Monthly Archives: September 2013

Mahoning County sheriff’s deputy sentenced for drunk driving

"A Mahoning County sheriff's deputy is sentenced after being convicted of drunk driving. A judge in county court on Tuesday found 53-year old Kenneth O'Rourke of Canfield guilty of operating a vehicle under the influence. O'Rourke was fined $500 and placed on probation for five years. O'Rourke, a six-year veteran of the department, was arrested in May at Raccoon and Mellinger Roads in Canfield after his car hit an unoccupied vehicle. O'Rourke was off duty at the time. His blood alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit. At the time, Sheriff Jerry Greene placed O'Rourke on paid administrative leave." Continue reading →

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Police in Peel Region using city buses to nab distracted drivers

"Did you hear Peel Regional Police officers are sitting on Mississauga buses and spying on would-be distracted drivers in cars below? Sound like something out of East Berlin when they were behind the wall. But it’s true. Be warned, if you are talking or texting while driving in Mississauga look up and smile if you notice a MiWay bus driving by you. Or quickly hide that smartphone, iPad, burrito, coffee or burger. But if you are soon pulled over by Peel copper and get a ticket you will know it was too late. Gotchya. Big Brother at work with a little help from public transit." Continue reading →

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Charges reduced for officer who ran over teens while fiddling with phone

"Felony hit-and-run charges against fired Manchester police sergeant Stephen Coco have been reduced to misdemeanors, charges that would allow the 17-year police veteran to avoid a state prison sentence in the high-profile case. Last Thursday, the special prosecutor in the case filed Class A misdemeanor charges of vehicular assault against Coco, claiming he was fiddling with a cell phone last March when he hit two Bedford teenagers outside their Harrod Lane homes. He was driving an unmarked Manchester police vehicle at the time." Continue reading →

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Aide To Mentally Handicapped Man Murdered By Police Speaks Out

"It happened after three deputies removed him from a Frederick movie theater for not having a $12 ticket. Ethan's aide who was with him that night shared her story only with WUSA9's, Debra Alfarone. She says when she heard that Ethan had died, 'I just started crying.' She says she's done so many more times since that fateful January night. She asked that we not identify her, nor show her face on camera. She is 18, and was Ethan Saylor's aide for the last 3 months of his life. Now, hers will never be the same. Today, she joined the Saylor family as they delivered 340,000 signatures to Governor Martin O'Malley, asking for an independent investigation into his death," Continue reading →

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Cop Beaten Up on Camera While Bystanders Watch; No One Calls 911

"When a Philadelphia transit officer attempted to detain a ticket-scam suspect near a train station platform last week, surveillance video records the suspect turning on the cop and wrestling him to the ground, pinning him between a glass barrier and a bench. But the video also shows a crowd of at least seven transit customers observing the fight, including one who pulled out her phone to record the incident. Notably a similar incident happened at the same train station last week, WTXF reported. And again video captured two plain-clothes officers getting beaten up in front of a much larger crowd at Cecil B. Moore station in north Philadelphia." Continue reading →

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“For Their Own Protection”: Children in Long-Term Solitary Confinement

"Solitary confinement was once a punishment reserved for the most-hardened, incorrigible criminals. Today, it is standard practice for tens of thousands of juveniles in prisons and jails across America. Far from being limited to the most violent offenders, solitary confinement is now used against perpetrators of minor crimes and children who are forced to await their trials in total isolation. Often, these stays are prolonged, lasting months or even years at a time. How can a practice be both widespread and hidden? State and federal governments have two effective ways to prevent the public from knowing how deep the problem goes." Continue reading →

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Police change story after video shows breaking student’s leg over ticket

"A group of police officers who allegedly broke the leg of an arts student and told her 'we don't care if it's legal' have been allowed to change their defence at the eleventh hour after CCTV footage of the assault emerged. Rachel Gardner is suing the NSW police force claiming she was kicked, sat on, handcuffed, pushed against a fence, loaded into a paddy wagon and then dumped at a nearby train station without charge after being caught without a train ticket on March 13, 2011. Police initially denied the kick occurred but sought to amend their defence in the Sydney District Court on Monday, minutes before the beginning of a five-day trial." Continue reading →

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Are Government Schools a Form of Child Abuse?

"Two seventh-grade students in Virginia Beach, Va., were handed long-term suspensions Tuesday that will last until the end of the school year for playing with an airsoft gun in one of their front yards while waiting for the school bus. WAVY-TV reports that 13-year-old Khalid Caraballo and Aidan Clark will face an additional hearing in January to determine if they will be expelled for 'possession, handling and use of a firearm' because the guns were fired at two others playing in Caraballo’s yard. The school’s so-called 'zero-tolerance' policy on guns extends to private property, according to the report." Continue reading →

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Making the Victim Pay for the Bullet

"A few months after being assaulted by police in an entirely unjustified raid, Mrs. Injeyan filed a $290,000 damage claim with the City of Laguna Beach – an impressively modest amount, given the expenses incurred to the victim as a result of grotesque police overkill. After that claim was rejected, Marilyn filed a federal lawsuit. The City responded with a motion for summary judgment on the basis of the spurious and all-sufficient doctrine of 'qualified immunity.' Judge O’Connell added another layer of vindictive privilege to this familiar ritual by ordering the elderly, impoverished victim of police abuse to pay the legal costs incurred by the government whose agent had assaulted her." Continue reading →

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Facebook Must Face Gambit Suit Over Social Game Currency

"Facebook Inc. (FB), owner of the world’s most popular social network, must face a lawsuit that accuses the company of breaking antitrust laws in the virtual-currency market. Kickflip Inc., which does business as Gambit, sued in October 2012, saying Facebook destroyed competition for virtual currency services and payment processing when it began offering services of its own in 2009. Facebook sought to get the suit dismissed, arguing that Kickflip failed to allege an injury. U.S. District Judge Leonard Stark in Wilmington, Delaware, today rejected that request." Continue reading →

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