The law and the jungle

This has to be the quote of the week. It's from Police Chief Rusty York, explaining the 180-day suspension of FWPD Officer Thomas Andrews for "engaging in sexual activity" while on duty. York noted that the encounter with a woman was consensual and that Andrews didn't abuse his police authority to get sex. Furthermore:

A silly woman named Sarah Harpold in Rockville, Ind., tried to use the "I didn't know it was the law" excuse when she recklessly and callously tried to defy the community's standards and all decency by buying too much cold medicine:

Remember how they always used to say on Sienfeld, "Not that there's anything wrong with that"? Here's a story that inspires the reverse of that: "We certainly can't condone this or any other crime, but, boy, did that guy get what he deserved or what?"

The city has settled out of court for $335,000 the suit filed by the family of Jose Baudilio Lemus-Rodriguez, the illegal immigrant killed by rookie officer James Arnold after a brief car chase.

We're so civilized now that crashing a wedding reception and shooting up the place, including putting a bullet in a 2-year-old's head, isn't considered attempted murder. It's just "aggravated battery."

Like President Obama, the rest of us weren't present when the policeman and the professor had their now-infamous confrontation. But we really don't have to know the exact facts in order to make one declaration: Even if we stipulate that everything the cop said is true -- that Prof. Gates went on an unjustified, vile, race-inspired, hate-filled rant -- the cop should have backed down. He had the badge and the gun and therefore all the power. His was the greater obligation to calm things down by just walking away.

There was quite a drama in South Bend. A man climbed a TV tower, and a three-hour standoff with police ensued. The South Bend Tribune published a rather dry -- that is to say, dull -- account of the incident, which it identifies as coming from a WSBT-TV report:

Is that a lighter in your bra, or are you just hot to see me?

Toni Huber and some friends were waiting by an alley near 141st and Wabash in North Hammond when two men allegedly robbed them at gunpoint.

Shots were fired as the offenders drove off.

Not in line for co-worker of the year:

A Clark Circuit Court employee contacted a building supervisor after she showed up for work several times to find her chair wet. She was shocked to learn it may have been caused by a maintenance worker who was allegedly urinating in the chair. He was arrested after police reviewed footage from a hidden camera appearing to catch him in the act.

Thank goodness cooler heads prevailed, leading the Senate to defeat a national reciprocity measure allowing gun owners with permits to carry their concealed weapons across state lines. Otherwise, I might have had to fight my way to work through crowds of armed, angry Buckeyes just itching to cause trouble in the state they love to hate. As Sen.