The 20-year-old man behind the mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut kept a database and “score sheet” of similar crimes as part of a plan to achieve greater levels of violence, CBS News reported on Monday. Police said Adam Lanza, who killed 26 people in the December 2012 attack on…
TSA sued for $5 million after arresting man over peanut butter jar
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents screen passangers at Los Angeles International Airport (AFP Photo / Kevork Djansezian)After being hauled away from New York’s LaGuardia Airport for making a wisecrack about his jar of peanut butter, an Arizona man is suing a TSA agent and a Port Authority cop for $5 million.Frank Hannibal, 50, is seeking millions of dollars according to a recently filed lawsuit that has been uncovered by the New York Daily Mail. In the complaint, Hannibal recalls a failed attempt to pass through a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint with a jar of gourmet peanut butter. By the time the incident was over, he says he spent over 24 hours in a jail cell.“It sounds laughable now but at the time to be led out of there like a terro
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rist was unbelievable,” Hannibal tells the Daily News. “My whole life was up in the air. It was a nightmare. My children were overwhelmed. It was crazy.”Hannibal’s troubles began when a TSA agent questioned him about his jar of “Crazy Richard’s Natural Peanut Butter,” a spread sold at supermarkets across the country and marketed by Ohio’s Krema Products Company. Speaking to the paper, Hannibal says the TSA agent appeared confused by the natural separation of oil inside the jar of peanut butter, which retails typically at around $7 a pop.“The liquid oil that separated from the peanut butter had them baffled,” he says.But instead of ditching the food or explaining the science behind preservation, Hannibal admits to cracking a joke when an agent analyzed the jar.“They’re looking to confiscate my explosives,” Hannibal sarcastically told his wife and twin 6-year-old daughters, according to court papers obtained by the Daily News. But although the comment wasn’t met for anyone other than his family, Hannibal says it garnered the attention of a nearby agent.Moments later, Hannibal was cuffed and on his way to a holding cell. There he spent 25 hours in lockup where he was offered, you guessed it—a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.“The jelly looked like pus, the peanut butter like God knows what and the bread was hard as a rock,” Hannibal tells the paper.Hopefully soon, however, Hannibal’s days of jailcell sandwiches are behind him. He is suing the TSA worker who didn’t get his joke and the Port Authority officer who arrested him for $5 million.“It’s a sorry state of affairs in this country when sarcasm is considered a felony,” his attorney, Alan D. Levine of Queens, tells the paper.Federal law mandates that the TSA impose a 3.2 ounce limit on “gels” during air travel. … Read More
NYPD sued in record numbers
Mario Tama / Getty Images / AFP It’s another red-letter year for New York’s boys in blue: the New York Police Department has spent $185 million to settle lawsuits filed during fiscal year 2011. In all, 8,882 suits were filed against the NYPD during the last fiscal year, an increase of 10 percent from the year prior. That tally also sets the record for the most claims against a single police agency filed during the last fiscal year.The news comes upon the release of a report from New York Comptroller John Liu, who analyzed settlements paid by the city between July 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011. The New York Daily News reports that figures for fiscal year 2012 have not yet been made public.Although the amount of claims against the NYPD has only increased by 10 percent, the total monetary pay out issued by the city surged by roughly 35 percent. In the year prior, the total pay out for suits against the NYPD amounted to only $137.3 million.The city should “explore a unified method to track individual officers named in claim suits and the payouts,” Liu’s report reads.Taking into account all payouts signed-off by the city, NYC spent $550.4 million to settle personal injury and property damage claims in fiscal 2011, a figure which comes out to roughly $70 spent for every citizen in all of New York City. In the fiscal year prior, the city spent only $522 million to settle claims.In the grand scheme of things, though, it’s barely a drop in the bucket for the city. Between 2000 and 2010, the Big Apple awarded plaintiffs nearly $6 billion to settle lawsuits waged at the city.According to the Daily News, a spokesperson for New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg dismisses the notion that the NYPD are only up to no good.“Police officers make more than 23 million contacts with the public each year and cope with incredibly difficult situations on a daily basis,” says John McCarthy.Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, adds to their report that there is one large take-away to draw from the study: “But what’s inescapable is a trend that reveals New Yorkers are unhappy enough with the way that they’re being treated by police that they are going to court a lot more often,” she says. … Read More
