Tony At 10: JUSTICE OR NOT; BLOG # 2194; FRI JUN 28, 2019

THE MESSAGE:

As Martin Luther King said “The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice.” John Lennon sang of Imagining all the people living life in peace. Billy Bragg complained to Mr. Love & Justice that everything he was told was not true. It is clear that the search for justice has long been a goal of mankind. It is also obvious that to date the concept and search for ‘Justice for all’ has managed to take a back seat to religion, culture and ego in every part of our world. In Western societies there exist many examples of people seeking justice in life and the courtroom.

Recently in Nebraska police say a 32-year-old man is recovering after dropping his gun on a sidewalk, causing it to fire and shoot him in the genitals. My reaction to this is a hearty, "yessir, now that’s justice!"

THE BLURB:

Here are several examples of claimants who say that they were wronged. All of them have some degree of irony and humour.

WHAT DID YOU SAY?

PARKING EXCUSES

1. A defendant had parked in a handicapped spot, despite not having a visible handicap sticker. The man claimed he’d meant to park for just a moment to go into a restaurant to bring his dehydrated mother a glass of water. But on his way out, he saw someone choking and felt obliged to administer the Heimlich maneuver. The only problem was when the judge asked him how one does the Heimlich maneuver, the man had not a clue. Guilty as charged!

2. A woman argued against a parking ticket she’d received for parking in what had clearly been marked a loading zone. Not only was the sign clear on that, but the woman said she typically parked legally in an adjacent spot.

“So why not park legally this time?” the judge asked.

“Because a dumpster parked in that spot. So I took the spot the dumpster should have taken.”

She uttered, hmm? She also had to pay her parking ticket.

3. I shoulda called Tony to represent me. He is UNDEFEATED!

HEAD SCRATCHERS

1. A client who claimed he wasn’t making enough money to afford to pay spousal support. The guy was the CEO of a big company and clearly could afford it. Nevertheless, the guy insisted on making the claim, and the day of the trial, he came to court dressed in dirty work clothes and testified he worked as a landscaper and barely made ends meet mowing lawns for a living.

It did not go well for the hardworking CEO!

2. A woman sought help in proving who was the father of her child. The child was the result of a one-night stand. The problem, however, wasn’t that she couldn’t locate the father. Rather it turned out she could.

Her lawyer asked, “Do you know any of his relatives?”

She answered, “I know his brother.”

“OK, how do you know his brother?”

“He’s my husband.”

3. A 22-year-old Indigenous man, and four other young people drove onto Mr. Stanley’s During the trial Mr. Boushie’s friends said they were on the property to look for help with a flat tire, but Stanley claimed the group was trying to steal an ATV.

Stanley told the court that he fired some warning shots in the air to scare the group away, but further explained, that the handgun accidentally went off again while triying to pull the alleged trespassers from the SUV. The shot struck Boushie, who was sitting in the passenger seat, in the back of the head.

Following a 13-day trial, the jury found Stanley not guilty of second-degree murder.

GO FIGURE

Terror

In the Quebec City mosque shooting in January 2017, Alexandre Bissonnette had to answer for the deaths of six worshippers. Bissonnette pleaded not guilty to the six counts of first-degree murder and six counts of attempted murder. He recanted two days later and admitted to the crimes.

Bissonnette is still awaiting sentencing, but could face 150 years behind bars. His defence team, however, is arguing against the legislation that allows for consecutive sentences in cases of multiple murders claiming such as sentence would be inhumane. Bissonnette’s parents called their son’s sentence “very severe” and said the Crown’s proposed sentence encouraged a desire for revenge. SERIOUSLY?

Circumcision

A man suffered an infected penis as a result of circumcising himself. His actions also caused his foreskin to bleed in nine places, requiring sutures in a hospital. One would think that he was aware of the dangers of performing a circumcision on his son!

Yet he attempted to circumcise his four-year-old son on the kitchen floor of his home and was charged with one count of criminal negligence causing bodily harm, one count of aggravated assault and one count of assault using a weapon.

The Weather

When it Rains it Pours What happens when we put all our trust in a weather prediction? . An Israeli woman sued a TV station when the weatherman wrongly predicted a nice day. The woman ended up getting caught in the rain, causing her to catch the flu, miss a week of work, and forcing her to purchase medication. She sued for $1,000, claiming that the incident caused her stress, and won the humorous but true court case.

Waiting on a Train

In 2008, an Illinois woman Gayane Zokhrabov, sued the estate of Hiroyuki Joho, 18, an unfortunate victim of a train accident. While attempting to catch an inbound Metra train, Joho ran across the tracks and was struck by an Amtrak train traveling 70 mph. Portions of the victim’s deceased body struck Zokhrabov as she waited on a nearby train platform. She suffered injuries to her shoulder, wrist and leg. The lower court judge dismissed the morbidly bizarre case, stating that the young man could not have predicted where his body would land because he was dead. An appeals court later disagreed and said that it was “reasonably foreseeable” that a high-speed train could kill Joho and send his flying body parts into crowds of waiting passengers. WHO KNEW?

MORE FUN IN THE CANADIAN COURTS

1. A Canadian woman was caught driving on the wrong side of the road with her cat and a car full of drugs. She offered police a novel explanation for the whole thing: "Canadians drive on the left side of the road.”

Unfortunately, the excuse didn't fly and Valerie Helene Godbout was charged with possession of marijuana, meth, and drug paraphernalia. A POLITE CANADIAN OOOPS!

2. According to CBC News, a man wearing gloves and a bandana walked into a Newfoundland credit union wielding a knife. But after seeing how busy things were, he apparently changed his mind and walked out. Things could have just ended there, but the masked man was spotted by staff, who called police. He was later arrested and charged.

O CANADA!

3. According to police, a 25-year-old woman involved in a break-and-enter jumped on an ice floe in an effort to escape the scene of the crime. When Mounties found her, she had started a fire on the ice floe... maybe to keep warm? Or maybe to destroy the getaway vehicle? THIS ONE'S ALMOST TOO CANADIAN!

THE QUESTION: