And how many of that 88% drop would have been false claims to begin with? Is it truly excessive use of force? Or rather that the arrested/detained/ticketed/etc party realizes that, being recorded they can't any violation. I'm not saying that's the primary reason for the drop, but the popular "Fight the power, Fight the Man", anti-establishment mentality on Slashdot tends to run away with common sense sometimes. Now, I am , most DEFINATELY not in love with the authority, but they do exist for a reason and like every organization, the bad eggs get all the press.

So she's a black teenager... So what? As others have mentioned, other than adding the race card which seems to be obligatory to any story involving schools anymore, what bearing does it have on the REAL story? The issue is in the "what" and "where". The core FACTS that the article stated, 16yo female created a hydrogen soda bottle bomb on school property without sanction by individual science teacher, nor administration. PERIOD. She built a potentially dangerous device on school grounds completely on her own. Her own lack of knowledge in understanding exactly what it would do is her own fault. To use a bad cliche', "she did the crime, she has to do the time." That being said, does it merit expulsion? And/or felony procedings? As much as I understand (not like) the basic concept of Zero-Tolerance, I do agree that it has one way too far. If this was a demonstrated malicious act, then haul the kid off to court. Her crime was ignorance of basic science. Given that it was potentially dangerous, suspend her for a couple weeks and send her to Juvenille detention if you have to, but the actual response by school and law enforcement authorities is ridiculous.

Wow... Can you get any more "Right Wing Conspiracy"-esque? Seriously dude, put down the Obama pom-poms. It's not JUST the Republicans, it's ALL of the politicians. Look at the shpae the country as a whole has been left in since the 60's. Rediculously mounting Debt, almost constant conflict somewhere on the globe, increasing unrest of the people, a wear down of national pride, etc. FYI, look at the history books. If you do the math since counting Kennedy, there has been almost equal party representation in the white house during the beginning of the computer age and on into the information age. You really think that only one party knows what the people want? And/or will actually follow up on that? Crying foul only for one side is the most short sighted view of all. To parody Nixon, "They're ALL crooks!"