Brickbats

A Belgian court has fined a Catholic nursing home 6,000 euros for refusing to allow a resident to be euthanized on its premises. The court ruled that only individuals, not institutions, have a religious right to refuse to take part in euthanasia.

Iberia Parish, Louisiana, Sheriff Louis Ackal was caught on tape threatening to shoot a federal prosecutor between his “Jewish eyes.” Ackal is currently being charged with directing deputies to beat inmates in the jail’s chapel, where there are no security cameras.

The Pennsylvania State Police have agreed to pay $195,000 to settle a wrongful imprisonment suit brought by Alexander Bernstein, who was held in jail for almost a month after a field drug test falsely showed homemade soap he was carrying in his vehicle to be cocaine.

Police in Nottinghamshire, England, say they will now treat catcalls and wolf whistles on the street as hate crimes to be investigated and recorded.

Former Colfax County, New Mexico, Sheriff’s Deputy Vidal Sandoval has pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and theft of government property. Undercover agents caught him not only shaking down motorists but also offering to allow drug dealers to move their product through the county for a piece of their money.

Porter County, Indiana, Deputy Prosecutor Trista Hudson was fired after it was revealed she withheld evidence in a child molestation case. The accused was acquitted after the judge found that Hudson had not informed the defense that one of the alleged victims was told to lie about what happened. Hudson called it an “inadvertent mistake.”

The University of Houston Student Government has sanctioned Vice President Rohini Sethi for posting, “Forget #BlackLivesMatter; more like #AllLivesMatter” on her Facebook page after five Dallas police officers were killed. Student government officials decided that it would be too difficult to remove her from office, so they suspended her for 50 days, required her to attend diversity training, required her to attend three cultural events per month, required her to write a letter of reflection, and required her to make a public presentation on what she learned.

In Ottawa, an officer of the National Capital Commission shut down a lemonade stand run by Eliza Andrews, 7, and her sister Adela, 5, for not having a permit. When their dad later went to obtain the permit (after local media had picked up the story) the commission decided to waive the $35 fee.

The State University of New York at Albany has canceled a basketball game at Duke. Officials say the game would violate a ban on nonessential travel to the Tar Heel State. Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo implemented the policy to protest a North Carolina law requiring individuals in government buildings to use the bathroom matching the gender on their birth certificates.