Excessive Force, Opioids, Dead Malls – Friday’s Roundup

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Indictment
An Atlantic City police officer, Sterling Wheaten, was indicted for civil rights violations and filing a false report over the 2013 incident in which Wheaten put his K9 dog on David Castellani after Castellani had four other police on him and one hand in a handcuff, per the indictment.

The city has already paid $3 million over this incident.

Officer Wheaten had 23 excessive force complaints against him but none were ever deemed credible, and he was promoted to the K9 job despite having more internal affairs complaints than the other 23 applicants in 2012, per this story.

Anyhoo.

Opioid Solutions
Former Governor Jim McGreevey has three ideas for grappling with the opioid crisis, to wit: “Medication-Assisted Treatment” (methadone, buprenorphine etc.), long-term treatment using a “hub-and-spoke” model (intensive treatment at a hub, transitioning to less intense treatment at “spokes” in the community) and wrap-around services, or something.

Speaking of buprenorphine, do you remember when Richard Sackler, whose family made billions selling OxyContin, applied for and got a patent for a new form of buprenorphine, which is used to treat addiction to opioids like OxyContin? That was like an entire month ago.

Ghost Malls
The valuable Spotlight has a story on retrofitting dead malls (sorry, “ghost malls”) apropos of the EDA’s announcement it was giving out grants to municipalities. The grants are $50,000 and provide an opportunity for communities to focus on creative ideas to address challenges or somesuch bullsh*t. Sorry! I’m out of here. Happy weekend!

Oh, for more feats of journalism…

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