So it is that The Knight Shift now presents more of the sadly seemingly-escalating chronicles of cops gone screwy.
The first comes from Philadelphia, where police officer Alberto Lopez Sr. publicly bullied civilian Agnes Lawless in a convenience store because Lawless was involved in a minor fender-bender with Lopez's son a short time earlier. At one point Lopez shoved his service pistol into Lawless's face. Here is the footage from the Lukoil's security camera...
The next story comes from Wyoming, where Franklin Joseph Ryle Jr., formerly of that state's Highway Patrol, plead guilty in federal court to charges of depriving a man of his constitutional right to be free from unreasonable seizures by kidnapping him. Earlier this year and while on duty as a Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper, Ryle "stopped a Wal-Mart truck with the intent to murder its driver and stage an accident with the truck that would either injure Ryle or kill his wife, allowing him to seek a monetary settlement from Wal-Mart."
And rounding out this report, Washington D.C. chief of police Cathy Lanier is blasting iPhone users as "cowardly". What has Lanier so honked-off is Trapster: a new iPhone app that tells you when you are approaching a red-light camera, speed trap and other safe-driving revenue-enhancing schemes. I say: things like the red-light cameras are a cowardly tactic on the part of government agencies... and if citizens want to strike back at them, more power to them!
(I wonder how many iPhone users have bought Trapster all because of Cathy Lanier making such a fuss about it? Bet that app's creator is now enjoying some profit on account of the free publicity! :-)
