I know two different people who have been thrown in jail in Columbus, Ohio. One for riding a bicycle on the sidewalk. Another for disobeying a don't walk sign when they were out for a run and there was no traffic around. It was not profiling or anything, and both were able to get a friend to bail them out - but not until after they had been booked. The jogger even had to exchange his running shorts for an orange jumpsuit and take his cool down lap in general lock up at the county jail.
Take the example of Bridezilla, from Connecticut:
A woman dubbed "Bridezilla" after police said she went on a rampage at her wedding reception pleaded guilty Thursday to a reduced charge of creating a public disturbance.[The woman], 18, was fined $90.
[The woman], of North Haven, was arrested on criminal mischief and breach of peace charges on Aug. 16 after police responded to her wedding reception at The Mill on the River restaurant in South Windsor.
[She] allegedly became enraged after restaurant workers closed the bar at the party. She began throwing things, including wedding cake and gifts, police said. [She] left the restaurant, and police found her walking down the road in her wedding gown.
While being taken into custody, police said she kicked the door and window of the police cruiser and tried to bite an officer.
My guess, if Bridezilla was from Ohio, she could be looking at 3 to 5. I'm from Illinois, and it was definitely not so bad there, but some parts of the Midwest sure have a reactionary streak. Then again, maybe it's not just the Midwest.
Take the Sausage Mascot incident and all the national coverage that got:
Prosecutors grilled Pirates first baseman Randall Simon, then let him off the hook for hitting one of the Brewers' sausage mascots with his bat...."I thought at the moment they were trying to play with us," he said Thursday. "They were running right next to the players. I'm a fun player, and I've never hurt anyone in my life."
The 19-year-old woman, Mandy Block, was among four team employees dressed as an oversized bratwurst, a hot dog and Italian and Polish sausages racing past the Pirates' dugout between the sixth and seventh innings at Miller Park.
Simon took a half swing at the Italian sausage character, hitting her from behind. When Block fell, she knocked over 19-year-old Veronica Piech, the woman dressed as the hot dog.
"It just seems ridiculous -- it's like a big sausage getting hit by a bat causes all this controversy. It just seems kind of funny to me," Block told WTMJ-TV.
"It wasn't that big of a blow," she said. "I think just because I'm so small and it's such a big costume that I tumbled, and the reason I couldn't get up right away is because I couldn't get up. I wasn't like hurt so bad I couldn't get up. Luckily someone helped me up."
After the game, Simon was arrested and booked for misdemeanour battery, and told to show up at the district attorney's office the next day....
Rick Schlesinger, Brewers executive vice-president for business operations, said he was "sickened" by Simon's actions.
"This is one of the most outrageous things I've ever seen inside a ballpark or outside a ballpark," he said.
Baseball commissioner Bud Selig said the league was reviewing the matter.
"Obviously, the type of behaviour exhibited by Mr. Simon is anathema to the family entertainment that we are trying to provide in our ballparks and is wholly unacceptable," Selig said.
Sickened? Outrageous? Anathema? It was a gag that turned out bad! Get over it! The first sign of disorder? Better lock him up! Can you get any more knee-jerk? This is why I was not surprised that Bush won Ohio and Indiana. My hope is that more young people will vote in 2004, and help bring a few more of these states over to the reasonable side of the ballot.