Opinion

Discussion

September 5, 2012

Charles Oliver: Police say sorry after missing their mark

Charles Oliver charlesoliver@daltoncitizen.com

Police in Shelbyville, Tenn., have apologized to Lorenzo Gaspar for arresting him for trying to pass what they said was a fake $50 bill. A convenience store clerk called the cops after a marker used to detect fake money showed it was counterfeit. It turns out the bill wasn’t fake. It was just old and old bills don’t react well to the markers.



A Georgia jury has awarded Drupatty Jaipersaud $137,500 after she was arrested without probable cause by a Lawrenceville police officer. Jaipersaud operated a convenience store, and during a fuel shortage in 2008, that store ran out of gasoline. A customer did not believe the store had no gasoline and refused to leave. Jaipersaud called police, and when they arrived the customer accused her of making racist remarks and slapping his hand. Jaipersaud told the officer that surveillance video would show she hadn’t. She said she couldn’t access the video but her son could. She tried to call him, but he was in class and couldn’t be reached. So the officer arrested her. That officer said he arrested her because she was “disrespectful.” Jaipersaud was acquitted of battery and disorderly conduct.



Hunter Spanjer is only three years old and he’s already learning some important lessons. Hunter is deaf and the sign for his name is made by crossing the first two fingers of his hand and it sort of, kind of looks like what kids do when they play like they are shooing a pistol. So when he entered pre-school this year, officials at the Grand Island, Neb., school district asked his family to change the sign for his name because it violates district policy against having weapons or bringing anything that “looks like a weapon” to school. After deaf rights groups and the ACLU became involved, however, school officials said Hunter will not have to change his sign.



Travis Jones spent three months in a St. Louis jail before officials figured out that he wasn’t Mark Crumble and that he wasn’t wanted for probation violation. Jones said he told officers when they arrested him that he wasn’t Crumble and repeated that fact every single day he was in custody. But only after a judge ordered cops to check his fingerprints did they believe he wasn’t Crumble. Oh, by the way, the real Crumble was in another city jail the entire time.



Maine State Police Sgt. Julie Bergan has pleaded not guilty to DUI. Bergan was cited after reporting for work in her patrol car. Officials say she failed both a field sobriety test and a blood alcohol test.



The Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, school board will soon decide whether to accept a recommendation by the principal of Ross Sheppard High School that it fire physics teacher Lynden Dorval. Dorval, who has taught for 35 years, was suspended by the principal after he gave several students zeros for not turning in work. School policy bans teachers from giving zeros. Officials say such marks may not truly reflect what a student knows about a subject.



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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