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Bouncers overstuffed wallet stops knife www.privateofficer.com
Germany Jan 14 2011 A bouncer’s cards end up stopping knife blows. Who knew that having a wallet overstuffed with plastic would save a person’s life?
The 31-year-old pub bouncer in Germany was carrying a wallet full of 20 plastic cards when he was stabbed four times in the chest. The cards actually stopped the knife from piercing his body. The bouncer was carrying his wallet in his breast pocket, which was a major stroke of luck. Police say that the bouncer’s cards actually acted as a protective vest.
The customer who stabbed the bouncer was apparently upset because he had been thrown out of the pub. Stabbing the bouncer four times seems like it was a major overreaction though.
The amazing thing is that the bouncer normally doesn’t carry his wallet when he works, so it was unusual for him to have it. Having 20 pieces of plastic in a wallet is also certainly not the norm. However, if there had been fewer cards, they likely wouldn’t have been able to withstand the force of the knife blows.
What a stroke of luck. In addition to credit cards, the man also had an abundance of video rental and store loyalty cards. While those are quite an annoyance, in this case they turned out to be a stroke of genius.
NJ Security guards rally for better wages, benefits www.privateofficer.com
Members of Service Employees International Union local 32BJ, who organized the rally, said security guards who work in Jersey City’s financial firms should be treated with the same dignity as the firms’ white-collar workers.
“You are the first ones to respond to emergencies of all kinds,” Kevin Brown, 32BJ’s New Jersey area director, told the crowd of union and non-union security officers.
Brown said security guards working in Jersey City make between $10 and $12 per hour, and have “no access to quality, affordable health care.” More than 4,000 of them use New Jersey Family Care, the state’s health-insurance program for low-income families, he said.
The union held the rally not to protest a specific company, but to call attention to how little security firms in general pay their workers, Brown said.
Antonio, 27, who lives in Journal Square, has worked as a security guard in Downtown Jersey City for nearly five years. He earned $12 per hour, but now makes less. He did not want his last name used for fear he’d be fired.
“I want to move up the ladder, but apparently it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen,” he said.
Source:NJ.com
Federal lawsuit filed by student alleging he was beat by security www.privateofficer.com
ST. LOUIS MO Jan 14 2011 A federal lawsuit filed Friday alleges that a 15-year-old student at Imagine College Preparatory High School was beaten by staff and a St. Louis police officer.
Named in the suit are Genesa Smith, a teacher; Eugene Page, a St. Louis police officer who the suit said is Smith’s boyfriend; Rodney Williams, a security guard; Tamara Thomas, the charter school’s principal at the time; and the school itself.
The suit, filed by the boy and his mother, Barbara Perry, alleges Page lifted the boy by his throat and slammed him repeatedly against a wall on Feb. 26. The suit states that Page told the boy he had been accused of threatening a teacher, and that the other three knew what was happening but did nothing. The boy, now 16, suffered injuries that caused blood in his urine, as well as blunt force trauma, according to the suit.
Paul Feber, the school’s regional vice president, said Friday that school officials and lawyers were looking into the case. He also said that Smith, Williams and Thomas no longer are employed at the school, but he declined to elaborate.
Police did not respond Friday night to a request for information about Page’s employment status with the department.
Police have said officers have been called to the school at 706 North Jefferson Avenue several times during the last school year. In April, a female student suffered serious injuries when she was stabbed in the stomach with a pencil during a fight with another girl. Two school security officers suffered minor injuries as they arrested a female suspect. A teacher also suffered a minor injury, police said.
About an hour later, a group of students at the front doors became unruly. An officer who tried to restrain a girl broke his wrist and suffered ligament damage to a knee when he fell in the parking lot as she escaped his grasp and ran.
Source:St. Louis Post
Armed man slips into Florida courthouse www.privateofficer.com
Courthouse deputies saw Marin Stroia, 59, of Oakland Park enter the courthouse lobby through an unmanned exit door at 9:25 a.m. As deputies approached, Stroia sat on the lobby floor next to the escalator, the weapon pointed at his chest.
While filling in during bond court hearings Friday, retired Judge Joel T. Lazarus said he became aware of what was happening one floor below and was told that a man wanted to speak with a judge.
Lazarus approached but paused when he saw Stroia with the weapon beneath his chin.
Lazarus said, “I told the man, ‘I won’t go down there until you put the gun down,’”
The judge said the man told him he had one bullet in the gun.
“I don’t want that bullet in me,” Lazarus said he told the man.
After Stroia was disarmed, Lazarus joined Broward Sheriff’s Deputy Patrick Kiernan. The men spoke with Stroia, who is a licensed security officer, for 10 to 15 minutes.
According to Lazarus, Stroia was distraught about his divorce proceedings and felt everyone “was conspiring against him. He was ranting and raving about his divorce situation, but not incoherently,” Lazarus said. “He needed to vent, he needed someone to listen to his problems.”
After Stroia calmed down, Lazarus promised Stroia could write to him about the way his legal case is being handled, and that Lazarus would pass Stroia’s concerns along to Chief Judge Victor Tobin.
Lazarus said he told Stroia: “‘I can’t promise you results, I can promise you someone will listen to you.’ I think that’s all he wanted.”
Stroia was taken into custody and to the jail behind the courthouse.
Broward County’s main courthouse is in downtown Fort Lauderdale at 201 S.E. 6th St. In addition to Friday’s security incident, the building also has problems with crowding, flooding, mold and asbestos.
After Stroia’s arrest, thoughts naturally turned to how this could have happened at the beginning of the court day, when lawyers, jurors and litigants lined the sidewalk to enter and pass through the main lobby’s metal detectors.
Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti said budget cuts have impacted security at the courthouse, along with weaknesses in the building’s design.
“We need to enhance the security at the courthouse,” Lamberti said. “New doors will be an immediate request.”
Law enforcement officers said they would like to see lockable, one-way revolving exit doors installed that would prevent visitors who try to bypass security lines and metal detectors from entering the courthouse. People are often stopped by deputies stationed in the lobby opposite the exit doors.
The sheriff’s budget is approved by the Broward County Commission. Lamberti said his agency has done at least two studies on courthouse security that he said were also supported by findings from the National Sheriff’s Association and the U.S. Marshals Service.
“Everything has come down to funding,” Lamberti said. “This guy came through the exit door that is currently unmanned because since 2007, we’ve had to reduce personnel from 31 armed, sworn deputies to 25 total who work in four courthouses.”
Lamberti said security cuts came as judicial ranks have swelled.
“While they’ve added 31 additional magistrates and judges and hearing officers, we’ve had no increase in personnel,” the sheriff said. “Courtroom deputies are not armed. We’re severely understaffed when you compare us to Miami Dade and Palm Beach Counties.”
Veteran Broward Sheriff’s Deputy Patrick Kiernan recognized Stroia, whom he had previously arrested in front of the courthouse in June when the shooter also expressed suicidal thoughts, a Sheriff’s spokeswoman said.
Lamberti said Kiernan “did a great job by being very alert. He recognized the individual that we’ve had past dealings with, obviously at his own peril. Here was a guy who was armed and the deputy went and talked with him. He was not worried about his own personal safety, got him to drop the weapon and slide it away.”
Lazarus also received praise from the sheriff. The men have known each other for three decades.
“The guy wanted to talk to a judge, and Judge Lazarus came down and with the deputy, they continued to talk with [Stroia], even after he dropped the gun,” Lamberti said. “The judge calmed him down and diffused it. I’m proud of the deputy, and I think the judge epitomizes public service by also putting his own security at risk.”
Apartment security officer shoots man in Tulsa www.privateofficer.com
Tulsa Okl Jan 14 2011 Police are dealing with conflicting accounts of an apartment complex shooting Thursday night when a security guard allegedly shot a man in a vehicle, police said.
Tulsa Police responded to the Silver Springs Apartments in the 8500 block of East 63rd Street about 11:15 p.m. and found 25-year-old Christopher Smith shot in the left hip, police said.
The security guard, identified as 30-year-old Terrence Moses, told police he was on patrol and saw the car occupied by several people, police said.
He told police he approached the vehicle, had an argument with the occupants and then fired into the vehicle after the driver rammed his vehicle and put his life in danger, police reported.
The driver and occupants told police they didn’t know Moses was a security guard and were startled when he approached the vehicle, police said.
Smith and another occupant told police Moses ordered them out of the car and pointed his gun at them, police report.
The occupants told police that was when Moses began firing and Smith backed the vehicle into Moses’ vehicle, police said.
Smith was taken to St. Francis Hospital with non life-threatening injuries, and no one else was injured, police said.
Police said no one was arrested because of the conflicting stories and no independent witnesses.
Source:www.tulsaworld.com
Man arrested after puppy impaled with knife www.privateofficer.com
CUMBERLAND COUNTY NC Jan 14 2011 — A Fayetteville man is wanted for animal cruelty in the alleged maiming of an eight-week old puppy.
Cumberland County Sheriff’s deputies said 26-year old Cory Lashan Price, of 2210 Caramel Drive, was arguing with his girlfriend when she told him to leave. As he was leaving, Price allegedly tossed their pit bull puppy in the air and impaled it with a knife.
When Animal Control investigators got to the scene, they found the injured puppy hiding in the backyard.
The puppy was taken to a veterinarian, but was later euthanized because of the severity of its injuries.
Deputies said they have arrest warrants for Price. He is described as 5’09”, with several tattoos on his body. One obvious tattoo is a drawing of Superman on his right arm.
Anyone who knows Price’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office at (910) 323-1500 or you may call anonymously to the TIPSLINE at 484-TIPS (8477).
Source:WTVD.com
