The Saudi legal system is back in the news today with another report of an abomination from the Sharia-based courts in the Kingdom. It appears that Saudi judges do not want to be outdone by the punishment against woman videotaped dancing in the rain. According to this report, a Saudi court has sentenced four men to up to 10 years in prison and 2000 lashes for the crime of dancing “naked” in public. Like the women in Pakistan, the men were left exposed due to a posting on YouTube. The medieval Sharia legal system took it from there.
We have often discussed the low level of punishment meted out for the abuse or killing of animals in this country. Perhaps no case better illustrates the problem than the “prosecution” of Jeremy Shane Temple. A malnourished and flee-covered German Shepard Toby (later named Joseph) with teeth knocked out was found chained to a tree by Temple, his owner. Toby was left chained to the tree for four years and showed signs of abuse. The punishment thus far? A $25 fine.
Justin Baker, 20, may have thought three times is the charm for selling drugs but it is not quite same if you sell the drug three times to the same undercover police officer.
We recently saw NBC air an outdoors program showing a NRA lobbyist shooting an elephant in the face and then celebrating with champagne. Given the outcry over the show, he may want to check out Montana where hunters can make a real killing with a $19 license to kill up to five wolves. That is slightly above $3 a wolf. The problem is that the state has issued 6000 permits which would allow the killing of 30,000 wolves. The entire wolf population however is down to 625 in the entire state.
Former Democratic congressman and Auditor General Don Bailey, 68, had his law license suspended for five years by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for allegations and criticism directed at judges in the state. Bailey denounced the ruling and said that he would challenge it in federal court while denouncing the state justices as corrupt and malicious. While some would agree with the case, there is a worrisome line of cases targeting lawyers who criticize judges.
It may be true that “good fences make good neighbors,” but is it also true that bad donations make for bad cases? This week, Tim Bernaby, 44, pleaded guilty and was given a $100 fine for stealing two letters and 13 Christmas cards written by Frost that were left in a donated desk. The status of the property complicated the criminal case with both the availability of the property and a key witness in doubt. As for the donating family, they insist it never intended to give away the valuable letters and cards. The donor, who has since passed away, saw no need to take the property to a more secure location. After all, Frost himself said “Before I built a wall I’d ask to know what I was walling in or walling out.” In this case, it would be walling in property worth tens of thousands of dollars and walling out one Tim Bernaby.
I am not sure who is more aggrieved in this circumstance. The real question is whether you deal with the cat or the kid first.
We have been following the highly dubious litigation of cross claims between Thomas M. Cooley Law School and Kurzon Strauss and some bloggers. The law school filed a defamation claims against the firm and bloggers who criticized the institution’s portrayal of its graduates’ employment statistics. United States District Judge Robert J. Jonker has now dismissed the case. However, in a rather curious lesson for its students, Cooley is pledging to continue the litigation with an appeal.
We have previously followed the suspensions and discipline of students under zero tolerance policies that are used by teachers to justify zero judgment or responsibility. I have long criticized zero tolerance policies that have led to suspensions and arrests of children (here and here and here and here). Here is a prior column on the subject (and here).Children have been suspended or expelled for drawing stick figures or wearing military hats or bringing Legos shaped like guns or even having Danish in the shape of a gun. Despite the public outcry over the completely irrational and abusive application of zero tolerance rules, administrators and teachers continue to apply them blindly. If you do not have to exercise judgment, you can never been blamed for any failure. That seems to be the logic out of Harmony, Florida where teachers have suspended eight-year-old Jordan Bennett for using a finger as a play gun. This is only the last of such absurd finger gun cases. In the meantime, a student in Rhode Island was suspended for having a key chain with a tiny gun the size of a quarter on it.
Continue reading “Florida Student Reportedly Suspended For Using Finger Gun In Playground Game”
Jehovah’s Witnesses in Arkansas will soon be called to be witnesses of a different kind for John Baldwin, 35. Baldwin is charged with aggravated assault after firing 13 times at the Jehovah’s Witnesses who approached him in his front yard. After Baldwin told Laura Goforth, 47, and Rachel Boshears, 55, to get off his lawn, the Jehovah’s Witnesses were leaving when one of them heard Baldwin tell his wife “Get me my 9.” (A referenced to his Springfield XDM-9). While Isaiah 43:10 may proclaim “Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, and my servant whom I have chosen,” these pious folk will soon be called by a more earthly authority to bear witness.
This is McGill grad student Tim Blais explaining string theory and we should just give him a Nobel for this and send him along his way.
Police have made an arrest in the extraordinary case of a gang of bikers who terrorized a family of Alexian Lien, 33, in New York City. One of the bikers filmed the entire chase and attack and then posted it on YouTube. He may have succeeded in incriminating his colleagues, including Christopher Cruz, 28. Cruz was charged with reckless endangerment, menacing, reckless driving and acting in a manner injurious to a child less than 17. (Update: A second suspect — Allen Edwards, 42, of Queens, charged with reckless endangerment, criminal mischief and menacing. He is believed to be the man seen on video below striking the Range Rover windows with his fists.).
Continue reading “New York Police Make First Arrest in Biker Attack on Family (Updated)”
We have followed controversies over fake pictures in Chinese newspapers, fake eggs in Chinese stores, fake meat in Chinese markets (here and here) and fake lions in Chinese zoos, but that does not appear to the end of it. Recently, cash rained down from an apartment building after a raid by policemen. The occupants tossed out $50,000 to try to destroy evidence of their fraud: fake scholarly articles being sold to academics.
Destiny Desbrow certainly had a marriage ceremony that would be hard to forget. It has the usual features of most weddings: a cake, a ring, and an audience. However, the location and time was a bit odd. She married Danne Desbrow just minutes after he was sentenced to 53 years to life for murder by Judge Patricia Cookson who not only had sentenced him but baked the cake for the wedding.
I have been warning for years of the dangers of tuba lines and now you can see why. Tuba lines are torts waiting to happen. The question is whether proximate causation for negligence of the first Tuba player covers all six victims or whether the casual chain is cut off after the first fall. It seems clear that the chain reaction is the foreseeable consequence of the original fall.