Assorted Stupidity #174
- CORRESPONDENCE/MARK FOR FOLLOW-UP: Dear Kent Police Public Disclosure Team: I still have not received a response to my Freedom of Information Act request of 28 May 2026 asking you to provide the number of people aged nine or below who have been reported for criminal offences" in your county. Please provide this important data at your earliest convenience. Yours very sincerely, Kevin Underhill
- We were like, oh, OK, this is happening, like, now," Samantha Randazzo's lawyer told the New York Times. What was happening was, like, his client was totally giving birth in a courtroom, after her water broke while she was waiting to be arraigned on drug charges. Explaining why she was cuffed (at least at first), the NYPD insisted it had no idea she was pregnant because she was wearing baggy clothes" and never mentioned a pregnancy. From TV shows I gather that suspects are usually searched incident to arrest, but police would never lie about something like this. We are delighted both mother and baby are well," said a spokesperson for the Office of Court Administration, in that spokesperson voice.
- Is the psychic who was ordered to pay $10 million for posting TikTok videos that falsely accused someone of murder now representing herself? Was that a rhetorical question, and is this one too? Yes to all three.
- According to Renea Gamble's daughter, her mom intended to go to a No Kings protest in October 2025 dressed as a sea turtle and holding a sign that said I love the Gulf of Mexico." But that costume wasn't delivered on time, which is why her sign said No Dick Tator" and she was dressed as a seven-foot-tall representation of its second word. Because this is America, she was thrown to the ground, arrested, and charged with a crime. But also because this is America (for now), a packed courtroom broke into applause after she was acquitted in April. The brave officer who tackled and subdued the 62-year-old testified under oath that he did so because he thought her costume posed a safety risk." Seems unlikely, but police would never lie about something like this.
- If you're selling your home, do you have a duty to tell potential buyers that your neighbors are awful? In this lawsuit, a buyer who was later shot by such a neighbor alleges that the failure to disclose his awfulness violated a Minnesota law requiring disclosure of anything that would significantly affect an ordinary buyer's use and enjoyment of the property." The report says the seller had filed a restraining order against the neighbor in 2025, but doesn't say what prompted that.
- Don't forget that in some states, you may have a duty to disclose whether your house might be haunted, or at least whether anyone has died on the property within a certain number of years. See, e.g., House Advertised as Not Haunted" (Oct. 31, 2024). Not that the legislatures believe ghosts are real, mind you, they just think people should know they may be buying, as Connecticut used to call it, psychologically impacted property."
- If a speed camera with a +/- 1 mph margin of error clocks a driver at 61 mph in a 50-mph zone, is the driver guilty of exceeding the limit by 11 to 15 mph"? According to the District of Columbia, yes, because a regulation deems" a certified camera's measurements to be perfectly accurate. According to the D.C. Court of Appeals, no. Given the margin of error, it held, the District proved only that he was traveling somewhere between 60 and 62 mph, which is not the same as at least 61." Frankly, this opinion could have been less than 23 pages long, but it comes out right. Congratulations to the defendant; not so much the D.C. Attorney General's office, which seems to have paid five lawyers to fail to enforce a $50 fine.
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