THE ODDEST COPS OF ALL: YOU & ME (“We don’t need no stinking badges!”)

Introduction I have written (off and on) for some time relative to odd cops under state (not federal) law. My intent was that the citizen cop topic would be in the final installment of the series. However, recent events (see below) in Lake County have rendered the topic more timely and relevant. The subtitle quote […]

THE CALUMET’S OWN GENERAL WARRANT

There I sat, minding my own business by checking my email after lunch on the 19th of August, when I made the mistake of opening an attachment to a Bar Association post in the form of a “Standing Order” from the Hon. Clarence Murray as senior judge of the Lake Superior Court Criminal Division and […]

THE CONSTITUTION AMONG FRIENDS

This Article is inspired by the political insight of Tammany Hall and by the State of Indiana and its complicit judiciary. Let me begin with Tammany Hall, the political “machine” which long reigned over New York City by means of organization, patronage, and graft. In 1905 George Washington Plunkitt (a/k/a Plunkitt of Tammany Hall) was […]

HAIL TO THE CHIEF: A BAD COP OF EAST CHICAGO

It was back in 2011 or 2012 when a local man hired me to represent him in defense of a drunk driving charge pending in the East Chicago City Court. Given the fact that my client, “Gary,” took (and failed) a breathalyzer test at the ECPD, I knew that I had to visit the Circuit […]

PARKLAND REVISITED: BAD COPS OF BROWARD COUNTY

The Deputy It was Valentine’s Day 2018 when Nikolas Cruz went on a murderous rampage at Parkland, Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The CLB responded February 20, 2018 with the initial Featured Article and followed with another (“Second Thoughts on Parkland”) on February 26, 2018 concluding that law enforcement failed the MSD students (and […]

ODD COPS PART SIX: TOWN MARSHALS

Introduction The CLB is wending its way through Indiana’s “Odd Cops.” If you missed Part One: Special Deputies, you can find it in Featured Articles of December, 2017. Town cops, or town marshals, are an oddity becoming odder as more and more incorporated towns opt to establish police departments. Statutes A town marshal or deputy […]

ODD COPS PART FIVE: HOSPITAL COPS

Introduction Previous Articles in the Odd Cops series have dealt with special deputies, campus cops, railroad cops, and conservation cops. The newcomers to the universe of odd cops are hospital cops, whose existence and authority are warranted by the inexplicably bad behavior seen too often at hospitals and particularly in the Emergency Rooms. Before 2013 […]

ODD COPS PART FOUR: CONSERVATION COPS

CORRECTION (8/5/19): In the second paragraph of the “Case Law” section herein I offered the observation that the drunken boating law formerly at IC 14-15-8-8 had been repealed in 2012. That was not repealed so much as it was hidden or moved to a spot where I did not think to look. I did look […]

ODD COPS PART THREE: RAILROAD COPS

Introduction This is the third installment in the CLB’s “Odd Cops” series following previous installments on Special Deputies and University Cops. This installment will focus on railroad cops. I’m reminded of the 1969 movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid¹ featuring Paul Newman and Robert Redford as affable 1890’s Wyoming train robbers who picked on […]

ODD COPS PART TWO: CAMPUS COPS

Introduction This is the second featured article segment on the topic of “Odd Cops” (those less familiar than City Cops, State Police, or County Sheriff’s Deputies). The series began a while back with a look at special deputies of the County Sheriff. A catalyst for the “Odd Cops” topic in general was the COA’s February […]