Zero Tolerance Nuts Nab Flour Terrorists

Never trust a government too stupid to stop itself and too rigid to bend. Never expect wisdom from perpetrators of zero tolerance. Case in point:

Charges have been dropped against two siblings who inadvertently caused a bioterrorism scare when they sprinkled flour in a parking lot to mark a trail for their offbeat running club.

New Haven ophthalmologist Daniel Salchow, 36, and his sister, Dorothee, 31, who was visiting from Hamburg, Germany, had been charged with first-degree breach of peace, a felony....

The siblings set off the scare while organizing a run for a local chapter of the Hash House Harriers, a worldwide group that bills itself as a "drinking club with a running problem."

"Hares" are given the task of marking a trail to direct runners, throwing in some dead ends and forks as challenges. In August, the Salchows decided to route runners through an IKEA furniture store parking lot.

Police fielded a call that someone was sprinkling powder on the ground. The store was evacuated and remained closed the rest of the night. The incident prompted a massive response from police in New Haven and surrounding towns. (source)

Sure, it was a classic war on terror over-reaction, but ultimmately the courts let them walk, so where is the zero tolerance, you ask? Glad you did:

The charges were dropped Thursday after Daniel Salchow agreed he and his sister would donate $4,000 to local charities. Prosecutors could reopen the case if the Salchows do the same thing again in the next 13 months.

The two never set out to scare anyone, had a perfect excuse and did no harm -- yet they had to pay a penalty and risk reopening of a lame no-count non-case against them.

As tip-off agent extraordinaire Jim put it, Oh Lord!

Zero-Tolerance Intelligence Watch

Get a job. Move up. Learn respect. Earn respect. Or not.

UNION CITY, Ga. -- A McDonald's employee spent a night in jail and is facing criminal charges because a police officer's burger was too salty, so salty that he says it made him sick.

Kendra Bull was arrested Friday, charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct and freed on $1,000 bail.

Bull, 20, said she accidentally spilled salt on hamburger meat and told her supervisor and a co-worker, who ''tried to thump the salt off.''

On her break, she ate a burger made with the salty meat. ''It didn't make me sick,'' Bull told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

But then Police Officer Wendell Adams got a burger made with the oversalted meat, and he returned a short time later and told the manager it made him sick.

Bull admitted spilling salt on the meat, and Adams took her outside and questioned her, she said.

''If it was too salty, why did (Adams) not take one bite and throw it away?'' said Bull, who has worked at the restaurant for five months. She said she didn't know a police officer got one of the salty burgers because she couldn't see the drive-through window from her work area.

Police said samples of the burger were sent to the state crime lab for tests.

City public information officer George Louth said Bull was charged because she served the burger ''without regards to the well-being of anyone who might consume it.'' (source)

Even accounting for the normal anti-cop bias we see in MSM, you have to ask what lesson this episode sent to Kendra Bull. Will she be better or worse for having tried to make an honest living? Will she have greater or lesser respect for authority?

I think not. I think Ms. Bull's civic sensibilities have been ass-salt-ed.

hat-tip: Jim