IP: Re: I find this outrageous!!

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> To: farber () cis upenn edu
> cc: lauren () vortex com
> Subject: Re: IP: Re: I find this outrageous!!
> Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 09:03:33 -0700
> From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
>
>
> FYI -- NOT FOR IP
>
> Years ago, a female friend of mine lived in an area of the city
> here where there was theoretically no overnight street parking,
> but it was understood that the parking tickets they got would
> be dismissed by the court anyway.  So, like everyone else, she
> parked overnight a lot and piled up a number of tickets which
> she ignored, like everyone else in the area. 
>
> One day a pair of cops come up to her house (she lived with
> her parents at the time, she was maybe 18 or 20 or some such),
> handcuffed her, and arrested her for the unpaid tickets.
> A real embarrassment.  Of course, the judge went ballistic,
> and threw out all the tickets -- noting it was common practice
> to dismiss them in that area!  But hey, the cops got to do a
> nice, safe arrest and avoid doing any serious work.
>
> It's interesting to compare treatment of minor "offenders" in the
> U.S. with much of Europe, where unlike here, handcuffing, chaining,
> and public parading and humiliation (like what was done here to
> Susan McDougal) is the exception rather than the rule.  The cops
> claim that such "security" is to protect the prisoner (theory being,
> the police can't claim they were attacked if the prisoner is
> restrained).  But for minor offenses, we know what it's really
> all about -- humiliation.  And in fact, even SCOTUS in their ruling
> yesterday seemed to imply that humilation was A-OK.
>
> I figure that stocks, pillories, and public floggings will be next (the
> last one the most likely -- people in the U.S. loved it when that kid
> got caned in Singapore, and some states have already tried to
> re-introduce flogging).
>
> --Lauren--



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