Archive: February 25, 2007 - March 3, 2007
This Week in Offbeat Crime 3/2/2007
Tommy Vercetti they ain't. (Rockstar Games) It's Friday again, and we're looking back on another stellar Week in OFF/beat Crime. Here are your nominees for the ever-popular Stupidest Criminal Award. The front-runner this week is a teenager who wants to be a cop so bad, he's willing to go to jail for it. Hai Hoang, of St. Petersburg, Florida, was arrested for the second time in as many months for impersonating a police officer. This time, the vigilant 18-year-old allegedly attempted to pull over an "undercover officer in an unmarked car." Next up, we have a trio of stealthy burglars in Brandon, Florida, who allegedly rang the doorbell of the home they were attempting to rob after failing to break in the front door. Nice work guys. Now, most people know the dangers of drunk dialing, but were you aware that stoned texting can be just as hazardous? Take,...
By Emil Steiner | March 2, 2007; 8:17 AM ET | Comments (1)
The Marriage of Homophobia & Free Speech
Is the Right to Insult Others Protected? A Court Battle May Determine How Kids Can Use the Word "Gay" in School "Dude, that's so gay!" Is using that parlance discrimination, or is it protected by freedom of speech (or both)? Eminem and Elton John could argue till they hug it out, but the question still remains. I don't profess to know the answer, but an ongoing lawsuit in California Superior court may offer up some guidance. Kathy and Elden Rice, members of the "ultra conservative Eagle Forum," are suing the Santa Rosa School District, claiming their daughter suffered discrimination and harassment because of her high school's "pro-homosexual" policies. In 2002, Rebekah Rice was written up by her humanities teacher after she said "that's so gay" in response to students taunting her Mormonism by asking whether she had "10 moms." The Rices maintain that their daughter had been "singled out...
By Emil Steiner | March 1, 2007; 12:19 PM ET | Comments (23)
Thursday Breakfast Bender
Welcome to March 1! On this day 38 years ago, Doors front man Jim Morrison was arrested for exposing himself during a performance at Miami's Dinner Key Auditorium. Here's Your Thursday Top Five: 5) Bad Credit? Get Pregnant!You may have heard how car dealerships advertise that your job is your credit, but what about your offspring? Nicole Uribe-Lopez, of Mexico, has been arrested for using her son as a down-payment on a used car. The 5-month-old baby was allegedly given to couple in Colorado for $1,500, of which $500 went toward the purchase of a 2000 Dodge Intrepid. Teaching with Scissors (Photodisc) 4) Don't Wag Your Tongue! When it comes to disciplining unruly students, teachers have a wide variety of punishments in their arsenal, but chopping off tongues is not one of them. According to reports out of Italy, a substitute teacher in Milan held a 7-year-old pupil's tongue with...
By Emil Steiner | March 1, 2007; 8:21 AM ET | Email a Comment
Do Pennsylvania Schools Prefer Pagans to Christians?
Discriminating Against the Majority No Halloween Candy for Jesus! Few bureaucrats can subvert a well-intentioned principle like the separation of church and state with the hypocritical bombast of school administrators. But when they actually succeed in making religious fanatics seem rational, well now that's an achievement worthy of an OFF/beat Idiot of the Year nomination.Donna Brewer, of Willow Hill, Pennsylvania, is suing Abington School District, claiming that her 10-year-old son's "rights to religion and free speech were violated" because he was not allowed to wear a Jesus costume during his school's Halloween parade. The federal suit was filed on her son's behalf by the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group that believes in spreading the Gospel through "traditional family values." It further claims that since costumes were mandatory and many students chose to dress as "witches and ghouls" (i.e., pagan costumes), Willow Hill Elementary violated the fourth-grader's equal...
By Emil Steiner | February 28, 2007; 10:55 AM ET | Comments (50)
Wednesday Breakfast Bender
Welcome to February 28! On this day 486 years ago, the Diet of Worms began in what is now Germany. Lasting more than three months, it involved neither dieting, nor worms. Here's Your Wednesday Top Five: 5) Stoned on DeliveryTwo buckets of marijuana were sent via Fed-Ex to Fusion jeans boutique in Philadelphia over the weekend. Employees were baffled by the two drug shipments, which totaled 20 pounds with "a street value of about... $90,000," but instead of returning to sender, they called the police. Laptop ctrl-alt-deletes motorist (Maryland State Archives) 4) Fatal Computer Crash Let this be a lesson to motorists who like to multi-task behind the wheel. According to the California Highway Patrol, a 28-year-old computer tutor died because he was paying more attention to his laptop than to the road and slammed into a Hummer. Ironically, his computer survived the collision and was found "still running and...
By Emil Steiner | February 28, 2007; 7:44 AM ET | Comments (1)
Tuesday Breakfast Bender
A special thanks to Michael Corones for handling OFF/beat duties during my absence. After surviving nearly 24 hours snowbound in the Sierras, I feel lucky not to have become a story on this blog. That being said, when white-out conditions forced Interstate 80 to a standstill just miles from Donner Pass, I did catch some pretty bizarre behavior. No, travelers didn't resort to cannibalism, but a group of idiot-wannabes did pull out a toboggan and entertain motorists by sledding down the side of the highway. This wouldn't have been so "extreme" had there not been hundreds of stranded people using the shoulder as a makeshift restroom. Welcome to February 27! On this day 296 years ago, the first Mardi Gras parade took place in what is now Mobile, Alabama. 'Course back then a string of beads probably wouldn't get you much more than a peak under the wig. Here's...
By Emil Steiner | February 27, 2007; 7:15 AM ET | Email a Comment
