happy you maintain your sense of humor. gunnar.
i ain’t nothin’ but a g-thang. ask my friends.
^
I just visited a friend/client in Jail yesterday. It was pretty bleak. He is allowed a 30 minute visit once a week. The visit consists of seeing him through a 12" x 18" barred window of safety glass and talking on the phone receivers. He shares a room with 150 inmates and is allowed to have time outside once a week for about 3 hours. He’s one of 3 white guys in the entire group.
He has a hearing next month. Best case scenario is we get him out on probation. Worst case scenario . . . . 6 years in the clink.
uh huh.don’t know too many white boys doin’ time.
I peeked at a bunch of the other windows too. One of them was an Asian boy. He looked really clean cut and small. He must have been about 18 years old (the youngest they allow), but he looked not a day over 14. I don’t know his story, but he was just one of those kids you see and you think to yourself, “He ain’t gonna make it.”
Gunnar, what did he do? (what is he accused of?)
My homie got some demon alcohol in him one night and got pulled over for a DUI. Apparently he got a bit lippy and he got beaten with a Maglite and got himself 14 stitches in the head.
This would all be bad enough . . . . but he’s got some skeletons in the closet (past record from his wild youth) as well. To boil it down to a simple TV Guide synopsis . . . homeboy is a stellar dude who made some VERY LARGE mistakes one night and we’re all fighting to minimize the punishment that he’s got coming (he’s already been locked up for over 2 months).
The district attorneys are basically painting it as “this psychopath tried to kill our officers and is going to run amok on society”. Our defense team is obviously trying to paint a slightly different picture. I’m really not that into the details of the case and proceedings (I just catch basic summaries and updates) and my involvement in the trial side has just been to write letters to the judge and be a character witness.
First week of August they will have a hearing and I think we’ll find out what his fate will be.
My homie got some demon alcohol in him one night and got pulled over for a DUI. Apparently he got a bit lippy and he got beaten with a Maglite and got himself 14 stitches in the head.
so he got the shit beat out of him AND got locked in the clink? dayumm!!
This would all be bad enough . . . . but he’s got some skeletons in the closet (past record from his wild youth) as well.
prior to 18 should all be sealed, yeah?
To boil it down to a simple TV Guide synopsis . . . homeboy is a stellar dude who made some VERY LARGE mistakes one night and we’re all fighting to minimize the punishment that he’s got coming (he’s already been locked up for over 2 months).
Do you think he’s learned his lesson or what? 14 stitches usually does that but lessening his time may make him think he got off light.
The district attorneys are basically painting it as “this psychopath tried to kill our officers and is going to run amok on society”.
psychopath huh? how many stitches did the cop end up with? I’m assuming zero is the answer which means he’s a pretty shitty psychopath if he can’t even draw wound big enough to stitch.
First week of August they will have a hearing and I think we’ll find out what his fate will be.
hope for the best for you.
Late,
grmpysmrf
I didn’t literally mean “youth” in the legal sense, but he had some earlier indescretions (probably his late teens, early 20’s).
I don’t know what happened in the melee between him and the cops. His version is, I’m sure, a bit skewed and even if he didn’t have vested interest in being “the good guy” he was drunk and stupid that night so his version would already be discounted.
From what I heard, they put him in the back of the cop car, uncuffed, and then said he was trying to kick out the windows (he said he wasn’t doing anything – maybe), so they pulled him out and gave him a nice sampling of LA’s finest.
If he was rowdy (probably) or not, I don’t know. And I don’t really care.
Did he learn his lesson? Well, I can’t honestly say. I do think 6 years is pretty crazy for what is basically (from what I can tell) a glorified drunk and disorderly/ DUI incident, and the few months he’s been locked in SHOULD be more than enough, but . . .
To be honest, I was really hoping I’d hear him say, “Man, I’m NEVER going to touch a drop of booze ever again.” I would do everything to support him and was going to commit to never touching it again in his presence so he would always have another sober homie to hang with and he wouldn’t feel weird.
But he mentioned the fishing trip that we are hoping he’ll be able to join us on and he said something like, “Yeah, let’s get f***ed up!” In all honesty it was disappointing to hear and I felt a bit let down. I didn’t preach to him there or anything as I didn’t feel the place and time was right, but I really wanted to see someone with hard core resolve and new positive choices. It would be a much easier pitch to the judge when the day comes.
Anyway . . . . we’ll see . . . .
Six years for getting rowdy when the cops pull you over?
Only in America.
I read this article a few months back about this guy in Idaho who was swimming at a local public pool and he put his hand on this young girl’s backside as he was waiting behind her to climb the steps to get out of the pool.
He received 25 years jail.
In Australia (or at least…here in Melbourne) you could ride a lawn mower through the Burke Street Mall, running over people helter skelter and firing cherry bomb firecrackers at the cops as they tried to stop you and you might, MIGHT do a little prison time.
If you were unlucky.
I read this article a few months back about this guy in Idaho who was swimming at a local public pool and he put his hand on this young girl’s backside as he was waiting behind her to climb the steps to get out of the pool.
He received 25 years jail.
There’s probably more to the story in this case (i.e. perhaps “he was a registered sex offender and was on parole and forbidden to have any contact with children”). I don’t know, of course, but it just sounds like there’s some major details missing.
[reply]
I read this article a few months back about this guy in Idaho who was swimming at a local public pool and he put his hand on this young girl’s backside as he was waiting behind her to climb the steps to get out of the pool.
He received 25 years jail.
There’s probably more to the story in this case (i.e. perhaps “he was a registered sex offender and was on parole and forbidden to have any contact with children”). I don’t know, of course, but it just sounds like there’s some major details missing.[/reply]
I agree.
Late,
grmpysmrf
It’s not out of the realm of believability, though. Some laws are written in such a way that people can “unfairly” get slammed by them.
Such as the case with the poor bastard who broke open a Coke cooler in front of a gas station and stole a couple pop bottles. He was charged with “breaking into a WAREHOUSE” (the cooler fit the "legal definition of ‘warehouse’ " quite clearly) and ended up with something like 5 years.
There’s was also a number of particularly celebrated “Three Strikes” cases when CA first put those laws into action. Originally (I don’t know what it is now), someone convicted of two violent or serious felonies that gets arrested for something a third time gets automatic prison time (I can’t remember if it was 5 years or 10 years or what) with no parole.
So, you had some ex-con who was supposedly trying to get his life back together steal a Hershey bar and . . . . BLAMMO!!!
I’m always kind of conflicted in these cases. I mean, yeah “Man sentenced to 5 years for stealing candy bar” is inflammatory and gets most of us ready to scream injustice, but . . . he was a major bad seed screw up and (regardless of how minor) he STILL couldn’t seem to stay clean.
Maybe I’d be saying the same about my buddy if I knew the full facts and was not already his friend.
The guy was not a registered sex offender and in fact did not have a criminal record.
He was charged with a number of offences pertaining to grooming and “aggressive” sexual misconduct with a minor, lewd and lascivious behaviour etc.
He did not speak a word to her and it was several weeks before the girl even mentioned it to her parents.
Sounds like the judge wanted to make an example of this guy.
I read about this in a newspaper article about America’s supposed harsh stance on indecency. It seems that this kind of crime is attracting penalties usually reserved in days gone by for major crimes like armed bank robbery.
They called it the “He Touched Me Syndrome” and it would seem it’s running rampant.
One poor fella (said the article), a teacher in some US farming community spent nearly 10 years in prison after falling victim to the “He Touched Me Syndrome” and it turned out that the little bitch student was lying. Seems she was pissed that he gave her friend detention for using a fire extiguisher. He’s suing the state for something like US$20 million!! HA!!
Reminds me of that Simpsons episode where the townspeople are up in arms over the nude statue of Michelangelo’s David. And the “sexual harrassment” episode with the gummy bear…!
Cops lie when it suits them to do so.
The average citizen thinks that the cops tell the truth and nothing but the whole truth 100% of the time. They really believe, “If the cop says I did it, I must have.” Yeah, right. Not to mention they try to manipulate and intimidate.
I don’t have much sympathy for DUI because it is completely avoidable and oh so potentially deadly.
[reply]Cops lie when it suits them to do so.
The average citizen thinks that the cops tell the truth and nothing but the whole truth 100% of the time. They really believe, “If the cop says I did it, I must have.” Yeah, right. Not to mention they try to manipulate and intimidate.
I don’t have much sympathy for DUI because it is completely avoidable and oh so potentially deadly.[/reply
right on the nose mooney!
Late,
grmpysmrf
There’s was also a number of particularly celebrated “Three Strikes” cases when CA first put those laws into action. Originally (I don’t know what it is now), someone convicted of two violent or serious felonies that gets arrested for something a third time gets automatic prison time (I can’t remember if it was 5 years or 10 years or what) with no parole.
One thing you have to applaud the W Administration for, was their tough stance and zero tolerance approach to crime. I don’t think America has ever been as safe as it was over the last 10 years.
So, you had some ex-con who was supposedly trying to get his life back together steal a Hershey bar and . . . . BLAMMO!!!
I’m always kind of conflicted in these cases. I mean, yeah “Man sentenced to 5 years for stealing candy bar” is inflammatory and gets most of us ready to scream injustice, but . . . he was a major bad seed screw up and (regardless of how minor) he STILL couldn’t seem to stay clean.
Maybe I’d be saying the same about my buddy if I knew the full facts and was not already his friend.[/reply]
One thing you have to applaud the W Administration for, was their tough stance and zero tolerance approach to crime. I don’t think America has ever been as safe as it was over the last 10 years.
I hope this ^ is sarcasm.
My metro area seemed like the murder capital of the U.S. for a few years (2006-2007). Remember that we are talking 2M people + in my metro area. It took a new Chief of Police to clean up the majority of the huge mess, not W.
It is safer here now, but there are still a few suburbs of the city (some have their own police force) and one area near downtown that are still sketchy. Part of the east-side has had an increase in crime (rape/theft/murder) as the university student population has increased (the 2nd largest student population in the U.S.). We still have problems with home invasions and occasional car jackings.
St. Louis has been the quote-unquote murder capital of the US for the last few years, but really when you look at it, the reputation is a bit undeserved. YES, those fools are poppin’ off like mad in the city, but unlike just about every other city in the country, the borders of the city are set in the city charter, making it illegal for the city to annex any more land. Therefore, you actually have the city of St. Louis artificially divided from the rest of the metropolitan area. The St. Louis area (city & suburbs) has 2,845,298 people living in it, St. Louis City only contains 319,294 of those. So statistics come out showing this ridiculous crime rate PER CAPITA, and the entire area gets labelled dangerous when really it’s only certain neighborhoods and areas of a much smaller subset that is actually being represented. It’s like if you counted up the violent crime per capita in the worst parts of Chicago or LA and then on the news you get Compton’s crime rate per head reported as Los Angeles’ crime rate. Really, we’ve got a lot of work to do here cleaning up our act, but seriously it’s a lot better than, say, DETROIT.
Just an example of how you can’t always rely on the statistics to prove your points about your socioeconomic theories. Numbers are easily twisted by politicians, pundits, business interests, etc. to mislead people into going along with their agenda. I wouldn’t give Bush any credit for cleaning up crime. Conventional wisdom says crime should go up in tough economic times, but in this recession crime has remained flat or decreased in most of the country, and that is actually with a DECREASE in enforcement on the war on drugs (while the argument is still being made that being tough on crime and locking everybody up would make us safer).
Now, on the touchy-feely front, I do agree that there is a mild state of pandemonium in this country and has been for a while. Not sure if this is widely known, but the Soulard neighborhood in south St. Louis City is home to the worlds third largest Mardi Gras celebration. It goes Rio, New Orleans, Soulard. And every year, a bunch of drunks get busted for taking a piss in an alley, and somehow since you have your dick out that’s public exposure, and those poor idiots end up having to register as sex offenders. Meanwhile, girls are showing their tits hanging out of windows for blocks. No shit.
but enough about crime.
Gerda, you got any stories or memorable quotes from or thoughts on Jello Biafra?
One thing you have to applaud the W Administration for, was their tough stance and zero tolerance approach to crime. I don’t think America has ever been as safe as it was over the last 10 years.[/reply}
Dude, it wasn’t cause of W… Clinton first imposed those 3 strikes laws, and I don’t even think those were the reason for the drop in crime rates, I mean really, if the threat of the death penalty is statistically ineffective than 3 strikes would be equally so…
But anyway I think the relative lack of crime was do to the financial prosperity of the Clinton years… yes we had the Dot.Com boom that had nothing to do with Clinton but we had a much more fair tax structure back then that made a lot more sense… anyway, unless someone can prove otherwise I don’t think any of the Bush policies really made the country any safer per se.
So, you had some ex-con who was supposedly trying to get his life back together steal a Hershey bar and . . . . BLAMMO!!!
I’m always kind of conflicted in these cases. I mean, yeah “Man sentenced to 5 years for stealing candy bar” is inflammatory and gets most of us ready to scream injustice, but . . . he was a major bad seed screw up and (regardless of how minor) he STILL couldn’t seem to stay clean.
Maybe I’d be saying the same about my buddy if I knew the full facts and was not already his friend.
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