“News of the Strange” – Squirrel Shootouts and Water Assaults

In a pair of head scratching stories involving guns a police officer in TN goes full on Robocop to handle a squirrel and in FL a 19 year old women gets arrested for an unprovoked water gun attack on her boyfriend.

In the first story Officer Overkill Jody Putman was in a Dollar Store in Mountain Tennessee when the employers noticed that a squirrel was inside the store. Putman leapt into immediate action and deployed his pepper spray on the furry little interloper. When that failed he responded by pulling out his sidearm to dispense woodland justice to the trespasser.

So in a scene reminiscent of a slapstick comedy, people were fleeing the store hacking and coughing from the contact with the spray while Putman is firing live rounds at a little squirrel.

Putman then tried to cover up his involvement in the great squirrel hunt of 2013 by refusing to file a report on why he discharged his firearm. In Mountain City, whenever officers discharge their weapons, they are required to alert their supervisors and provide a written statement. Since Putman refused to do either he was subsequently fired by a unanimous city council.

The squirrel unfortunately did not survive the ordeal.

In the second story one needs to question another heavy handed approach by the police, this time in regards to arresting someone who got into a gun fight…of water.

19 year old Giovanna Borge told police that her boyfriend ““said something to her that she did not like,” and in response she “took a water pistol and squirted him with water.” His response was to escalate by dumping a bucket of water on her and hitting her with a pillow.

Somehow, to officers in Port St. Lucie this is a crime…to me it’s more reminiscent of foreplay.

Regardless of my thoughts, officers arrested her for “squirting water” on the victim to “antagonize and agitate him against his wishes.”

A water gun…really. Unless that water pistol was filled with acid or perhaps some noxious stink liquid this all seems laughable.

Speaking of which, the best part of this story comes from a comment I read about it online:

She pulls a water pistol you pull a bucket, she sends one of yours to the sprinkler you send one of her to the pool! That’s the Florida way.

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