The law and the jungle

Ever see "Anatomy of a Murder?" It's a great, gritty courtroom drama from Otto Preminger, considered pretty daring for its time (1959) and featuring one of Jimmy Stewart's best performances. At the heart of the story is the character played by Lee Remick, a boozy, cheerfully amoral slut of an Army wife ("slut" in the film noir movie sense, I hasten to add, not in the 21st century making moral judgments sense).

The Journal Gazette reports this morning on the daylong public meeting of the sheriff's merit board into whether officer Brent Whan should be fired for "anger management" issues -- a temper that the board's attorney says puts the public and his fellow officers at risk:

After bungling a radio conversation, Whan was too angry to leave the squad car and assist a state trooper, Baker said.

Gruesome details are emerging in the case of the Rising Sun, Ind., 17-year old who is accused of killing his 10-year-old brother. Authorities say Andrew Conley showed no remorse or emotion as he described choking Conner Conley for about 20 minutes, then striking his head on the ground several times before putting the body in the trunk of his car and driving to his girlfriend's house.

Despite the fact that there were 11 armed robberies between Friday and Monday, police spokesman Michael Joyner wants us to know that "crime has not increased" in Fort Wayne:

Police statistics show that the 45 reported armed robberies are only a slight increase over the same period last year. Spokesman Michael Joyner says it shows this rash is not cause for alarm, but that people should be cautious, regardless.

Gee, do ya think he could be right? Guy gets called by girlfried to come to a house to "see their baby," and as soon as he walks in the door, he is hit in the face and "stomped on" by two suspects who have the same last name as his girlfriend:

The victim told police he believes his girlfriend "set him up."

Might be time to rethink that relationship.

Even in today's "everybody wants to be famous just for being famous" culture, it's not sufficient to say White House crashers Tareq and Michaele Salahi are reality-show wannabes desperate to get on TV.

On the occasion of the impending execution of murderer Eric Wrinkles, the Roman Catholic bishop for the Diocese of Evansville, where the crime took place, offers his thoughts on capital punishment and the protection of society:

The Greene County newspaper has a story about the local increase of handgun carry permits -- 894 so far this year, compared with 694 in 2008 and 628 in 2007. That is a lot of people "packing heat," as the story not-so-cleverly puts it. The police chief offers some speculation:

Gary Mayor Rudy Clay, announcing the appointment of Gary Carter as new police chief -- the sixth in four years -- gets today's "Huh?" award:

Clay says he didn't demote former Chief Reginald Harris last week because of the crime wave, but that he expected Carter to end it.

Splendid doubletalk

I think this may be a tough case to prove:

For the first time, Allen County is holding parents legally accountable in educating their children, but one Fort Wayne Community Schools board member says it needs to be more than just a one-time effort.