Good Deed of the Day

I am not really that interested in the underlying story about Orlando police chief Val Demings (the examples of screw-ups are pretty mild as police malfeasance go). But Demmings has gone the extra mile of threatening to sue a blogger who is critical of her. My general policy in such a case is to give the blogger lots of free links. Nothing better limits this kind of stupid attempts at censorship than having them backfire into national attention. The money quote comes from Demings attorney, who says, “Truth is not always a defense.”

-Coyote Blog

I can't say I think that's a bad policy. I'll be spreading it around.

It's interesting how often off-duty cops choose to play temper-tantrum traffic duty in their personal vehicles.

No doubt about it. Larissa Larivee was scared.

Larivee, 20, who works as a nanny for a Mankato family, dropped off the kids at Bridges Community School Feb. 10 and hurried off down the road on her way to campus.

But she blew through that first stop sign and ended up cutting off a guy in a black pickup. She hurried through the next one, too. And when she looked in her rear-view mirror, there was the black pickup, and the driver didn't look happy.

He followed her, she said, honking his horn and waving his arms, trying to get her to pull over.

"I thought this was like a road rage thing," the Minnesota State University student said. "I didn't know what he wanted and I just wanted to get away."

She zoomed up toward campus and pulled into her driveway on Floral Avenue. The black pickup pulled in right behind her, and the driver got out and approached her. "I felt trapped," she said.

The closer he got, the more frightened she became. And it wasn't until he was a few feet away that she learned the driver of the pickup was Blue Earth County Sheriff's Deputy Joshua Steinbach — who was off duty and driving his personal vehicle.

And the bastards always manage to get off.

Larivee's mistake was in going home. NEVER go home if you know you are being followed. If you think you are being followed, drive around the block and see if that car is still following you. Be safe.

Corruption, Part 2

Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher* can keep a secret.

He kept a $300,000 probe of groups planning to agitate the Republican National Convention secret from the people whose permission he needed to spend the money, it was revealed Tuesday.

Funny, isn't that theft. Of course, his reaction is priceless:

Fletcher said he was glad he kept it secret. "We chose not to have the (St. Paul) city attorney aware of what we were doing," Fletcher said. "Look at what happened after: You had one City Council member vocal in his opposition to what we did. I don't want him knowing."

Translated: "I broke the law by not telling my bosses what I was doing, because they wouldn't have let me have my way. I am special and you can go to hell."

*This is, of course, the same Sheriff Fletcher who has a stack of extra-legal requirements for issuing carry permits, because he feels the rules don't apply to him. His was also the subject of and FBI investigation into corruption, with 2 of his aides failing an 'integrity test'.

Corruption

What a horrible violation of the public trust.

A federal grand jury on Monday indicted a longtime Minneapolis police officer on corruption charges after the officer allegedly received $100 on two separate occasions for giving confidential information to an undercover informant who claimed to be a gang member.

So a cop gets approached about an informant, a snitch, or an enemy. He gets asked for confidential information about said informant. He puts "through an inquiry to the National Crime Information Center and obtained nonpublic information from the State Driver Vehicle System regarding a Minnesota license plate number."

He knows this information will be used for revenge. He has to know. But, he doesn't care, because he was offered $100.

Rot in hell, Mike Roberts.