Negligent Notification in the Pines

We don't know what happened when two men were killed by a Pembroke Pines police cruiser early Monday morning, but the PD was surely negligent in informing the family. The Sun-Sentinel's Akilah Johnson and Brian Haas led with how the family was notified:

Mary Cruz awoke Monday morning to police cruisers and commotion outside her home in the Heron Pond condominium complex. She went to investigate, was shown a credit card imprinted with a picture and asked by police, "Do you know this person?"

She did; it was her brother-in-law, Jesus Danilo Rosales. Cruz, 35, woke up her husband and listened to the officer say the man in the picture "died last night. He was in a car accident."

It wasn't until the noon news that Rosales' family learned the fatal crash was caused when a Pembroke Pines police officer struck and killed the pedestrian and his cousin.

That's absolutely pathetic on the part of Pines police -- and it can't help but make you suspicious that the officer was speeding at some ridiculous rate without his siren on (though he had his lights flashing). Again, we don't really know who was at fault, but don't kid yourself that there aren't arrogant, potentially deadly cops lurking about. In the S-S comments under the story (which is full of the usual bigotry and immigrant hate), an apparent cop responds to a commenter who complained that police speed thusly:

You must be the guy in the pink Pinto I pass on my way to

work... sorry if I startle ya partner... maybe next time you get out and try to walk across the street... I will turn on my lights then clip ya. On the other hand, it would mess up my car and I would have to drive a pool car... never mind. Hey, remember... Click it or ticket man, I love ya!

Get the IP address and get that m-fer off the road.

-- I know it's the Tuesday after Labor Day Weekend, but the Sentinel's front page was exceptionally weak and Help Teamy this morning. The top story was about how some establishments keep their air conditioning down and make it chilly for us (seriously, that was the story) and the center package was about how to buy a "safer" mattress. Yes, now our own beds are trying to kill us, but have no fear, the Help Team is here.

As one reader pointed out the one-two punch in an email this morning, writing, "This ain't a newspaper, it's Hints From Heloise."