Green Options

LA County Sheriffs stuck driving Crown Vics are about to be left feeling tragically un-hip. Their Board of Sups just approved a deal with BMW to lease 17 fully electric MINI Coopers.

Approved on Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department will lease the MINI Es for only $10 a month. With a market lease rate of $850, automaker BMW offered up the bargain price in exchange for deputy’s feedback.

Korean police officer Lee Gil-jun is in prison on a 2 year sentence for not returning to work after commanding officers ordered him to fire a water cannon into a crowd of peaceful protesters last May.

In a demonstration of increased surveillance on protest groups in Britain, police arrested 114 people for alleged conspiracy to commit criminal damage and aggravated trespass at a coal-fired power plant.

Huh? What kind of protest involves 114 people “conspiring” to enter and vandalize a power plant? Sounds like a few dozen were involved in logistics, and the rest had volunteered to go along for the ride. Does their willingness to participate really constitute conspiratory thought?

A while back we posted about a bomb threat against the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s ship, the Steve Irwin. Well, the mystery has been solved: a drunk fisherman called in the threat on his cell phone from his ship across the harbor.

Kenneth James Archer admitted to calling in the threat because of a “dispute” with the crew members of Sea Shepherd. Police tracked him down because he made the call to the police from his cell phone.

Apparently Turkish police have a biting sense of irony: they’ve sprayed protesters at the World Water Forum with high-pressured water cannons.

The forum, which occurs every three years, is supposed to focus on ways to eliminate water poverty across the globe, but protesters believe the forum takes a heavy-handed approach and supports construction of dangerous and environmentally-disastrous large dams.

Around $10,000-worth of timber was confiscated from a lumber company after their illegal activities were exposed on their very own reality TV show on the History Channel.

Before we get into the details, let this sink in for a second: there’s a reality TV show that documents people competing to cut down trees. We’ve all seen some horrible television, but how on earth is this considered entertainment? Apparently 2 million people think so.

In another case of Critical Mass road rage, the driver of a white SUV received nothing but a citation after ramming a cyclist during Washington, D.C.’s ride last night, according to witness accounts.

After the hit-and-run, bicyclists took off after the SUV, which tried to escape on the wrong side of the road. Police arrived shortly, and instead of arresting the driver, detained a cyclist who aggressively pursued the vehicle.

Thanks to a freedom of information request by justice spokesman David Howarth, police have revealed a list of 2,000 items confiscated from protesters at the Climate Camp protest at England’s Kingsnorth coal plant last August.

A clown outfit, children’s crayons, soap, books, tents, bicycle helmets, and other seemingly random items were deemed “potentially harmful” by police at the scene.

Police in southern Italy have this week launched a major crackdown on mafia activities following serious allegations of corruption over the awarding of building contracts for a Sicilian wind farm.

According to organized crime investigators, government officials were lavished with bribes, including luxury cars and cash, in an effort to ensure the contract — worth hundreds of thousands of Euros –was awarded to Mafia-backed businesses.

A man from San Jose, California, has been pulled over by the California Highway Patrol more than 40 times for driving solo in the carpool lane, but has never gotten a ticket. The reason: His 1995 Dodge Caravan compressed natural gas (CNG) conversion is, apparently, too much for California cops to compute.

In California, the CNG conversion qualifies Carl Tankersley to drive solo in those highly desirable diamond lanes. Yet, although he prominently displays his carpool and CNG stickers as required by law, that doesn’t seem to be enough to stop the cops from disturbing his 30 minute commute on a fairly regular basis.

Two environmental activists were detained by the Tennessee Valley Authority police for photographing the site of last weeks ash spill. While it does not appear that they will be charged with crimes, they were unable to document the ash spill’s effects on the area and its water supply.

The men, who are from the Knoxville based United Mountain Defense, say that TVA has yet to release the water toxicity results. They say they have the right to take their own measurements and photographs unless TVA shows their results. “This is an issue of national importance,” said David Cooper. “People need to know if the water is safe or not.”