News of the Weird

By CHUCK SHEPHERD

Last update: November 6, 2009 - 3:01 PM

For three weeks in September, budget-conscious Mayor Sallie Peake of Wellford, S.C., barred the police from chasing perpetrators of crimes in progress, even if officers drove at the speed limit. Officers were instructed, instead, to arrest suspects later in their homes. The mayor, under siege, rescinded the policy on Sept. 24.

And Mayor Stu Rasmussen, 61, of Silverton, Ore. -- elected last year even though he dresses openly as a woman -- drew criticism from officials of a community group in July when he addressed students while wearing a miniskirt and a swimsuit top. Critics suggested he should dress at least in "professional" women's clothes when speaking to youth groups.

Keeping gangs funded

New York City, which is sued more than 1,000 times a year, has a policy of settling some suits quickly to avoid the risk of expensive judgments. The New York Daily News reported in October that more than 20 lawsuits, going back several years, were filed by members of the East 21st Street Crew (a well-known Brooklyn gang notorious for selling crack cocaine), and that the city has settled every time, paying out more than $500,000. The "civil rights" lawsuits were over possibly illegal searches and for criminal charges that the city later dismissed.

Winning is an art form

New Zealand's Waikato National Contemporary Art Award, worth $11,000, went to Dane Mitchell in September. His entry consisted merely of discarded packaging materials from all the other exhibits vying for the prize. Mitchell called his pile "Collateral." The announcement of the winner was poorly received by the other contestants. And at a Christie's auction in September in New York City, London artist Gavin Turk's empty, nondescript cardboard box (the size of an ordinary moving-company box) sold for $16,000. Actually, it was a sculpture designed to look exactly like an empty, nondescript cardboard box.

Take him away

Daniel Taylor Jr., 33, was arrested in Elizabethton, Tenn., in September following a domestic disturbance complaint against a neighbor. A sheriff's deputy had gone to Taylor's house by mistake, wrongly thinking it was the source of the complaint, but Taylor immediately surrendered to the deputy anyway, and turned around to be handcuffed. When the deputy inquired why Taylor thought he should be arrested, Taylor said he assumed the deputy had come to arrest him for violating probation on earlier charges. The deputy took Taylor to the station before resuming the domestic disturbance call.

Gone with the wind

Zach Schultz of Denver became the most recent victim of wind, costing him his car. While driving down Colorado Boulevard in July, he tossed a lit cigarette out the window, but it landed in the back seat and set the car on fire. He was not able to save it.

That had to hurt

Sylvester Jiles, 24, became the most recent casualty among former inmates who try to break back into prisons. In Jiles' case, he sought "protection" from threats to his life on the outside. In August in Brevard County, Fla., Jiles was hospitalized for a heavy loss of blood that resulted when he fell into the razor wire inside the wall.

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