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In the morning paper, I read an article regarding a horrendous crime perpetrated by the Maryland police against a young man, 16 years old at the time, who was arrested for the murder of a neighbor. On a tip from a journalist who, while trying to interview him about the murder, saw him with blood on his hands (he had cut himself accidentally in his own basement), he was arrested, held incommunicado for days without a lawyer, lied to by the police, had suggestions put to him until he finally confessed to the crime. He is apparantly not wrapped too tight, having "learning disabilties". He was 6 months in jail when the police finally learned in a routine fashion that there was no blood at the murder scene which matched by DNA testing the blood of the young suspect. They then turned their attention to another suspect, found that his DNA matched blood at the scene; the other suspect confessed, pleaded guilty at his trial and went to prison. The young man was finally set free. He claims he was also stabbed and raped in jail. Now 19, he is suing for $18 million and deserves to get every penny, as there is documentary evidence which tends to show that the police were hell-bent on convicting him with no evidence other than his own confession, while virtually ignoring all other lines of inquiry.
To compound this criminality, and what shows to me the mindset of these nazis, a State Police superintendent, responding to reporters' request for comments, stated that the "incident" was "regretful" and he was "glad [the young man] was excluded from the finality of the case". Shades of George Orwell!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Ah well, to be expected really. The powers of detection of the US police are rather limited. In the late 1980s/early 1990s a study which was reported in some psychology journal or other I read found that the IQ of the average US police officer was a full 10 points below the mean for the US population.
I don't remember the other details, like what the sample size was, how it was arrived at, what they meant by "US population" and so on, but ...
I suspect that if a similar study were carried here in Zild, the results would also be similar.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear CK: The problem with the police is not the IQ of the rank and file, but the IQ of the top brass, and the power of the top brass to resist guidance from any civilian oversight.
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old hand
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old hand
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Hi,
I fully agree with your view on these occurrences, which are not all that rare, unfortunately.
I wondered about the expression "apparantly not wrapped too tight", which I did not know, but which is very suggestive. Is it in common use?
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>I wondered about the expression "apparantly not wrapped too tight", which I did not know, but which is very suggestive. Is it in common use?
It is very suggestive, but it is one I have never heard before.
One expression I really liked in this vein was in the Stephen King movie of a couple years ago (it starred Tom Hanks but I cannot for the life of me remember the title however). A sheriff commenting on someone who was being hauled of to the asylum said, "His cheese slipped plumb off his cracker."
It is interesting to me number and variations of such expressions which, although one might not have heard before, are immediately understood.
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OP
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not wrapped too tight
It's pretty common around here. Of course, there are so many expressions for being a little wanting that you could make a new thread of them (at the risk of committing a YART). Such as, 'one brick shy of a load', 'not having both oars in the water', etc. No doubt there will be lots more contributions in this vein.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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That would be The Green Mile.
Phrases of this sort are fairly common these days.
A couple of cans short of a six pack.
A couple of sandwiches shy of a picnic.
The lights are on but nobody's home.
The list is limited only by your imagination. Feel free to experiment.
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addict
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addict
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Elvis Costello has a song (title of which eludes me, naturally - Faldage, fill in this blank too?) in which he describes someone as being "a few chips shy of a fish supper." One of my favorites, especially because of the blank looks it gets on this side of the pond.
p.s. To my astonishment, Ænigma had no problems with Elvis or Costello - it's more cultured than I'd thought.
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Carpal Tunnel
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I've always liked the expression "Out to lunch".
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear CK: a very bright person can function far below his potential because his mind is elsewhere.
I like the one from W.E.B. Griffin, "room temperature IQ"
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