Cook County Cuckoo?

The other title for this could be - "Move To Cook County And Be Guilty Until Proven Innocent!"

Its a bit rich, this news coming out just as America celebrates Independance Day and the concepts inherent in the Bill Of Rights.

I quote the judge involved, courtesy of -> this <- news item

Cook County Judge Patrick Morse said that "it's more likely than not" Barnaby planned only "to chastise the girl" when he grabbed her, but "I can't read his mind."

What happened? 28 year old Fitzroy Barnaby nearly had an accident in his car because of a silly little girl out to get herself run over. He took her by the arm to lecture her and, hopefully scare her enough that she was never so thoughtless of her health again.

I'd love to know which adults decided to take this further, but he ended up in court, for having restrained her by her arm in order to make his point. You can hardly call it restraint, in my mind, because she wouldn't have been able to escape his grip, if that was the case.

If I was her mother, I'd have been damn grateful to him, drilling some sense into my kid. But no. She, or someone along the line tried (and mecifully failed) to do him for kidnapping and child abduction while they were at it - simply for holding her arm in a manner where she could free herself, in a public road.

And because there are a lot of sex offenders there, and because sex offenders grab little girls by the arm (before dragging them into the car, which is before taking them off and abusing them) it has been decided he should go on the sex offenders register, just in case he might have been intending to do something else next. Well, actually because 'unlawful restraint of a minor' is classified as a sex offence. His life has been ruined, he is labelled as 'having done something' for the sin of possibly appearing to consider doing that something. I'd say the bloody thought Police had taken over - except they DON'T actually know what he was thinking!

That's wrong - of course they know what he was thinking - he didn't hold too tight, he didn't drag her into his car when he had the chance and he didn't chase after her. he just tried to do his civic duty and explain to her how close she had come to being a squashed blob on the highway.

If I had the money I would go to America just to cast dirty looks at Judge Patrick Morse (who, it has to be said, felt he was constrained by law to make the judgement irrespective of his own opinion), or preferably the State Attorney Richard Devine or his unsympathetic sidekick, oops, representative, Tom Stanton.

I'd probably be arrested and sentenced for murder, in case I might have been thinking of shooting him.

Bozo.


Thanks to The Will To Exist who blogged this first.