Birdsong's Law Blog

Years ago Birdsong was stationed in Germany as a State Department officer. Here are a few recent weird stories from Germany.  Ja voll.

Florida is a wonderful place to live.  Birdsong loves it here.  Here are a few weird news stories from Florida for your reading enjoyment.

Orlando, FL: A man entered a Greenacres Restaurant in mid-July, 2009, and asked for change for a $10 bill.  When the cashier asked to see the bill, the man reportedly began screaming, “I want change!”  Police said the man then grabbed about $40 from a tip box, picked up the cash register and ran out.  The officer who arrested him — still carrying the register while running down the street — had just come from reviewing surveillance footage at a nearby convenience store, where lottery tickets had been stolen a day earlier.  By chance, the officer identified the man as the thief  from the footage.

Actually, running with a cash register can be more dangerous than running with scissors…

Winter Park, FL: The family of Charles Gaal Jr., 90, is suing a Winter Park dentist who allegedly dropped tools down Gaal’s throat, including an implant screwdriver and a mini-wrench.  Unfortunately, Gaal never fully recovered and he died in 2007.

OOOPPS……

Orlando, FL:  A Connecticut man  arrested for exposing himself to a 14 year old girl at a Walt Disney World water park, swears it was because 

Birdsong travelled to Chicago twice this past summer on ABA business.  Chicago certainly has it share of weird criminal law stories.  Here are a few more of them.

Twitter is online crooks’ new tool according to a recent news report.

Cybercriminals are rapidly using Twitter — the popular Web-messaging service — to direct users to Web sites that sell pornography and fake drugs and trigger promotions for fake anti-virus subscriptions.  Anyone can sign up anonymously for a Twitter account and begin pushing unfiltered messages.

Birdsong has been loath to comment on the recent brouhaha concerning Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Cambridge police sergeant James Crowley and President Obama.  However, a recent news story has made me want to jump in with some advice about how not to use your “Facebook” site.

Let me preface everything I say here by admitting I am a law professor with a pretty good understanding of how the the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution works.  Normally, a police officer is not allowed to arrest a person in his own home without an arrest warrant unless the officer has been in hot pursuit of  such person fleeing  a felony crime.  This was the reason that disorderly conduct charges were immediately dropped  against Gates.  The arrest was violative of the Fourth Amendment.  There was no warrant stating probable cause to arrest him in his own home.  Gates was not a fleeing felon. 

Now the fallout… A woman who was not a lawyer and who obviously knew little about the Fourth Amednment  wrote statements on her Facebook page about the Cambridge arrest that got her ousted from her job.  Writing it may have made her feel good but now she needs another job.  Some thoughts you should not publish on your Facebook pages.  Keep them to yourselves.

Lee Lador, 24, who worked as deputy press secretary to New York’s Manhattan Borough President was forced to resign her  $45,758 a year position after it was revealed that