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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