WATCH OUT, OR HE’LL STEAL YOUR BADGE, TOO

WEST ROGER ROAD

JULY 11, 1:52 A.M.

A belligerent drunk man sporting law-enforcement paraphernalia
ultimately failed to pass as an officer, according to a Pima County
Sheriff’s Department report.

Deputies responded to the Stockmen’s Lounge bar, at 1368 W. Roger
Road, where the bartender reported that an intoxicated man in a red
jacket and white shorts had gotten into a fight with two other men
while she was trying to close the bar. The jacketed man, she said, had
pulled out an expandable policeman’s baton and was wielding it at his
opponents.

When deputies made contact with the subject, he insisted he was “one
of them” and showed off his “night stick” while stumbling around and
slurring his words. He also pulled out a law officer’s flat
badge—without a name—and said it was his.

When asked where his credentials and name badge were, the subject
said they were “at home in his other pants.”

Apparently, the bar’s owner had believed the subject was a deputy
“acting in official duties” during the bar brawl, and therefore
initially did not want to press charges. He changed his mind when told
about the subject’s status—and declared the subject had, in fact,
hit him in the face with the baton.

It was later determined that the baton and flat badge belonged to a
female probation officer who was apparently an acquaintance of the
subject. It was not reported whether or not he was one of her
charges.

IF THEY ONLY HAD BRAINS

EAST MANZANITA AVENUE

JULY 13, 8:26 P.M.

Three apparently bored teenagers lit an elementary school’s
scarecrow art project on fire, a PCSD report stated.

Deputies responded to a call from neighbors of Manzanita Elementary
School, 3000 E. Manzanita Ave., who reported that three juvenile
subjects had been trying to light on fire a series of scarecrows set up
outside the school. Deputies located the subjects and caught two boys
near the school; the other was chased back and forth between the school
and a nearby residence until he was finally caught in the house’s pool
area.

The scarecrows, apparently made by the school’s students and filled
with newspapers and shopping bags, had been secured on wooden posts,
but were now knocked down, with their paper innards torn apart, burned
and strewn around the school’s lawn. The fire had been started with
toilet paper and a Bic lighter with an American flag on it.

The ringleader of the art-arson gang said he was sorry and knew what
he did was wrong. He admitted to a history of lighting objects on
fire.

All three boys were arrested.

This article appears in Aug 6-12, 2009.