There’s a rather interesting article in today’s NYT about an incident in the town of Massapequa Park, which has a high concentration of active duty and retired police officers in its population.
Basically, the police got a call about a man threatening people with knives.
In short order, more than a dozen police officers — even that count is murky — converged that Saturday evening in Massapequa Park on one house, making for an overpopulated scene that was difficult to control, with officers who did not know one another, their guns out.
By the time things were over, the guy with the knives had been shot dead. And an officer with the transit police shot and killed a plainclothes Nassau County police officer.
Also in the NYT, the Miami PD has shot and killed seven people in eight months. All seven were black. All of the officers involved were Hispanic. Some folks have a problem with this.
Community leaders also expressed outrage that a 12-year veteran of the city’s gang unit, Ricardo Martinez, shot and killed two men within nine days last August. Officer Martinez returned to his job six days after fatally shooting one man, then shot and killed another three days later. Before the shootings, he was under investigation for allegedly selling seized phones.
Not from the NYT: the Fort Worth city council approved a $400,000 settlement with Chad Gibson.
You may not remember Mr. Gibson’s name, but the case got a fair amount of attention at the time. In brief, Fort Worth PD and TABC investigators decided to “inspect” the Rainbow Lounge, which is described as a “gay bar”. Somehow, during the process of “inspection”, Mr. Gibson received a serious head injury.
The bar inspection by Fort Worth police and commission agents sparked protests and complaints of police brutality. But investigations by police and the commission concluded that no excessive force was used. An agent had said that Gibson fell and hit his head while handcuffed outside the club.
Still, the commission fired two agents and their supervisor, citing policy violations, and Fort Worth Police Chief Jeff Halstead gave three officers one- to three-day suspensions.
Edited to add: Okay, I’ll throw this one in, too, since the previous three links were kind of negative. Ten bicyclists riding in Central Park were ticketed on Tuesday morning for exceeding the speed limit. (The cyclists were doing 25 MPH at a time when cars are not allowed on the roads. The posted speed limit for cars is 25 MPH, but bicycles are subject to a lower 15 MPH speed limit.)
The punchline? The police have withdrawn all the tickets and are apologizing in person to city residents.
Edited to add 2: Oh, this is just awesome. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (yes, that’s Joe Arpaio’s outfit) raided a guy’s home and arrested him…for cockfighting.
But that’s not the best part of the story. Would you believe MCSO used a tank in the raid?
But that’s not the best part of the story, either. Would you believe Steven Seagal was along for the raid?
[Robert] Campus [attorney for the guy who was arrested -DB] said he believes the entire scene was basically a stage, to help actor Steven Seagal’s TV show, “Lawman.”
That’s interesting. My understanding was that Seagal was a reserve deputy with the Jefferson Parish sheriff’s department in Louisiana, and “Lawman” was supposed to portray his work with that department. I’m a little unclear as to whether Seagal is still a reserve deputy, since there was some controversy (and the show was suspended for a time) over the lawsuit against Seagal. (That lawsuit has been dropped.) I know “Lawman” has picked up again, but is it not set in Jefferson Parish now? Is Seagal traveling around the country from department to department? Or did he pick up another gig with MCSO? Anybody know? Is anybody willing to admit in public that they watch “Lawman”?
(I’ll confess: Mike the Musicologist recorded a few episodes for me, and a group of us watched the first one. That’s as far as I’ve gone; I haven’t seen any of the second season.)
(Hattip: Say Uncle.)