Politics

Brickbats: August/September 2026

News of politicians, police, and bureaucrats behaving badly from around the world

Peter Bagge and Charles Oliver | From the August/September 2026 issue

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(Illustration: Peter Bagge)

Police in Davie, Florida, arrested Demarquize Dawson under a state law criminalizing the concealment of license plate information because the frame on his rental car covered the first S in Sunshine State. Dawson spent a night in jail and suffered a panic attack. In April 2026, state lawmakers passed a new law clarifying that only the plate number and registration sticker must be uncovered.

The Russian government caused a major disruption to the country's online financial services while attempting to tighten internet censorship. In an effort to stop citizens from using VPNs, the government's filtering systems accidentally interfered with encrypted data used by financial institutions, causing widespread glitches in banking apps and online........

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