25 July 2003




The Law and Law Enforcement:

(1) The jury is considering its verdict in the case where an officer threw a kid up against his vehicle and punched him.

(2) The officers who got in a fight after they tried to take a bag of fajitas from some men (while off duty) have had their case dropped. But it's only been done so that the prosecutor can go back and get clean indictments.
"This is great for us," said Jim Collins, attorney for [the acting police chief's son]. "They spent months with a grand jury for nothing. It shows this grand jury was so flawed they had to go back to step one."


(3) A confrontation between judges and police over whether the police should be allowed to bring firearms into county courthouses. There really is no reason for an officer to have his pistol with him in the courtroom. The (Virginia) county court wherein I do most of my work has this rule and all it means is that the police lock their weapons in the trunk of their cars before they come into court (you know, the same place they already store their shotguns / rifles). On the other hand, I'm not sure what the big problem is with officers having their pistols with them either.

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