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The Maryland Blogger Alliance
Why the Law Don't Get No Respect
It was Mr. Bumble, a character in Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, who first observed (when confronted by the law), "If the law supposes that, then the law is a ass, a idiot!"
Matters have hardly changed in the 150 years that have ensued. We have, on the one hand, the case of Robert Fassbender, a chronic problem-child in the eyes of the law in California, facing life imprisonment under the "three strikes" law, over the theft of a pack of donuts. A fifty-cent pack of Hostess stuff, no less. Not even a Krispy Kreme or Dunkin donut.
Today, The Smoking Gun reports the arrest of one Christopher Holder on charges of disorderly conduct and breach of the peace. It seems that Holder, a 19 year old whiteboy, was standing on the street amusing himself by shouting the lyrics of some rap tune. Which lyrics included that compound noun referring to incest, which appears so frequently in the Ebonics language/dialect. A woman walking past with two young children complained about the foul language.
Here's where it gets weird, according to the police report. Amy Churchill, the offendee, complains to the police. The police apparently asked to report to the police station, and did so. When confronted about Churchill's having been offended, he first argued that he was merely quoting the lyrics of a published tune. When Churchill reiterated that she and her children should not have to be exposed to such language while walking around minding their own business, Holder agreed.
In a reasonable world, Holder would have apologized to Churchill and her children, and that would have been then end of the matter. Whether he actually proffered an apology, or simply agreed with her assertion is not in the public record. But where a mere apology, and perhaps a scolding, would have sufficed, he was locked up and presumably will have to make bail, stand trial, and the whole nine yards.
The charge is a misdemeanor, and probably will not be the factor that prevents this young man's acceptance into Harvard or Princeton, but as they say here on the Worldwide Web, WTF? Which is to say, what purpose will have been served by the expenditure of time and money involved in making this little peccadillo an "official" matter? Don't we have more important missions on which to deploy the forces of the law?