• Virginia college students caught throwing snowballs at an unmarked police car charged with “throwing missiles at occupied vehicles,” a felony. I’m sure terrorism charges are on the way.
• The Mayans are messing with us.
• Lede: “A Torrance police sergeant will not be charged in an off-duty hit-and-run collision, although he admitted he fled because his “judgment was impaired by alcohol,” according to prosecutors.”
• Jessica, Tony, and Kevin get an A+!
• More felony, child porn charges for “sexting” teens.
• Studies find that race, gender of judges have significant impact on rulings.

A quick roundup of recent stories on law enforcement officials and DWI laws…

• Ten police officers in Westchester County, New York admit to local newspaper that they routinely let other officers off after catching them driving drunk off duty.
• Off-duty, possibly drunk South Carolina officer pulled over after a chase demands “professional courtesy” she says is customarily granted to other officers. She was charged with reckless driving and disorderly conduct, but wasn’t arrested or given a breath test, and was allowed to go home.
• Chicago police officer shown to have faked dozens of DWI arrests won’t face criminal charges.
• Off-duty Massachusetts state police lieutenant crashes into pickup truck, causing the truck to flip several times. Officer admitted drinking earlier in the day and two open beer cans were found in his car. Other officers don’t administer field sobriety test for 2 1/2 hours, after allowing him to talk to his attorney. He was also never given breath or blood tests. He did get a $20 traffic ticket.
• From last year, DWI charges dropped against Nevada DA who caused two crashes within six hours while in California, and tested over the legal limit after the second. He was allowed to plead to reckless driving.

Got my front door open. Did some shoveling. Took some pictures. Today we have a bright winter sun. It’s beautiful on the snow, if a bit blinding. Hoping to get to Old Town before the Super Bowl this evening to snap some more pics.

On to the links . . .

• This picture should be a poster.
• From the files of great newspaper corrections.
• DEA agent accused of working with informant to frame innocent people is acquitted on all counts. Amazing how trustworthy these informants are when they’re being used against regular people, and how shady they become when they start accusing law enforcement of misconduct.
• New York City police no longer using flash bang grenades. This is a good thing.
• Puppycide in Colorado. I’ve made this point before, but how is that this “vicious” dog never bit or attacked a mailman, a deliver man, or a meter reader?
• Conjure your inner Paul Oakenfold. And waste an afternoon. The thing is pretty great, until it starts to drive you batty.
• Federal agent driving SUV hits blogger for The Daily Caller, breaks his knee. Cops then lie on police report. More here.

So I am quite literally snowed in right now. Front door won’t open. It’s been crazy. Photos and videos of puppy snow frolicking forthcoming.

In the meantime….

• Actual sentence from an actual news story: “It’s designed for young girls ages 8 and older, but some say the mysterious product is a “dangerous spiritual game” that opens up anyone, particularly Christians, to attacks on their soul.”
• Because anything that tastes good is obviously an appeal to children.
• Looks like the former DA Texas Gov. Rick Perry appointed to head up the state’s forensics panel is doing all he can to make sure the panel does nothing to help the state’s forensics system.
• Here’s a good cop story: Bozeman, Montana cop buys food for man caught shoplifting school supplies for his kids.
• Time to renew my ACLU membership.
• Gun-free snowball fights. Novel idea!
• Twelve-year-old Queens girl hauled out of school in handcuffs for writing on desk.

Way, way back in 2007, I put up a short post about a scandal involving the Hoboken, New Jersey SWAT team, which claimed to have gone on a humanitarian aid trip to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, but ended up partying it up at Mardis Gras, with ensuing photos involving Hooters girls, Jello shots, and SWAT chief Lt. Angelo Andriani posing as a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Andriani was later sued by five Hispanic police officers alleging him to be an “unabashed white supremacist.”

Andriani is back in the news, after apparently flashing his badge and berating some TSA employees for allowing a flight crew move ahead of him in a screening line.

Pick your poison in the “rogue cop vs. TSA” squabble. The story within the story linked above is the punishment Andriani received for his exploits in New Orleans: a two year paid suspension. Hoboken taxpayers are “punishing” Andriani by paying him $11,000 per month for 24 months to do absolutely nothing.

The Boston Globe reports that police n Massachusetts are using the state’s wiretapping laws to arrest people who record cops on the job. Massachusetts is one of 12 two party consent states, which cops are interpreting to mean you can’t record them without their permission.

The state’s supreme court upheld such a conviction in 2001, finding that “Secret tape recording by private individuals has been unequivocally banned, and, unless and until the Legislature changes the statute, what was done here cannot be done lawfully.” I’d think you could make a strong case that a public employee entrusted with the power to forcibly detain and kill falls outside the scope of a “private individual.”

According to the Globe, subsequent cases have turned on whether the recording was done secretly (in which case convictions are usually upheld), or openly (in which case the charges are usually dropped).

Boston police are claiming that recording them while on duty violates their privacy rights and may interfere with their ability to make arrests.

Harvey Silverglate wrote about one Massachusetts case for the Boston Phoenix in 2008. My argument for ensuring that it’s always legal to record on-duty cops here.

The Arizona Republic reports that in his deposition for a class action suit against him and his department, Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio testified that he hasn’t read his own book on immigration policy.

Less surprising but still sort of startling to see in print, the sheriff conceded he is “not well-versed” on the Fourth Amendment.

(NOTE: Link fixed.)

Dan Hayes from Reason.tv was there for the whole thing.

The uniformed officers seemed to have quite a bit more sense about the whole thing than Det. Baylor. Good for them, or the whole situation could have been a lot uglier.

Off-duty cop unwittingly drives into middle of D.C. snowball fight. Snowballs pelt his Hummer. So he does what any reasonable person would do. He draws his gun and starts making threats.

Good on the snowballers for not backing down, and sticking around to tell him what a douche he is.

The D.C. area is supposed to get something called thundersnow today, which sounds pretty spectacular. We’re also looking at up to 20 inches of the white stuff. Fun!

Your snowbound links: