Maybe the introduction of cop-cams will finally end this...though of course, none of these murderers will every be brought to justice. Cop privilege.

The "Bounty" Police Force? Albuquerque Officers Face Protests, Probe over Spate of Fatal Shootings (Democracy Now!)

Video footage captured by a police helmet camera shows officers killing James Boyd, a homeless man who appeared to be surrendering to them at a campsite where he was sleeping. Boyd is seen picking up his belongings and turning away when officers deploy a flash grenade and then fire six live rounds at him from yards away. The Albuquerque Police Department has come under federal scrutiny for being involved in 37 shootings since 2010, 23 of them fatal. This week the FBI confirmed it is investigating the killing of Boyd, and the Justice Department has already been investigating the city’s police shootings for more than a year.

No, this is not an April Fool's joke.

Many people are shocked to learn that there is no legal obligation for police to show up when you call 911, that the cops have no duty to protect you. I must admit that I've heard so many stories of police misbehavior and dereliction of duty that I find their surprise naive.

But even I was shocked to learn that cops can sue you for calling 911.

Kemal Yazar has an obvious mental health breakdown. His wife Marlene called 911. A paramedic arrives, but backs off when Yazar chucks a Bible at him. Deputy Brady Pullen and another deputy arrive. There is a struggle, and Yazar is shot and killed.

That shooting may or may not have been necessary, but what's clearly unnecessary is Pullen's lawsuit against Yazar's survivors.

Falkenberg: We expect more from our heroes than being sued by them (Houston Chronicle)

One of the deputies who was sent to protect the family decided to serve them instead - with a lawsuit.

Pullen, who according to an investigator's report, suffered "superficial wounds" during the incident, accused family members of "negligence and recklessness" for not fully warning him of the "violent threat" Kemal posed.

...

Pullen says he suffered a broken nose, needed surgery that required him to miss work, and had a concussion which affected his memory of the events. The deputy is seeking at least $100,000 in damages, including medical expenses, mental anguish, pain and suffering and loss of past earning capacity. The first hearing in the case is set for April 14 in Judge Patricia Kerrigan's court.

From the "you mean no one thought of this before???" department:

Doctors Recommend PTSD Screening for Civilians (NBC Bay Area)

Post-traumatic stress disorder is often associated with troops coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, but victims of violent crime are often developing PTSD at rates comparable to veterans of war, the Investigative Unit has learned.

Trauma patients may not be getting the help they need, however, and that may be costing entire communities in healthcare and public safety. A growing body of research shows that people who are shot, stabbed and beaten with untreated symptoms of PTSD can be more likely to carry weapons, have a harder time holding onto their jobs and end up back in the hospital.

Former TSA screener Jason Edward Harrington, author of the “Dear America, I Saw You Naked” piece, shares more good time recollections of his experiences with everyone's favorite federal agency.

The Parable of the Mashed Potato Police (POLITICO Magazine)

Another one: It’s 2010, and a passenger is trying to bring her live goldfish through security. One of my co-workers informs her that the fish can go through but the water cannot. The woman is on the verge of tears when a supervisor steps in to save the fish’s life.

"“I don’t think the function of public education is to prepare students for the turn of the 19th century,” said Eric Meikle, project director at the National Center for Science Education." Pretty much says it all.

Special report: Taxpayers fund creationism in the classroom (POLITICO)

Taxpayers in 14 states will bankroll nearly $1 billion this year in tuition for private schools, including hundreds of religious schools that teach Earth is less than 10,000 years old, Adam and Eve strolled the garden with dinosaurs, and much of modern biology, geology and cosmology is a web of lies.

Now a major push to expand these voucher programs is under way from Alaska to New York, a development that seems certain to sharply increase the investment.

The very fact that a single human being can control $1,000,000,000 -- the net worth of a thousand mere millionaires -- is conclusive proof of the brokenness of the system. This stunt just adds insult to injury

Warren Buffett’s Epic NCAA Humblebrag

Poverty is rampant. Wages are stagnating. Three quarters of Americans are now living paycheck to paycheck. The unemployment rate remains persistently high and inequality has hit Gilded Age levels. Much of this has been exacerbated by a housing crisis and mortgage fraud. Yet, in the face of such emergencies, one of the world’s richest men joined a mortgage lender that sold shady loans to brag about their collective wealth. That’s the obvious takeaway as Buffett runs to fawning news outlets to proudly proclaim that it wouldn’t faze him in the least to write a billion-dollar check.

Two stories from the "adults are nuts and should not be permitted to raise kids" file. First up, blaming the victim of bullying:

School Bully Concerns - WLOS News13 - News - Top Stories (WLOS News13)

A mother and her 9-year-old son say school officials won't let him bring a My Little Pony bag to school.

...

Noreen Bruce, Grayson's mom, "it's promoting friendship, there's no bad words, there's no violence, it's hard to find that, even in cartoons now."

But Noreen says Thursday the school asked him to leave the bag at home because it had become a distraction and was a "trigger for bullying."

You know what's a trigger for bullying? Adults who let bullies get away with it.

Second, "Oh my God! He's got a spoon!"

On knife-crime island, teens are not allowed to buy spoons (Boing Boing)

The UK tabloid press spent a decade drumming up hysteria about teenage knife-crime, and MPs responded on cue, passing a series of meaningless, overbearing feel-good measures that require shops to refuse to sell anything knife-like to teenagers -- meaning that seventeen-year-old art students can't buy xacto blades, and 16-year-old carpenter's apprentices can't buy utility knives.

This silliness has burrowed deep into the automated systems and psyches of English society. A 16 year old boy who tried to buy a pack of teaspoons at a Tesco automated checkout was flagged for an "age check," and when an employee came to check it out, she or he explained to the teen that he was not allowed to buy any cutlery at all.

Yet another way our actions affect the environment.

There is a scientific reason why it always rains on weekends (io9)

If you are in the northeastern United States, and yet another weekend has been ruined by rain, feel free to lean your head out a window and scream at a motorist. They are, for the most part, to blame. In 1998, a group of scientists at Arizona State University analyzed data going back to the 1940s, and found that a disproportionate amount of rain was hitting on weekend days. Since the seven day week isn't natural, they went looking for some unnatural causes of the wet weekends.

...

These aerosols act as little seeds to which water droplets can cling. As the amount of aerosols in the atmosphere grows over the week, more liquid water condenses around these little particles. When enough water groups together, it starts to rain. As we drive, or otherwise churn out gas, dust, and liquid, we are seeding the clouds.

But it's not as simple as just cloud seeding. Later studies, which focused on the southern part of the eastern seaboard have found that, when it comes to massive thunderstorms and tornadoes, people need to brace themselves midweek during the summer.

Yet another reason why using the tools of public health -- rather then actual criminology -- to investigate crime is a bad idea.

Chicago PD's Big Data: using pseudoscience to justify racial profiling (Boing Boing)

The Chicago Police Department has ramped up the use of its "predictive analysis" system to identify people it believes are likely to commit crimes. These people, who are placed on a "heat list," are visited by police officers who tell them that they are considered pre-criminals by CPD, and are warned that if they do commit any crimes, they are likely to be caught.

The CPD defends the practice, and its technical champion, Miles Wernick from the Illinois Institute of Technology, characterizes it as a neutral, data-driven system for preventing crime... He compares it with epidemiological approaches, stating that people whose social networks have violence within them are also likely to commit violence.

In American culture, guns have long since ceased to be actual objects. They are instead sub-cultural touchstones, objects of fear and loathing by one side, of veneration on the other. Today's news offers the perfect juxtaposition of stories to illustrate.

In Columbus, Ohio, a boy was suspended for pointing his fingers pistol-style at another student:

Boy points finger like gun, gets suspended (The Columbus Dispatch)

A Columbus principal suspended a student for three days last week after the child pointed a "lookalike firearm” at another student in class and pretended to shoot.

The boy’s age? 10. The “level 2 lookalike firearm” cited in his suspension letter? His finger.

Meanwhile, at the National Harbor just outside of DC, Republican Senator and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell came onto the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference with a rifle raised over his head:

Mitch McConnell Brandishes Gun at CPAC (ABC News)

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., came onto the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference today brandishing [...] a long gun.

McConnell held the rifle over his head and the CPAC crowd loved it.

Moments later, McConnell handed the gift, a lifetime achievement award from the National Rifle Association, to his retiring colleague, Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, who is leaving his term early for health reasons.