I have previously written about the rise of shaming punishments in the United States in both blogs (here and here and here and here) and columns (here and here). We can now add Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Pinkey S. Carr to the ignoble line of judge meting out their own forms of justice through humiliating acts. In this case, as shown in the video below, Shena Hardin, 32, is requiring to wear a sign calling herself an “idiot” in public for repeatedly driving around a school bus on the sidewalk while children were boarding.
As a threshold matter, Hardin is by any definition an idiot. She would routinely drive on the sidewalk to go around a school bus while children were boarding. The driver wisely alerted police who waited one morning and caught her in the act. The outrageous act was caught on videotape below.
Carr ordered her to stand at an intersection wearing a sign for two days saying: “Only an idiot drives on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus.” She is to wear the sign 7:45 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. both days. Her license was suspended for 30 days and she was ordered to pay $250 in court costs.
Carr is already been given “props” for the “perfect” sentence in the media. Carr has been on the bench for just a year but has already decided to make up sentences. She is a former prosecutor and graduated Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1992.
It is easy to let the well-based anger at Hardin to overwhelm our judgment and even relish the degrading act ordered by the court. However, these shaming punishments degrade our legal system and turn judges into little Caesars meting out their own justice to the thrill of the public. We have seen judges force people to cut their hair in their courtroom or clean their court bench with a toothbrush. These sentences make justice a form of public entertainment and allow judges to turn their courtrooms into their own macabre productions.
Hardin should be punished severely according to the municipal code. This should have included in my view a jail stint. I also fail to see how a 30-day suspension is an adequate punishment. I am far more worried about her driving in 30 days than happy with a two-day humiliation. Most people would never drive on a sidewalk in any circumstances. Hardin did it regularly with children boarding a school bus so not to be inconvenienced for a minute a morning.
The judge in this case undermined the social condemnation of this act by improvising with extrajudicial punishment. While I would not require the judge to wear a sign reading “Only an idiot comes up with his own punishments,” I do believe that state bars need to condemn such abuse in sentencing.
Source: ActionNews
If this punishment doesn’t work, she should be dragged behind a school bus.
In fairness to judges you have to have a HIGH tolerance to stupidity to do the job.
I sat in the court room while the judge explained to the first of many people there, that he wanted to explain their rights to them….and that they would NOT be “trying” the case today, just explaining options. And so after 10 or 15 min’s of the judge going over all of his options, he asked the old guy if he understood…so the guy proceeds to plead his case, while the judge has to stop him & try to explain again, that they are NOT there to try the case yet. AGAIN he asks if he understands, blank stare….and then someone comes & gathers the old boy up & tries again to get through to him.
THEN the next person comes up, and the judge AGAIN has to go through the same spiel!
Now I KNOW your not going to believe this, but I swear, TWENTY PEOPLE LATER, he is STILL going through the same speech!!!
If I hadn’t have been there I would never have believed it….& up until then I had always thought of a judge having a cushy job….OMG!!!
I wouldn’t survive a week of that! (Or they wouldn’t…LoL)
mespo,
I could not agree more. 😀
Some judges seem to have an affinity for the “stocks” and a scarlet letter which I have never understood. There was a wealth of actions available to this Judge without the need for inventing new ones.
As to the props … this Thunder guy is a radio talk show dude in Texas who lists as one of his achievements that “I can drink a beer faster than anyone in Texas.” ‘nough said?
Amusing until someone gets a speeding ticket & is then required to not only pay a fine, but wear a sign that says they are an idiot for wanting to break the speed limit law…..
Of course the ‘limits’ are arbitrary anyway in whatever the DOT wants to post….
Gene H:
I think the defendant’s “sign” could have been placed up on the bench, too!
Malisha,
If you’ll re-read what I said, I did admonish the judge although I did personally find this particular extrajudicial punishment amusing and oddly apt. To wit: “Still, it does not mitigate that the judge in this case undermined the social condemnation of this act by improvising with extrajudicial punishment. Bad judge! Get under the bench!” What appeals to my sense of humor and and my sense of legal and judicial propriety can be and many times have been at odds with one another. The sense of legal and judicial propriety always wins in the end though.
It’s GeneH’s day.
He said that the larger the group, the less people are inclined to work. True.
Tha same could be said about the effect of punishment.
The anonymity of large cities, civilizations, etc does diminish the effectiveness of punishment.
Who cares when no one knows, there is only the cost in time and money to consider, and the risk of being prosecuted.
The situation in a village of 20 families with a common economy is something else.
I also noticed this was a “short bus,” for mentally and physically challenged kids. I like the driver’s voice..sounds like a good man.
There is one reason that the extra-judicial punishment indicates its need, and which supports GeneH’s take.
Obviously the shame of conviction and fining, incarceration. etc. does not have the desired effect today (in increasingly wider circles!).
The remedy does not lie in using EJP, but other approaches.
What they are, I have no idea.
Gene H, I take issue with you, not because of this particular act (which I consider sociopathic much more than idiotic, BTW) or this particular punishment (which I consider useless and a rotten precedent, plus one that if the woman doesn’t do it, it will be very hard to hold her in criminal contempt and still not grossly violate her Eighth Amendment rights on “unusual” alone), but because it encourages judges to do what strikes them but which is obviously outside their jurisdiction.
When judges decide to go outside their jurisdiction and they get rewarded for it (as this one has already been by the fact that so many people are his foolish cheerleaders because they wish THEY had the power to do things like that) a precedent is set that is, in my opinion, more dangerous than any other. Believe me, I know this first-hand. Judges have almost unlimited discretion WITHIN the laws giving them the right to do so much without effective review or evaluation. Giving them powers BEYOND those legally provided must be restrained and discouraged everywhere by every means. I wish the ACLU would jump into this case on the idiot’s side.
I’m with Bron, Community service is more productive.
In NC, she would immediately lose her license for at least a year. No passing allowed from both directions. That was in the 50’s. Today there is probably a death penalty involved.
If humiliation is to be allowed, It must be done where it will be observed and felt.
She should have had to wear a new sign each day for a month at her place of work. Shame, more creativitty pleease.
I agree Mr. Turley. There is a disturbing coarsening of our culture that doesn’t need to be fueled by more from our judicial system. People throw around insults now routinely. There’s such a negativity to it that bleeds over to all of our culture. Jail time, 6 month license suspension and community service as a crossing guard..no signs, just the duty of protecting kids. But, I’ll clue folks here in on something they may not know. License suspension does not deter most people from driving. I wish I had a nickle for every subject of surveillance I followed driving w/o a license.
maybe cleaning school buses on weekends for a month would have been more productive.
With the repeated choice of driving on a sidewalk, one has to wonder what other decision making skills she is lacking.
Normally I’m with you 100% on the issue of shaming punishments, JT, but this one? I’ll have to admit this particular one does have a certain je ne sais quoi about it. Still, it does not mitigate that the judge in this case undermined the social condemnation of this act by improvising with extrajudicial punishment. Bad judge! Get under the bench!
Judge Pinkey S. Carr, according to ABC
http://clevelandmunicipalcourt.org/judicial-services/meet-the-judges/judge-pinkey-s-carr
Ya cant change an idjit.
“However, these shaming punishments degrade our legal system and turn judges into little Caesars meting out their own justice to the thrill of the public. We have seen judges force people to cut their hair in their courtroom or clean their court bench with a toothbrush. These sentences make justice a form of public entertainment and allow judges to turn their courtrooms into their own macabre productions.”
Well said.
They are going far afield.