Police raid in Phoenix leaves a house burned, a dead dog and a lot of unanswered questions

I don't know why I am posting so many police stories today. The others were rather humorous, but this is just sad. I have all the respect for police officers, SWAT Teams, etc. They put their lives on the line every day, and the majority do their job with poise and professionalism. This however, is just over the line.

So why am I blogging this? Swat teams stormed the house thinking there were stolen automatic weapons and armor piercing bullets inside. However, they instead found an antique shotgun and a 9mm pistol that appear to be legal weapons.

Why is this news? Well, in less than 30 minutes, special forces did this:

• Shot tear gas canisters into the home and moments later, a fire erupted and destroyed a $250,000 home plus all the contents inside. (The home's occupants believe the tear gas canisters caused the fire. Phoenix fire officials say the blaze was probably started by a lighted candle that was knocked onto a bed during the confusion.)

• The armored personnel carrier careened down the street and smashed into a parked car after its brakes failed.

• And in the ultimate display of cruelty, a SWAT team member drove a dog trying to flee the home back into the inferno, where it met an agonizing death.

Deputies then reportedly laughed as the dog's owners came unglued as it perished in the blaze.

"I was crying hysterically," Andrea Barker, one of the dog's owners, tells me. "I was so upset. They [deputies] were laughing at me."

Read more about this and see the photos here:

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2004-08-05/news/dog-day-afternoon/full

Police in Singapore bust action figure protest rally

SINGAPORE, Sept 7
Reuters

A protest action by a group of Singaporeans with Japanese anime figurines such as the 5-inch tall Ultramen, robots and monsters with placards met some real-life police in the city-state.

A handful of fans of Japanese anime had turned up at a Singapore public park on August 25 with armfuls of the toys to protest against a clampdown on Internet downloading of anime material by Singapore animation distributor Odex. The incident was not reported in the local press, but pictures and accounts have started circulating on many blogs and political Web sites. . "The police didn't stop us from what we wanted to do. But their being there was enough to intimidate," the event's organiser -- who only wanted to be known by his online moniker Zer0 -- told Reuters by telephone.

He added that police -- who had four anti-riot vans at the scene -- also took down the anime fans' particulars and that they were filmed by plainclothes policemen. A police spokeswoman said she could not immediately comment. Public protests are rare in Singapore, where outdoor demonstrations are banned and any public gathering of more than four people requires a permit.

Georgia woman arrested for giving a cop a salty hamburger

Oversalted Burger Leads to Charges
Associated Press

UNION CITY, Ga. (AP) — A McDonald's employee spent a night in jail and is facing criminal charges because a police officer's burger was too salty, so salty that he says it made him sick.

Kendra Bull was arrested Friday, charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct and freed on $1,000 bail.

Bull, 20, said she accidentally spilled salt on hamburger meat and told her supervisor and a co-worker, who "tried to thump the salt off."

On her break, she ate a burger made with the salty meat. "It didn't make me sick," Bull told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

But then Police Officer Wendell Adams got a burger made with the oversalted meat, and he returned a short time later and told the manager it made him sick.

Bull admitted spilling salt on the meat, and Adams took her outside and questioned her, she said.

"If it was too salty, why did (Adams) not take one bite and throw it away?" said Bull, who has worked at the restaurant for five months. She said she didn't know a police officer got one of the salty burgers because she couldn't see the drive-through window from her work area.

Police said samples of the burger were sent to the state crime lab for tests.

City public information officer George Louth said Bull was charged because she served the burger "without regards to the well-being of anyone who might consume it."

Stop the world...I need to get off

I just don't understand the world sometimes. Why is it that people like this get to have children?

Bend man arrested at Nevada brothel after leaving toddler in hot car for hours
Posted by The Oregonian September 03, 2007 12:27PM

A Bend man is being held at a Nevada jail after leaving his 2-year-old daughter in a sweltering car for two hours Sunday while he visited a brothel, according to Nevada law enforcement officials.

Lucien Hoffman was arrested on accusations of child neglect and is being held at the Storey County Detention Facility on $40,000 bail, according to officials. According to Oregon motor vehicle records, Hoffman is 26.

The toddler was treated for dehydration and is in the custody of Nevada child welfare officials. The child's mother, who shares custody with Hoffman, lives in Bend and was notified of Hoffman's arrest, police said.

Security guards at the Mustang Ranch Brothel discovered the child alone and crying in the car late Sunday afternoon. The car's interior had reached 95 degrees. Brothel employees removed the girl from the car and brought her inside until police arrived. Hoffman was attending what authorities described as a "private function" in the brothel while the child was in the car.