Philly cops raid a … baby shower?

The Internal Affairs Division of the Philadelphia Police Department is investigating what prompted a violent clash between officers and attendees of a baby shower that resulted in at least six injuries, including two toddlers and mothers who were maced, whipped with batons and otherwise roughed up, The Philadelphia Daily News reports. One of the victims, 1½-year-old Adima Davis, cried as she turned to her mother, Dionne Whitaker, and said, “Mommy, it burn.” Adima now has a bump near her left eye. Whitaker, 28, told the News that she had been at the baby shower in North Philly when a narcotics officers rushed into the yard and triggered a police “riot,” the newspaper reports. Officials with Internal Affairs and the city’s Police Advisory Commission are looking into the incident, according to the News. “These guys were totally out of control. They were worse than any thugs that I’ve seen,” said Joseph Williams, 47, whose nephew is the father of the soon-to-be-born baby. “It was like back in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, when Martin Luther King Jr. was marching . . . Women and children were maced and beaten. Kids are crying and these cops were laughing.” This wasn’t the first violent encounter with civilians for two of the officers. Thomas Schaffling and Sean Bascom were also involved in a May 5 beating of three shooting suspects that was captured by a TV news helicopter and broadcast repeatedly on network television. Shaffling, a member of the city’s Narcotics Strike Force, is the one pulling suspect Brian Hall out of the car and kicking him repeatedly, the News reports. Bascom slugged another suspect in the head, face and collarbone. Police officials claim that in the latest incident the officers had chased drug suspect into the yard where the baby shower was being held. “But those at the celebration said that the suspect had not cut through the yard and that police had mistakenly arrested a relative who had just arrived at the shower with a gift in hand,” the News reported.
Professor moons another scholar during debate. The real question is whether Fort Hays University debate coach Bill Shanahan would have pulled down his shorts and mooned rival coach Shanara Reid-Brinkley of the University of Pittsburgh if he had known it would be wind up being the hottest video on YouTube. But as it stands now, he is known more for his scrawny backside than he is for his intellectual prowess. The videotape picks up after a debate on a racial top has ended, and the two professors are apparently arguing over a technical point. Seconds later the two coaches are yelling at one another, mixing in a healthy dose of cuss words. Reid-Brinkley calls Shanahan an “asshole,” and he proceeds to give her a close-up view, bending over and dropping his drawers. Fort Hays says it is investigating the crude demonstration. Fort Hays Provost Larry Gould told KSNW TV in Wichita that he just learned of the YouTube posting. “College campuses are the place to have thought provoking discussion, however we don’t condone the behavior in that video, mooning the audience and use of foul language is just inappropriate in many ways,” Gould told local ABC affiliate KAKE.