Even before the NYPD was embroiled in a dustup over dirty dancing, four cops got caught up in a Fourth of July football-throwing fiasco, the Daily News has learned.

Two of the officers are fighting the discipline raps they received for tossing around a football with a young boy at a Bronx housing project - charging oversensitivity from police brass jeopardizes community relations.

"I don't think throwing a football to a 7-year-old boy is misconduct," said Officer Catherine Guzman, a 17-year veteran of the force. "It was the Fourth of July, it was 96 degrees out and we were interacting with the community.

"Everybody was happy," she added.

That is, everybody except Deputy Chief James McNamara, the commanding officer of the Bronx Housing Bureau. He witnessed the football tossing and gave the cops a dressing-down worthy of Vince Lombardi.

"He was irate and berated us in front of everyone," Guzman recalled. "He said, 'What are you doing? Do you realize you are on overtime?'"

News of the football caper comes on the heels of controversy over cops videotaped dancing and gyrating during the annual West Indian American Day Carnival Parade. Police officials are reviewing the tape of the Labor Day weekend incident, which shows cops happily grinding their hips into the backsides of scantily clad dancers at the Brooklyn parade.

The four officers involved in the 2010 football-throwing incident at the Webster Houses were slapped with command disciplines, and two accepted a penalty of two vacation days.

But Guzman and Officer Mariana Diaz are appealing the ruling and taking their case to the department trial room.

Both face significantly stiffer penalties if they are found guilty of charges that they "did fail and neglect to remain alert, to wit: throwing and catching a football with three uniformed members of service...while maintaining a foot post."

Their lawyer, Eric Sanders, said the NYPD needs to rethink its definition of community policing.

"I think the Police Department prefers its officers to be an occupying force rather than interacting with the community it serves," Sanders said.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne did not respond to a request for comment.

Diaz said she's taking a stand on principle.

"There's a lot of negativity toward police," she said. "I want kids in the community to look at us in a positive way."

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Entry #5,494

September 19, 2011
5:08 am

Blind woman says she was duped into selling house

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Blind-woman-says-she-was-duped-into-selling-house-2176086.php

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Entry #5,493

September 18, 2011
9:37 pm

11 Useful Products Too Embarrassing to Actual Use

http://www.cracked.com/article_19425_11-useful-products-too-embarrassing-to-actually-use.html

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Entry #5,492

September 18, 2011
9:14 pm

State refuses to give inmate a copy of the State Constitution

Pennsylvania's Department of State denies inmate's request for a copy of the state constitution

Sunday, September 18, 2011, 8:54 AM

JAN MURPHY

The state constitution.

There’s nothing secret about it.

It lives and breathes through our state laws. Elected state officials swear to uphold it. And schoolchildren learn that it provides the framework of their state government.

It should be readily available to anyone who wants it, right?

That’s probably what Michael Baynard thought when he requested a copy of it from the Pennsylvania Department of State through the state’s Right to Know Law.

Instead, the 37-year-old prison inmate was told he couldn’t have it.

Baynard, who is serving time at the State Correctional Institution at Coal Township for sex offenses, appealed to the state’s Office of Open Records. On Sept. 7, the Open Records Office ordered the State Department to send him a copy of the constitution.

When that appeal arrived at the Open Records Office, its executive director, Terry Mutchler, said she thought it was some kind of high jinks. Then she realized it was for real.

“It almost leaves me speechless,” Mutchler said. “It encapsulates some of the derision that folks have for us in government because a copy of the constitution is clearly a public record.”

The Department of State argued that the constitution doesn’t qualify as a record that falls under its purview since it is not a record that the department made as a result of an action it took, spokesman Ron Ruman said.

In defending its decision to the Open Records Office, the department also claimed it assigns act numbers to records and the request for the constitution failed to cite an act number and year.

But there is only one state constitution.

Mutchler said she couldn’t imagine a state agency not providing it.

“Unfortunately, when you get a request like this, it gets right to the gut of what open government is about, and it doesn’t bode well for any of us in government when we see a situation like this when there’s a denial of a copy of the constitution,” Mutchler said.

The State Department has decided not to appeal the Open Records Office decision, although the department’s staff counsel stands by the initial denial as correct and appropriate, Ruman said.

“We don’t feel it’s appropriate to expend the resources and such to appeal it, so we will provide Mr. Baynard a copy of the constitution,” Ruman said

Sen. Mike Folmer, R-Lebanon County, was dumbfounded upon learning of the matter.

Folmer carries around a pocket-sized version of the constitution wherever he goes. The more he thought about the situation, he grew increasingly angry that a state agency would deny the request, even if it came from a prisoner.

“He should still be able to get a copy of constitution regardless of what he’s in for,” Folmer said. “It never ceases to amaze me the asinine things we do in government. ... It’s the most open record there is.”

Barry Kauffman, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, called the State Department’s denial “just plain silly.”

“The amount of time they spent reviewing the request, making a decision about it, denying it and then having to deal with the Office of Open Records probably cost a couple hundred dollars in staff time. Where they could have just gone to the photocopier, copied the constitution and mailed it to the guy for 10 bucks,” he said.

Or he suggested they could have advised him that the state constitution can be found in the Pennsylvania Manual, which a Department of Corrections spokeswoman said is in state prison library collections.

Kauffman said, “I would hope people, in implementing the open-records law, would use some common sense.”

Ruman said any future Right to Know requests to the department for the state constitution will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

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Entry #5,491

September 18, 2011
7:37 pm

Little old lady sent to prison for trying to save her trees

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2038740/Teresa-Treacy-Irelands-unlikely-martyr--sent-prison-trying-save-trees.html?ITO=1490

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Entry #5,490

September 18, 2011
7:32 pm

Man takes 2-year-old son on trip to sell cocaine

Police: Man took 2-year-old son on trip to sell cocaine

Joseph J. Romano, 26, of Albrightville, Carbon County, was arrested on charges of dealing cocaine and endangering the welfare of a child Thursday after Pocono Mountain Regional Police Department stopped his car for a traffic violation and allegedly found $2,200 worth of cocaine and his 2-year-old son in the car. (POCONO MOUNTAIN REGIONAL POLICE, HANDOUT / September 16, 2011)

Tracy Jordan

The Morning Call

3:03 p.m. EDT, September 16, 2011

A 26-year-old Carbon County man is in jail Friday after police said they stopped him for a traffic violation and found $2,200 worth of cocaine and his 2-year-old son in the car.

Joseph J. Romano of Albrightsville was stopped around 8:20 p.m. Thursday on Route 903 in Tunkhannock Township after police saw him swerve over the double yellow line, Pocono Township Police Department said in a news release.

When police activated emergency lighting to make a traffic stop, Romano was seen throwing items out the window. The items turned out to be three plastic bags containing large chunks of powder cocaine with a street value of about $2,200, police said.

Police said they also found a scale and $350 cash and Roman's 2-year-old son in the car. The investigation revealed he was on his way to deliver the cocaine to a local customers, police said.

Romano was charged with endangering the welfare of a child, possession with possession of a controlled substance, possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, criminal use of a communication facility, tampering with evidence and possession of drug paraphernalia. He is being held in Monroe County jail under $10,000 bail.

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Entry #5,489

September 18, 2011
2:16 pm

Should homeless people work for their keep?

Should homeless people work for their keep?

Andrea Ball

11:15 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 17, 2011

Should Austin's homeless people be put to work at the city-financed shelter? It's a question that Front Steps has struggled with for years.

Last week, I wrote a story about how maintenance costs at the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless are piling up because the facility is being used by far more people than it was designed to house. In addition to the $100,000-plus the city spends each year to maintain the 7-year-old building, it also plans to spend nearly $700,000 to fix plumbing, roofing, mold and other problems.

Front Steps, the nonprofit group that is paid to run the facility, says the shelter is serving hundreds more people every day than the building was designed to handle. Thus, parts of it are wearing out faster than anticipated.

That story led several readers to contact me with this question: Why is the city paying $100,000 a year for maintenance when it has all the free labor it could want living under its roof? Why don't they make the homeless people clean and maintain the building?

"We feed them," Austin reader Lan Archer told me. "We care for them. Why don't we make them work a little?"

To clarify, most of the $700,000 in repairs being done at the shelter are pretty major. Among other things, the entire men's shower room is being ripped apart and rebuilt to address ventilation, flooring and mold problems. That's not something just anyone who walks in the door can or should do.

But Archer's question is valid. Are shelter residents required, in essence, to work for their keep?

No, said Front Steps spokesman Mitchell Gibbs. The nonprofit's first priority is to make sure people come in for services. Staffers feel that requiring clients to perform chores might make them stay away from the shelter, where they are connected to services that can get them off the streets permanently, such as job training, drug treatment or housing.

Meanwhile, many of the shelter's clients have mental health, drug or medical problems that would prevent them from doing chores, Gibbs said. There are, however, others who can and do help out around the building.

"Without asking them, we often have clients who are willing to move chairs, sweep up or tell people not to throw things on the ground," he said. "We have folks who are very attentive."

The Salvation Army in Austin takes the same approach and does not force clients to work at its downtown shelter, which houses about 250 people every night. There are liability issues involved in requiring people to work, and staffers encourage people to spend their free time looking for work or housing, said Kathleen Ridings, the nonprofit's director of social services.

The Salvation Army does, however, give paid jobs at the shelter to clients who qualify and pass the required background check, she said.

Haven for Hope, a homeless shelter in San Antonio, does things differently. The 37-acre campus has multiple programs in which long-term residents are taught jobs skills such as construction or janitorial work, then employ those skills on campus, said development director Megan Legacy. Residents, for example, recently did some remodeling work at the shelter.

The facility has an outdoor sleeping area for homeless people who are not involved in rehabilitation programs and are not medically fragile. If they want to sleep inside, they have to volunteer at the shelter for at least seven days, performing tasks such as cleaning bathrooms or wiping down sleeping mats. The idea is to encourage good behavior and hopefully inspire them to take advantage of other services on campus that help them rebuild their lives, Legacy said.

"We have additional resources, and they are rewarded for their help," she said. "Ultimately, we hope they choose transformation and self-sufficiency."

1 Comment

Entry #5,488

September 18, 2011
2:06 pm

24,500 drivers get fines refunded as speed camera deemed illegal

24,500 drivers get fines refunded as speed camera deemed illegal - after 10 years in action

Duncan Macpherson

Last updated at 2:18 PM on 18th September 2011

More than 24,500 drivers have been refunded nearly £1.5 million in fines after it was found that a speed camera had been operating illegally for 10 years.

Thousands were wrongly trapped by the Gatso device positioned along the busy A35 at Chideock, Dorset.

When the camera was installed in 1997, a clerical error on the original paperwork meant a road used to mark out the 30mph zone it policed did not exist.

The speed camera on the A35 at Chideock, Dorset, which was deemed illegal after an error was found on its registration document

It stated the camera was a certain distance from Seatown Road - a name locals call it as it leads to the village of Seatown. In reality the road is called Duck Street.

The error, which meant the speed limit was invalid and so could not be enforced by the camera, came to light when a judge spotted it in documents relating to the case of a lorry driver.

As a result 24,259 drivers who paid fines of £40 and £60 between 1997 and 2007 have been refunded.

Some 201 motorists who challenged their fines in court have received a total of £22,827 back from extra costs and fines they incurred.

And those who incurred three penalty points on their driving licences have had them the wiped off.

Chideock, Dorset, where the incorrect naming of Duck Street meant more than 24,500 drivers had speeding fines refunded

The blunder has also cost the Dorset Road Safe organisation £370,981 in administration costs picked up for sorting out the mess.

Of the 24,460 drivers, 127 of them donated the money to charity while 121 declined the refund.

A spokesman for Dorset Road Safe, which represents local councils and the police, said: 'We have now completed the refund process for those claiming against penalties resulting from an erroneous Traffic Regulation Order.

'We have committed to honour any further claims for a refund of fines relating to the camera.'

He added that the paperwork has since been corrected to Duck Street and the camera was now valid.

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Entry #5,487

September 18, 2011
6:07 am