $40,000 each year instead of $10,000 every four years. When the City Council found out in 2022, it slashed the payments and the inspector general demanded the money back. The council later passed an ordinance demanding DeMaria stop using city funds to fight the inspector general's recommendation.
New York's Northville Central School District fired 81-year-old high school basketball coach Jim Zullo after video showed him yanking his star player's ponytail. The incident happened after the Northville girls' team lost a state championship game. Hailey Monroe, Northville's all-time leading scorer, had already fouled out and was crying when Zullo grabbed her hair and yelled at her before a teammate stepped between them. Zullo claimed Monroe had cursed at him earlier.
Los Angeles lost $66 million on parking enforcement in the fiscal year ending June 2024. The city handed out 2 million parking tickets and collected $110 million in fines in that time, while spending $88 million on direct parking enforcement expenses such as salaries and equipment. But pensions and other expenses brought the total cost of parking enforcement to more than $176 million.
Salvador Garcia Jr. was riding his bike when a Sacramento County sheriff's deputy stopped him, suspecting him of breaking his ex-girlfriend's window earlier that day. The deputy ordered his dog to attack Garcia, who was bitten in the arm so badly that it tore muscles and tendons, requiring multiple surgeries and leaving permanent damage. According to a lawsuit, Garcia wasn't resisting and deputies let the dog continue biting even as they handcuffed him. County officials agreed to pay $755,000 to settle the lawsuit.
In 2023, after an investigation detailed decades of sexual abuse against children in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, lawmakers eliminated time limits on lawsuits against organizations for child sexual abuse. But the state now finds itself facing over 6,000 claims from people who say they were sexually abused in the state's youth detention centers. State leaders claim to have been blindsided by the complaints and say they are now looking at changes to protect the government financially.
The California Assembly Transportation Committee approved a bill requiring all children younger than 10 years old and shorter kids under 13 to sit on a booster seat. All children under 13, and teens up to 16 years old who don't meet a height requirement, would also be prohibited from sitting in the front seat. Currently, only children under 8 years old or 4 feet, 9 inches tall must use a booster seat.
Officials in Walton County, Florida, tried to fine Marvin Peavy more than $63,000 for hanging pro-Trump banners on his property along Scenic Highway 30A. The county said the banners violated property maintenance rules. After years of legal battles, a judge said the banners were protected free speech and ordered the county to pay Peavy $42,000 to cover his legal fees.
