A suburban Chicago police officer Tasered a man 11 times while he was having a diabetic seizure, and the 56 seconds of needlessly inflicted electric shock, “inflicted … while he was lying unresponsive on the floor of his bedroom, permanently scarred [him] and caused him neurological damage that has not abated,” the man claims in Chicago Federal Court.

Prospero Lassi says he suffered a diabetes-induced seizure at home on April 9. His roommate called 911, and police from LaGrange Park and Brookfield responded, with EMTs from LaGrange Park.

Lassi says his roommate explained to police that he was having a diabetic seizure. Lassi “was not alert and could not move his body.”

When the EMTs asked the cops to help them move Lassi from where he was lying on the floor, Lassi says, one of his “arms flailed during his diabetes-induced seizure, striking one of the LaGrange and Brookfield defendants. At no time did Mr. Lassi intentionally strike or offensively touch any of the LaGrange or Brookfield defendants.”

Lassi says LaGrange Park Officer Darren Pedota responded by Tasering him 11 times, for nearly a minute, as he lay helpless.

He was hospitalized for 5 days, and was unable to work for 3 months because of the attack, “and his quality of life has suffered substantially,” Lassi says.
“At no time did Mr. Lassi do anything to warrant the use of force against him. Mr. Lassi was never cited, arrested, or charged with any crime,” according to the complaint.

Raw: US Cop Pulls Out A Gun During Snowball Fight

Around 2.30PM on Saturday, December 19, during a historic snowstorm, residents at the intersection of 14th and U Streets NW started throwing snowballs at passing Hummers.

One of the cars pelted was driven by a plainclothes police officer identified only as Det. Baylor. Baylor got out of his car and brandished his gun at the crowd.

Reason.tv’s Dan Hayes was on the scene, capturing the tense confrontation between police and citizens who chanted “Don’t bring a gun to a snowball fight!”

uncertaintimes:

U.S. Census Worker Hanged Himself in Kentucky with the Word “Fed” Scrawled Across His Chest

Polanski’s House Arrest Will Begin After Ski-Chalet Adaptation

Runaway Spent 11 Days in the Subways (via)

A way with words: Lexical wizard Henry Hitchings on the crazy history of the English language

Poets & Writers is a US-based site with tools for writing, an exhaustive list of literary magazines, contests, and other opportunities, and general information about the US market. (via)

Kubrick on The Shining

If Marijuana Production Were Legal: Projected Tax Revenues, by State (via)

viddy: The art of baking bread: Peter Reinhart on TED.com

wtf: http://wwwwwwwww.jodi.org (via)

“We don’t know a millionth of one percent about anything.” - Thomas Edison (via)

Banksy vs. Bristol Museum. I dig the monkey, looks like my cousin. Art crimes rule.

• The global recession isn’t just making jobs scarce and tightening spending — it’s also turning more people into thieves. According to an annual survey released on Tuesday, incidents of shoplifting rose nearly 6% over the past year, representing nearly $115 billion in losses for businesses. One of the more surprising findings: a growing number of new shoplifters are outwardly reputable, middle-class people who are walking off with French cheeses, quality meats, cosmetics, mobile phones, clothing and other goodies that they feel they need to maintain a quality of life they can no longer afford.
• Though Bamfield says theft by organized criminals for the purpose of resale remains the biggest segment of shoplifting, there’s been a noticeable increase in the number of middle-class people stuffing their pockets — people who are not “stealing necessities to keep themselves and their families alive,” he adds. Worse still, more than a few of these individuals regard this kind of stealing in the economic crisis as fully justified, as the researchers discovered through interviews with shoplifters and police.
• “Though most thieves rationalize their acts, the current situation has many people feeling the entire system is broken, that politicians are too corrupt or inept to fix it, and that there’s nothing wrong with stealing from these big companies and fancy stores that — the thinking goes — are themselves making out like thieves,” Bamfield explains. “There’s a real perception among many new shoplifters that if you work hard, put money away and play the game, you’re asking for someone to come along and rip you off.”

An eye for an eye? iisabelle:(via killstopgo)

buffleheadcabin:chrbutler:

From Cosmic Log:

Murals found on a buried Mexican pyramid reveal how the average Maya lived about 1,350 years ago - shedding light on aspects of Maya society that are “virtually unknown,” researchers say.

shadowfirebird:

‘A British man on the run from police sent a picture of himself to his local paper because he disliked the mugshot they had printed of him as part of a public appeal to track him down.’

Goods and Evils.

via thisshouldbeit:forkandspoon:(via knightsofidledays)

Beware, the Natural Predators of Ghosts! - Happy Halloween from ASOLLE.

• Hundreds of deer were discovered either dead or so badly injured they had to be put down by wildlife experts.
• In the country’s rural Salzburg province, 90 per cent of pheasants and 80 per cent of hares were killed in the hail storms.
• Sepp Eder, the hunting chief, said : “Animals sought shelter in farms, in fields of grain but the hail was so heavy it smashed right into them. It may take five years for animal numbers to recover, if they ever do so.”
• Farmers are believed to have suffered more than £60 million in damages to crops and buildings.

iisabelle:thedeathoftruespirit: (via bradicalmang)