>The really odd thing, to me, was that officials like cops and parking
>inspectors were encouraged to make civil claims against anyone who gave
>them cheek. Or even called the cop a liar, which you would think was
>sometimes necessary if you wanted to deny what the cop was accusing you of.
>The Magistrate would award civil damages against defendants at the drop of
>a hat, meaning that they would be ordered to pay the cops damages. As well
>as any fines to the court. One poor bastard who called a parking cop a
>"bitch" was ordered to pay her 200 Euros damages, even though he had
>immediately apologised.
>
>200 Euros damages! For that! If one little word did a parking inspector
>that much of an injury, how very fragile must the French be?
Greenbay Wisconsin http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2005-11-02-airport-groping_x.htm "A U.S. District Court jury in July convicted Phyllis Dintenfass of assault of a federal employee for the September 2004 incident. Dintenfass grabbed and pushed Transportation Safety Administration supervisor Anita Gostisha during a pat-down search at the Outagamie County Regional Airport." ... "I beg you to look at my record of nearly 63 years and how I have lived and what I have done … and know I have paid a very heavy price for my momentary loss of control," Dintenfass said.
In issuing his ruling, Griesbach said that he appreciated that this appeared to be a "split-second incident" with no planning or forethought. Considering this was Dintenfass' only blemish in an otherwise law-abiding life. He said this was clearly a case where prison was not appropriate.
However, "We are not here to recognize her for a good life," Griesbach said. "We're here because she committed a crime.
"The need to protect public employees … is important."
Griesbach stopped short of ordering home monitoring, but ruled that any travel needed to be approved by Dintenfass' probation agent.
Griesbach also ordered Dintenfass to perform 100 hours of community service and pay a $2,000 fine."
In other news, have you been following the World Can't Wait stuff? I wasn't motivated at all to go in the bay area where it was leaning towards the RCP base - (but I think the kids acting out here might not be? http://www.ktvu.com/slideshow/news/5236774/detail.html?qs=1;s=1;dm=ss;p=news;w=400
)
yet I get the idea that this was an organically organized event, often by high school students, in many of the cities. Seattle's event wasn't WCW or RCP, and I believe Chicago also had other groups. One of the Protest Warriors was trying to organize the one in Sacramento, by putting himself down as the contact, and claiming they had a permit when there wasn't one, and then setting them up to meet in a stupid location where police had been told to go.
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