Via the fabulousness that is BoingBoing, comes this story, about a police officer that could not control himself:
No one disputes that an on-duty Irvine police officer got an erection and ejaculated on a motorist during an early-morning traffic stop in Laguna Beach. The female driver reported it, DNA testing confirmed it and officer David Alex Park finally admitted it.If you read the story, it turns out that he essentially stalked her, and was still found not guilty. Because of her job. Because of his job, he should be measured by, at the very least, the same standards as the average citizen. But he's not. He's a cop, in a position of authority.
When the case went to trial, however, defense attorney Al Stokke argued that Park wasn’t responsible for making sticky all over the woman’s sweater. He insisted that she made the married patrolman make the mess—after all, she was on her way home from work as a dancer at Captain Cream Cabaret.
“She got what she wanted,” said Stokke. “She’s an overtly sexual person.”
A jury of one woman and 11 men—many white and in their 50s or 60s—agreed with Stokke. On Feb. 2, after a half-day of deliberations, they found Park not guilty of three felony charges that he’d used his badge to win sexual favors during the December 2004 traffic stop.
The story ends (for the public, but not for Lucy) in a moment of small mercy:
“[Park’s] testimony was just incredible,” said Kamiabipour. Irvine city officials must have doubted his story, too. After an exhaustive police internal affairs investigation, they felt it was prudent to give Lucy $400,000 to make her civil lawsuit go away—for fear a jury might give her much more.All I can say to the jury of Lucy's peers is: Shame on you. May your version of justice come back and bite you in the ass.
Lori
5 comments:
That's what you get with a jury of one woman and 11 men. Instant recidivism. Welcome back to the dark ages of blaming the victim whenever she's female. I'm surprised they didn't vote for death by stoning in the village square.
I've been stoned - - -
I think much of the jury was as well.
This is one aspect of law on which we are indeed better off in Canada. It's too bad it took the Missing Women case to make the change, but we do find differently in such cases up here, generally speaking.
What? Not one comment about my coy attempts at lewd humour?
Huh.
Anyway -- so yes, she did 'help him out'. If I were faced, as it were, by a cop with a hardon, what would I do? Take his badge number, take my cell phone out and snap a few pictures, tell him to get stuffed...but then I'm not a stripper in the USA with a suspended license, possibly with drugs on my person. In that situation, I might let myself be used.
But then I wouldn't be in that situation (touch wood...[sorry, there go the bad puns again!]).
So it's sexual assault either way. Coersion is the point.
And yes, the headline is one of your best. Be proud; we'll corrupt you yet.
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