Opinion

Discussion

June 13, 2012

Charles Oliver: Apparently, warrants are a dime a dozen

Charles Oliver

Tiarra Brown was at her high school graduation practice in Baltimore when police officers arrested her for murder, assault and reckless endangerment. She spent five days in jail, missing her graduation, before police officers and prosecutors handling the investigation into the murder she was charged with realized she’d wrongly been arrested and got a judge to spring her. They say she was not involved in the murder and they did not request a warrant for her arrest. So who did? Apparently, someone related to the woman who was killed went to a court commissioner, similar to a magistrate judge, and got a warrant for Brown’s arrest. Maryland legal experts say things like this happen fairly often because court commissioners, who require no legal training to practice, can issue warrants based solely on the claims of any resident without any investigation.



Police in Littlehampton, England, forced Jez Luff to pay $502 for three days of impound fees after they found his stolen van. They said they did not contact him sooner to pick up the van because they could not find a way to get in touch with him. The telephone number and website for Luff’s business are printed in big letters on the sides of the van.

 

Danish police accidentally blocked customers of two Internet service providers from accessing some 8,000 websites, including Google and Facebook, for three hours. Officials blame an automated filter used to screen out sites that may contain child pornography.



Israeli postal workers in Ramat Gan have refused to deliver copies of the Christian New Testament. They claim it’s illegal to distribute missionary works and that it would also be a violation of their religion.



Flomaton, Ala., Police Chief Geoffrey McGraw has been charged with false imprisonment after allegedly arresting a man in Florida, where he has no jurisdiction, and bringing him back to Alabama. McGraw, who was later fired by the City Council, arrested Ronald Adam Barrow for failure to appear in court on a misdemeanor charge.



With the help of a school board member and a custodian, several students sneaked into Indiana’s Cascade High School and decorated it with thousands of Post-it notes. When officials discovered what the students had done, they suspended six and fired the custodian. They then suspended more than 50 other students who protested in support of the custodian and the suspended students. But after media reported on the matter, Superintendent Patrick Spray reversed the suspensions of the original six students and cut the suspensions of the others from two days to one. He also said officials did not have the power to fire the custodian but he still planned to recommend to the school board that she be fired. A majority of the school board has, however, already indicated that they will reject that recommendation.

 

An anti-bullying workshop at an Ottawa, Canada, elementary school left several girls in tears. Workshop organizers asked girls at Mutchmor Public School to write down secrets on paper airplanes and throw them at the other girls. After the airplanes were tossed a few times, another girl would read the secret. Apparently, some of the other girls thought the recipient would read them silently. Instead, they were read aloud, causing their authors to cry. When they saw their friends crying, several other girls began to sob. School officials say some of the girls revealed “serious” secrets they were mortified to hear read in public. They also say some of the messages contained details that made it clear who had written them.



Charles Oliver is a staff writer for The Daily Citizen. Got a suggestion for “It Couldn’t Happen Here?” Email it to him at charlesoliver@daltoncitizen.com.

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