Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.
You do have to wonder.
SPRINGDALE - Hour after hour, for four full days, Adriana Torres-Flores was locked away and forgotten in 8 1/2-by-9 1/2-foot cell in the Washington County Courthouse, with only a metal table, two benches and a light bulb that never went out. She had nothing to eat or drink. There was no toilet. Thursday passed. Then Friday, Saturday and Sunday - although Torres-Flores had no watch to tell the time. She slept on the floor with her head on a shoe.
She drank her own urine, she said.
Panicked and afraid she would die, Torres-Flores pounded on the steel door with her hands and feet, and yelled. No one heard her. The threat of snow had thinned the courthouse staff Friday.
The building was closed all weekend.
It was Monday morning before the bailiff who had put her in the holding cell, intending to have her taken to jail, opened the door and realized his mistake.
Can you say "oops?"
So, what did Ms. Torres-Flores do to deserve such treatment?
Well, see, she was accused of selling bootlegged CDs of music at a local flea market. Oh, yeah, police also say she's also an illegal alien who faces deportation. And probably for that reason they arrested her on this absurd charge. That's also probably why she was to be shipped off to the county jail to await trial in April. So that she could be turned over to the Feds and deported after.
You do have to wonder if this would have happened to someone who didn't appear to police to be an illegal alien. Just sayin'.
Jim Downey
(Via BoingBoing.)
Bookmark/Search this post with:
Now wait a minute
Someone who wasn't an illegal alien probably would not have been jailed when they showed up in court for selling boot-legged CDs. It's terrible what she went through because of some laxness on the jail officials' part, but she wasn't put in jail just because she "appeared to be" an illegal alien. She was put in jail because she IS an illegal alien.
More of the story here: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_8538157?source=rss
Rob Miles
--
There are only 10 types of people in the world;
those who understand binary and those who don't.
Several years ago . . .
...my mother-in-law was having a squirrel problem here in her house (this was before we moved in with her to care for her.) She got this nice guy to come out and set out live traps at some of the access points to the attic.
One long summer weekend (I think it was the Fourth) we came over to visit, and I noted that there was a dead squirrel in one of the cages, up high on the side of the house. What happened was that the squirrel came out of the attic, got trapped, and knocked over the water bowl he had in there. The temps were about 105 that weekend, with the nice MO humidity. Guy didn't bother to come check the traps because of the holiday, and the squirrel died of thirst.
It pissed me off, and we reamed him a new one first chance.
OK, about 14 months ago, the squirrels once again got into the attic (the joys of living in a 120 year-old house). What did I do? I bought a .22 air rifle, a fairly good one, with a decent scope. About a dozen squirrels later, the problem was once again solved (and we patched up the access points better this time). For about a quarter of what the live-trap guy charged to do the job. And I still have a nice air rifle.
See, I didn't have any problem with killing squirrels, I just had a problem with how it was done. Because it was done ineptly, inhumanely, and seemingly arbitrarily.
Likewise, I don't have a problem with any number of approaches to dealing with illegal immigration. So long as it is done uniformly, within the law. Because they are, after all, here illegally.
But arbitrary application of any law leaves too much discretion and too much room for abuse. And that is what pisses me off about this thing with the case I mentioned. Clearly, there was an unequal application of the law, which resulted in the treatment this woman received. Sure, the dipshit who locked her up and then forgot about her for four days deserves to be fired. But beyond that, when some people are subject to the law and others are not, there is a serious problem. Because once an unequal application of the law can be used against one group, it can be used against any. I do not wish to be free at the whim of the government.
Jim Downey
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Like Science Fiction? Read my novel, Communion of Dreams, for free.
No disagreements here
I don't disagree with you Jim, but what unequal application of law is present here? Is it because she was made to appear in court for selling boot-legged CDs? I didn't see anything in the article to suggest she was singled out for the offense, simply because she looked alien, but maybe there's information that I haven't seen yet.
Are you just assuming that the authorities overlook the selling of boot-legged CDs when it's white people, but cracking down on brown-skinned individuals? Or do you know it's happening (where this particular case is located.)
Rob Miles
--
There are only 10 types of people in the world;
those who understand binary and those who don't.
bootlegs
As far as I can tell for bootlegs (and free MP3 downloads for that matter) people only really crack down when the company in question raises a stink. Then you get things like recording companies fining little kids thousands of dollars.
Post new comment