An excerpt

Every year the local alt-weekly does a sort of year-end wrap-up, where they briefly recap what they deem to have been some of the most significant stories of the year. It's nice, if only because the Santa Fe Reporter is the only vaguely worthwhile news publication in the state*.

Anyway. One of the year's top stories is the rather unsurprising news that law enforcement in northern New Mexico is, uh, challenged. They start with a brief recap of some late-breaking news in which the county sheriff admitted he'd been selling sheriff's department property on e-Bay in order to try to keep his house out of foreclosure. Then we get this: 

If Solano’s shenanigans were characterized by discreet cunning, former Santa Fe Police Officer David Smoker’s violent assault on a handcuffed teenager last January seemed to result from a total lapse in self-control. Smoker was caught on video beating 17-year-old Brendon Singer. 

Oof. Yeah, you defend yourself against that handcuffed kid. But wait - there's more! 

The Santa Fe Police Department terminated Smoker and Officer Robert Hollingsworth, and suspended Officer David Rael, because Hollingsworth and Rael failed to stop the attack. The incident reverberated in the March city mayoral election, when the video was made public; the city police union supported Mayor David Coss challenger Asenath Kepler. The union had opposed the terminations.

Nothing like a bit of groupthink. But, um, wait! There's more. 

Lt. Stephen Ryan, who conducted the internal investigation into the beating, was later put on paid administrative leave for a year and a half after being charged with driving under the influence. When his conviction was overturned in October, City Manager Robert Romero put him back in the internal investigations section, angering the Santa Fe Police Officers Association.

....Yes, the guy who was responsible for investigating alleged misconduct by other officers was then charged with drunk driving. And then put back into the same position. Did he get to investigate his own misconduct the first time around? 

Meanwhile, just down the road in Albuquerque, we have city police officers passing out drunk in their cars on the side of the interstate and getting sent home with a few stern words. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Land of Enchantment.

*A couple months ago our local daily newspaper ran a headline about an ex-con's ongoing attempts to avoid reincarnation, which was a bit baffling until you realized that they meant reincarceration, which may or may not be a word to begin with. No one was really surprised. 

NYC sees plane, freaks out

It took me forever to get through to the NYTimes website, because today EVERYONE IS INCREDIBLY STUPID.

The Department of Defense decided - I guess because they're being threatened with actually being required to stick to a remotely reasonable budget - decides they need some neat new photographs of their people doing their thing. They do so by taking a 747 and a fighter jet (or two?) out gallivanting above Manhattan. And by 'gallivanting above' I mean '150 feet above the ground'.

Okay, questionable use of government resources but not to stupid. But, um.

Local authorities were told not to disclose information about this morning's flyover, the New York City Police Department said in a statement.

"The flight of a VC-25 aircraft (the military version of the 747) and F-16 fighters this morning was authorized by the FAA for the vicinity of the Statue of Liberty with directives to local authorities not to disclose information about it but to direct any inquiries to the FAA Air Traffic Security Coordinator," police said.

...Brilliant idea! Way to prevent panic, because there's no conceivable way that a low-flying plane in New York City could possibly bring up some unpleasant memories of some other low-flying planes.

And so naturally, the population of the metro NY area decided that instead of watching and determining that the plane was not flying into buildings - intentionally or not - and going about their business, they evacuated buildings and, as far as I can gather, freaked the hell out.

Now, I'm not saying that a bit of freaking out was not justified. Low-flying planes in the region have a history of, at best, landing in the middle of a river, and at worst killing a very large number of people. Particularly if I'd been in Manhattan on September 11, 2001, and then I saw a similar plane flying similarly low in the same place, I'd be kind of startled.

I'd say that a more appropriate reaction would have been to call the police, preferably the non-emergency number, and ask what's up with that plane - if you see fighter jets next to it there's a chance someone knows what's going on - but on the other hand, the police apparently were instructed not to say anything, because...well, I'm sure that at some point there was some vaguely rational-seeming reason in someone's mind, but damned if I can find it.

Seriously, this is one of the stupidest damn things I've seen in a long while.

Attack dog

Today in the cafeteria I saw a Santa Fe police officer, with a police dog.

The dog was a Golden Retriever.

The Santa Fe Police Department has a Golden Retriever. If you were to ask me to pick one breed of full-size dog that is probably most useless in any conceivable police situation, it could well be a Golden.

And no, I have no idea why the cops were in the college cafeteria with their fierce attack Golden.

An unfair choice

About 400 members of the Rainbow Family threw rocks and sticks at 10 federal officers Thursday night as they tried to arrest one member of the group at its annual gathering in western Wyoming, the U.S. Forest Service reported.

So what do I like better: reading about rights-stomping full-of-themselves federal officers being harassed with thrown objects, or "l love the earth and all the people let's go get stoned and hug in our 'I wish I was born in 1950 so I could have been at Woodstock' pit in the woods and not bathe for two weeks!"-style 'Neo-hippies' getting smacked around for being intolerable idiots?

Quality logic

The TSA is going to give their screeners extra training.

Hawley said this new training will help screeners catch potential terrorists who may be conducting dry runs through airports.

“We have to assume that that is occurring,” Hawley said. “Our job is to pick up on the clue.”

Uh, what?

Wait, do you mean that based on the total lack of airline-based terroristic events in the past seven years, we have to assume that terrorists are doing 'dry runs', which would provide them with the extra opportunity to get caught?

Right.

Seriously, the myth of the 'dry run' pisses me the hell off. Let's look at it objectively:
*There has been one successful terrorist attack within the 'sterile zone' and one unsuccessful one in the past ten years.
*The successful attack was carried out using 'weapons' that were, at that time, permitted on domestic flights in the US. (Wiki cite) Based on what we know, there would have been no reason for security to stop them.
*The unsuccessful attack was thwarted in no part due to any security screening, but because a flight attendant noticed a passenger lighting matches and, uh, trying to set his shoe on fire. Again, this had nothing to do with airport security.
*No other attacks have been attempted. Yes, someone drove a flaming car into an airport, which again, has nothing to do with airport security and doesn't quite qualify as a concentrated terrorist attack. Yes, some people allegedly were going to blow up some planes, but all we really know is that the reports of that plot were hugely inflated.
*There has never been any terrorist caught doing a 'dry run'. There was this, which was allegedly a dry-run for Operation Bojinka (which, by the way, beat the 2006 'liquid bombers' by ten years). However, they actually detonated a bomb, so calling it a 'dry run' is kind of manipulative. It was a bombing. Also, it had nothing to do with United States airport security.

So...yes. Given all of the above, we obviously must assume that the eeeeevil terrorists are out there doing 'dry runs'. Because there's so much overwhelming evidence that they are.

In other words, the TSA can suck it.

How not to be remembered after death

Philly.com: "Camden cop shot, nude man dead."  

Bummer, dude.

Windy city indeed

The city of Chicago now considers things like looking at a map or taking notes suspect activity. (via BoingBoing).

If nothing else, that should do good for giving the cops "reason" to arrest tourists. Because people never use maps and cameras for benign reasons, not in a big city.

Paging Due Process...Due Process to Philadelphia, please

Ramsey said he and Nutter were in agreement on Nutter's crime-fighting strategy, including Nutter's promise to employ a controversial "stop, question and frisk" policy to target illegal weapons.

Though outgoing Commissioner Johnson has warned that Nutter's stop-and-frisk strategy could risk "disaster" by alienating the public, Ramsey said the aggressive tactic was a "valuable tool" as long as it was conducted within the law.

"You need reasonable suspicion in order to stop them," Ramsey said in an interview the day his selection was announced. "There's a way in which you interact with people - you don't want to alienate folks by being rude and abusive. Usually when people get stopped by policemen, what they complain about is not the initial stop, they complain about they way they were treated and disrespected by the police officers." (link)

No, what makes people feel alienated is the arbitrary revocation of their constitutional rights, dumbass.

As much as I wish it were, owning a gun is not illegal. Therefore, even if Officer Joe Incompetent, star of the Philadelphia Police, sees someone who he thinks is carrying a gun, there's no probable cause to stop them. If Officer Joe sees someone who he thinks is carrying a gun, and matches the description of someone who was recently involved in a shooting, then sure, stop him. But unless there's that probable cause, the police have absolutely no right to stop you.

Some damn fine detective work

Someone calls the police and says that they have found a skull. They think it may be real because it's a neighborhood with a lot of crime*.

The police come, rope the "crime scene" off, and...send a picture of the skull to some UNM anthropologists, presumably in Albuquerque. Note that there apparently is no one on the Santa Fe police who can differentiate between a real skull and a child-sized plastic toy.

Apparently, the ability to make a distinction is also a rare talent at UNM, where two people first confirmed it was real before realizing that, you know, it was fake, made of plastic, and anatomically incorrect.

This took 3 1/2 hours, during which I'm sure the Santa Fe police could have been out doing actual police work, such as enforcing traffic laws, arresting drunk drivers, and perhaps ensuring the safety of the local Dunkin Donuts. Instead our tax money paid for three hours of investigating a plastic decoration.

I want my money back.

*Not that while Santa Fe has some not-great areas, the crime rate is probably below average for a town this size. When half your population is old retired wannabe artists who do nothing but paint lousy nature scenes, you're pretty safe. There were an astounding 9 homicides in 2003, with a population of over 65,000.

The cutest police officer I've ever seen

The British Transportation Police at King's Cross have adopted a cat in order to deal with the mouse problem.

(the cat's the cute one, obviously).

Phoenix's finest, now murdering more dogs!

I grant that I'm naturally inclined to view using police dogs as slightly inhumane to begin with. It's inhumane to the dogs to put them at that risk, and it's inhumane to whoever Officer Jackboots decides needs to be taken down. I'm not a huge fan, but I do admit that there are some legitimate uses (bomb detection, mostly, and rescue efforts).

And whenever a police dog dies, there's inevitably some human interest feature in the local paper about how Buddy or Dingo was such a great member of the police force, and the handler cries. There's a whole big PR show from the police department about how well-treated and loved these dogs are and such, right?

Right.

Because obviously you show your love and respect to a dedicated, well-trained animal by leaving it locked in a car for TWELVE HOURS in the Phoenix heat.

“I am certain Sgt. Lovejoy has suffered greatly from leaving his police dog in a sweltering car,” Sheriff Joe Arpaio said in a statement. “I do not relish the idea of compounding his sadness. However, Lovejoy must be treated like anyone else in similar circumstances.”

Oh, like hell the officer - who could have, you know, not locked his dog in a car - suffered. The dog suffered.

Who here is willing to bet that Officer Lovejoy will get, at absolute most, a mild scolding? Anyone else would be charged with a felony. If this guy doesn't at least get hit with every penalty in the code it's a serious injustice; I personally think he should lose his badge, permanently. ("Oh, you directly and intentionally caused a dog a slow, painful death? Sure, keep your gun and your de facto right to do whatever the hell you want in the name of 'public safety'!")

Bonus quote from the Animal Defense League of Arizona:

If an animal's life is in immediate danger, call 911*
If not a life-threatening emergency, click here for info on reporting cruelty and neglect.
*It may be necessary to remind the 911 representative that Arizona law mandates that police enforce the state's animal cruelty statutes.

*sigh*.