Brickbats: August/September 2025
News of politicians, police, and bureaucrats behaving badly from around the world
The California Assembly Transportation Committee voted to advance Assembly Bill 435, which would require all children under age 10 and shorter kids under 13 to sit on a booster seat. Teens up to 16 years old would also be banned from the front seat altogether unless they meet the height requirements. Currently, children at least 8 years old or 4 feet, 9 inches tall do not have to use a booster.
A Canadian man was sentenced to life in prison in Dubai for possession of cannabis and CBD products. Kevin O'Rourke was traveling to South Africa through Dubai International Airport when he was stopped and searched. Authorities found 118 grams of cannabis and CBD, which O'Rourke's wife says he uses to treat the chronic pain from Addison's disease, a rare and life-threatening condition. His life sentence was overturned in February, and he was allowed to return home after eight months in detention.
Over 61 years, David O'Connor had driver's licenses in four states, including a commercial license for work as a truck driver. But when he went to get a REAL ID, Tennessee Driver Services Center officials not only refused to issue one but also revoked his driver's license, citing a state law prohibiting licenses for noncitizens. O'Connor, a Navy veteran, has been a citizen since birth, but he was born in Canada, where his parents temporarily lived at the time. When Tennessee officials saw his birth certificate, they assumed he was Canadian and refused to believe otherwise.
Italian aviation officials blocked a British Airways flight from leaving Milan for London after a surprise inspection found some seat cushions were too wide and thick. Cushions on exit rows are supposed to be smaller to create more room in case of an evacuation. To fix the problem, the air crew called out serial numbers for the correct seats and had passengers check their cushions to see if any matched those numbers. They were able to locate enough cushions to swap out for the exit rows, and the flight departed after a delay of an hour.
From October through December 2024, South Fulton, Georgia, Mayor Khalid Kamau made $26,000 in unauthorized purchases on his city-issued credit card. That spending included more than $5,000 in plane tickets, including a 20-day trip to Ghana. Kamau defended the trip, saying it was part of his economic development plan for the city.
A federal judge awarded $1.5 million to a family whose children were wrongly detained at the border in March 2019. The family lives in Mexico, but the children, who are U.S. citizens, attend school in the United States. When the children attempted to cross the border as they regularly do, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents detained them and interrogated one—a then-9-year-old girl—because they believed the picture on her passport was not of her. The judge ruled that CBP violated its own policy both by having a single agent interrogate her and by not recording it. In all, agents held the girl for 34 hours and only let the children go when their mother began giving interviews to the media.
Lino Monteleone of Montreal received a $186 Canadian ($133 U.S.) parking ticket after a bus stop sign was installed overnight in front of his house, replacing a legal spot where his daughter's car was parked. On April 1, 2025, Monteleone's doorbell camera showed city workers setting up the sign just before 8 a.m. A parking agent issued a ticket just minutes later at 8:05 a.m. Montreal's public transport agency said the sign was added due to nearby construction and that it doesn't notify residents about new bus stops because there are 10,000 in the city.