84-year-old vet suffers broken neck after police takedown
ORLANDO --
An elderly man is in critical condition after being thrown to the ground by a police officer.
It happened Saturday night near North Orange Avenue after police say Daniel Daley put his hands on the cop.
The World War II veteran is out of surgery. He suffered an injury doctors at Florida Hospital say only about 10 percent of people are lucky enough to survive.
Daley left the Caboose Bar and headed to his car across the street Saturday night.
Witnesses say the 84-year-old was upset when he saw his car was about to be towed.
The Ivanhoe Grocery owner recently posted signs warning drivers because customers of other businesses were parking in their spots.
Several people, who didn't want to go on camera, say it has led to plenty of arguments the past few weeks, but none with the potentially deadly consequences that happened Saturday.
The police were called and say Daley, who'd been drinking, put his hands on the officer.
Witnesses say he put his hands on the officer three times and the cop warned him to stop each time.
Police say Daley made a fist and said ‘I'm not leaving until I knock this cop out.’
Another witness says the officer then violently hip checked him and took him to the ground.
Daley ended up in Florida Hospital with a broken neck.
There's nothing that deals with the elderly in the Orlando Police Department’s use of force policy. However, it does define imminent danger as a situation that could lead to death or great bodily harm.
An Orlando police sergeant and spokesperson said this situation should qualify as imminent danger, but many residents don't think so.
"I don't think anyone needs to be thrown to the ground and have their neck broken because they were parked in the wrong spot,” said Gabby Aparacio, store customer. “I mean he's an old man. It doesn't matter if you've been drinking or not. How belligerent can you be?"
"I know when I get angry, I ball my fist. It doesn't mean I'm going to hit you. I think he had no right to do so,” said Nataya Benway.
As part of standard procedure, internal investigators will look at whether the officer complied with the department’s use of force policy.
http://www.cfnews13.com/article/news/2010/september/152865/WWII-vet-suffers-broken-neck-after-police-takedown
Medal of Honor highlights secret heroics decades later
WASHINGTON — An Air Force hero who saved the lives of three colleagues at a secret radar station in Laos more than 42 years ago was posthumously awarded the nation's highest award for bravery Tuesday by President Obama.
Chief Master Sgt. Richard Etchberger was awarded the Medal of Honor for "conspicuous gallantry" after helping three wounded people onto an evacuation helicopter.
The radar site's existence was cloaked in secrecy for years because Laos was a neutral country and the U.S. government did not acknowledge having troops there. Etchberger's heroic actions emerged only as the veil of secrecy was lifted.
"His mission had been a secret, and that's how it stayed for many years," Obama said.
White House documents said the radar installation was presumed to be secure, since it was surrounded by sheer slopes, its summit poking out above the clouds.
On March 11, 1968, an enemy force of highly trained North Vietnamese soldiers scaled the cliffs, taking the 19 Americans by surprise. Etchberger and four others scrambled to a rocky ledge. He loaded his men onto a rescue helicopter and called in airstrikes as the invading soldiers closed in, according to the White House.
Etchberger would board the helicopter only after the other men were safely on board. As the helicopter banked away, he was hit by a burst of fatal gunfire from the mountaintop. Only seven Americans made it out alive.
Etchberger's late wife, Catherine, had known about her husband's actions but was sworn to secrecy. "And she kept that promise — to her husband and her country — all those years, not even telling her own sons," Obama said.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2010-09-22-1Asoldiers22_ST_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip
Germany demands internet code of practice
The German government has reacted to public privacy concerns about Google Street View by demanding internet companies work out a code of practice to protect the data they collect.
Thomas de Maizière, interior minister, said voluntary regulation could render legislation “at least in part redundant”, a signal that the government is softening its line on regulation of new internet services.
Civil-rights activists demanded homeowners be given the chance to have their properties blanked out – a request Google granted – and some government ministers openly mulled legislation to rein in Google and other providers of photographs.
But the interior minister in past weeks managed to get his cabinet colleagues to agree to allow the sector to regulate itself, a move employed by successive governments.
Germany’s stock-listed companies in the past years drew up and constantly refined a voluntary corporate governance codex, labouring under the implicit threat that the government would legislate unless the voluntary code had teeth.
Internet companies in Germany will now have to work together under the same pressure from Berlin. Mr de Maizière gave the companies until December 7 to draft first ideas and to consult with consumer protection groups.
Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, justice minister, said the government might yet couple a voluntary code with new laws in the consumer area, but said the idea was still being discussed.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e076101e-c56a-11df-9563-00144feab49a.html
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