Free police or traffic hazards?

Free police or traffic hazards?

Crime LawEnforcement

Here is an amusing story about an 11-year-old junior cop who has drivers hitting the brakes.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Police can't be everywhere, so 11-year-old Landon Wilburn is on patrol in the Stone Lakes subdivision in Louisville. Landon told The Courier-Journal he used to shout at speeders to slow down — then had a better idea.

Dressed in a reflective vest, wearing a bicycle helmet and armed with a Hot Wheels brand radar gun, he points and records the speed of passing traffic.

The boy also carries a flashlight with a built-in siren.

Subdivision resident George Ayers said he has seen drivers lock up their brakes when they saw Landon clocking them. . . . .

Law enforcement in Liberal Chicago: convictions at any cost

Law enforcement in Liberal Chicago: convictions at any cost

LawEnforcement

This story from CBS is very shocking. The title of the report says it all: "Police Report Lies Were Encouraged."

Indicted Chicago police officer Keith Herrera says his superiors knew and encouraged him to lie on reports so questionable arrests would stand up in court.

In his first interview, Herrera, who also admits to stealing money, takes Katie Couric inside the Special Operations Section, an elite group of officers, some of whom he says profited during their quest to take criminals off the streets in one of the city’s largest police scandals.

The report will be broadcast on 60 Minutes this Sunday, June 1, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Herrera and six fellow SOS members were charged with crimes including armed robbery and aggravated kidnapping - many against suspected drug dealers. They have all pled not guilty. They are also accused of routinely lying on police reports. "Creative writing was a certain term that bosses used to make sure that the job got done," he says. His bosses, says Herrera, wanted the cases to stick in court. "I didn’t just pick up a pen and just learn how to [lie on reports]. Bosses, guys that I work with who were older than I was…It’s taught to you," he tells Couric.

The SOS mission was to get drugs and guns off the street, he says, "at any cost."

Getting the job done often entailed breaking the rules, says Herrera. He describes to Couric a hypothetical scenario where to make a case stick against a gunman who tossed his weapon, a cop would lie in the police report and say that the gun never left the man’s hand. "Do you want that guy…that just shot somebody to not go to jail because he threw the gun? Or do you want him to go to jail because he never let the gun out of his hand?" asks Herrera. "I know what I’ve got to do."

Next time don't raise Japanese Maples

Next time don't raise Japanese Maples

LawEnforcement

A friend of mine, Dan Ingberman, writes me about what appears to be a particularly egregious law-enforcement case. Dan summarizes it well:

Short version: cops invaded this guy's house with a SWAT team based on an informant. Turns out the informant had burgled the guy's house a few days before. Informant told cops guy was growing pot in his detached garage. Actually he was growing japanese maples. For some reason cops thought they'd kick down his front door. He didn't know they were cops and fired. Guy may have been scared due to recent burglary. They are charging him with first degree murder.
No marijuana charges.

Mark Levin on Senator Larry Craig Resigning

Mark Levin on Senator Larry Craig Resigning

LawEnforcement SenatorLarryCraig

So, Larry Craig is gone. He solicited sex without actually soliciting sex or having sex. He pled guilty, but not to lewd behavior — to disorderly conduct (a misdemeanor). He is said to have a secret life involving same sex partners, but where are all these partners? According to one report, a guy in college believes Craig hit on him in 1967. Another says he “believes” he performed oral sex on the senator in a restroom at Union Station. He’s not 100-percent sure. If Craig has been living this secret life since 1967, you’d think others would come forward at some point. Maybe they will. So far, they haven’t. Indeed, where is all the evidence of Craig’s seedy life? Where are the photos, the video, the audio, the solid witnesses, and the rest of the evidence? And if the case against Craig in that airport restroom was so compelling, if it was so sleazy, if authorities wanted to send a message to others, why didn’t prosecutors take Craig to trial? Why let him go with a disorderly conduct misdemeanor? Were they doing him a favor? I don’t think so. They conducted a sting operation without any sting. Let me suggest not only couldn’t they make a gross misdemeanor charge stick, they would have lost the disorderly conduct charge, too. Read the statute. But the law is an ass, as they say. This is an issue of morality. . . .

I think that Mark is right on. As I noted last Thursday, The biggest problem that I have is that sexual relations in a restroom should be punished. I don't think that simple foot tapping or even having one's shoe briefly touch another person's shoe should be a criminal offense.