Blotter?ro;”Objects Lesson

Objects Lesson Call it a simple lesson in what sorts of things you should and should not keep in close proximity these days.

The first mistake Brooklyn resident Bashiri Murray, 27, made on Saturday was letting folks see him carrying around that damned machine gun of his. The second mistake was keeping all that anti-Bush paraphernalia in his car, near where he was seen with the machine gun. And the third mistake he made was running away with the machine gun the moment the cops showed up.

According to the Post, Murray allegedly ditched the gun under a parked car as he ran. But you know, ditching a little handgun in a river is one thing, but tossing a machine gun under a car just ain't gonna fool anybody. The cops caught up with him, found all the anti-Bush pamphlets, and called the Secret Service.

After a brief interview, the agents decided that, machine gun aside, Murray wasn't really that much of a threat (at least not to the president), so they left without pressing charges. The NYPD, though, that's another story. ------ Maniac Cop IV Early on the morning of Aug. 12th, a 31-year-old Manhattan man met another man in a Times Square subway station. The two men apparently found they had many interests in common, because the 31 year-old invited the other man back to his hotel room (we're guessing to continue their conversation). Even though it was 5 a.m., the other man agreed. It must have been quite an interesting discussion they were having!

But would you know it, when they got inside the man's hotel room, the interesting stranger pulled out a police badge and threatened to arrest the man for something. Then he allegedly promised that he wouldn't arrest the man if he handed over all of his money. After pocketing the cash, the officer suggested that they go to an ATM, so the man could hand over maybe even a little more money.

That's when the 31 year-old began to suspect that his new friend wasn't really a policeman at all!

But there was no getting out of it now, so according to the Post, the two men went to a nearby ATM (they're everywhere these days, which is quite convenient for situations like this) and the poor sucker withdrew a lot more money. Then the fake policeman ran away. Guess you can't blame the guy for waiting almost a month to tell the real police what happened. The lesson here is clear: beware of the cops! If someone claiming to be a cop approaches you-no matter how authentic they look-run away! And if running away's not an option, be ready to defend yourself. ------ Nobody Likes Weathermen Last December, days after doing his WCBS weather forecast while holding his new baby daughter, weatherman John Bolaris received a crazy letter from a loony-toon. He passed it on to station security, who promised to pass it on to the NYPD. Apart from that, Bolaris didn't mention it.

After ten months, Bolaris told the Daily News about the letter last week . What bugged him wasn't that the note called him a "Greek bastard," but that it threatened his daughter. Whoever penned the letter even called her a bitch. If Bolaris didn't quit weathermanning, the letter claimed, his daughter would be killed sometime this year.

Well, Bolaris has continued more or lessforecasting the weather, and so far as we know his daughter is still alive. Funny thing is, the day after the Daily News broke the story, Bolaris learned that WCBS security never exactly got around to passing that letter on to the cops.

It was also reported that the police were currently investigating nine other CBS employees with angry stalker troubles of their own.

What exactly set off this particular letter writer is unclear-another bad weather report, a hatred for the mawkish exploitation of children, or Bolaris' haircut. Whatever the case, he apparently never wrote the weatherman another letter-which is why we find Bolaris' belated bandwagon-jumping a little annoying.