In March, Harry Jackson, 26, was in jail inWoodbine, Ga.,on several minor charges such as driving on a suspended license. However,allegedly bending to pressure from fellow inmates, Jackson agreed to break out of jail, stealcigarettes at a nearby convenience store and break back in to jail. "Don'tcome back empty-handed," one inmate supposedly warned him. Jackson was apprehendedclimbing over a fence to get back in to jail. In May, based on the earliercharges plus the escape and subsequent burglary, a judge sentenced him to 20years (as opposed to the two to three years he was originally set to serve).
Beer: The Miracle Drug
(1) A naked, 47-year-old man was taken to aburn center in El Paso, Texas, in July after "friends" wona bet and set his prosthetic leg on fire (the flames quickly spread to hisbody). The man admitted to police that he had lost the bet fair-and-squarebecause he downed "only" six beers. He was treated for several daysand released. (2) In June, two 34-year-old men in Horsham, Australia,underwent surgery as a result of a plan hatched during a bout of drinking. Theyhad both wondered if it would hurt to get shot by an air rifle and thus obligedeach other.
Redneck Chronicles
From Florida's Panhandle Region: (1) A24-year-old man was arrested in Crestview, Fla., in April after he allegedlyremoved a window air-conditioner and crawled into a house in which his wife wasstaying. They had recently separated, and the man told police that he had not"gotten any" in three weeks and was going to "get some."(2) In June in Okaloosa County, passengerCourtnea Bradley, 21, allegedly roughed up the driver of a car while it wasmoving, forcing it to swerve wildly and thus endangering her baby in the backseat. At the subsequent traffic stop, a defiant Bradley allegedly toldofficers, "My (expletive) family is one of the richest around, and we willhave y'all's (expletive) jobs."
Cultural Diversity
- In June at a meeting of police chiefs, Britain's head constable saidpolice were being "buried" under a "telephonedirectory"-sized (6,497 pages) compilation of rules and regulations.Supposedly, the rules explain in massive detail how to perform simpleactivities like using handcuffs and riding bicycles.
- In July, acknowledging pressure from local activists to createrestrooms that would be familiar to Asian immigrants, officials at the ExchangeCentre shopping mall in Rochdale, England, said they would remove toilets fromtwo of the facility's restroom stalls and build "Nile pans," alsoknown as "squat toilets" (or, as Westerners refer to them,"holes in the ground"). The officials said they were trying to servethe needs of immigrants living in Greater Manchester.
Latest Religious Messages
- One of Britain's 200 or so "consecrated hermits" might soonbe homeless because the owner of her cottage in rural Shropshire Countyhas listed it for sale. Karen Markham, 44, lives by rules set down by St.Benedict, the founder of Western monasticism, that require her to rise at 4a.m., pray and chant for three hours, then contemplate in silence. Forrecreation, she weaves rugs made of wool from local sheep, according to a Mayreport in the Daily Telegraph.
- In July, a fifth-grade teacher at JacoxElementary School in Norfolk, Va.,resigned after administrators discovered she was rubbing "holy oil"on students and their desks during school.
Questionable Judgments
At press time, the city council of Barre, Vt.,continues to debate extending its pet "leash" law to cats, followinga woman's complaint that a neighbor's cat has fouled her yard with droppings.In the few towns that try to enforce leash laws on cats, a main rationale hasbeen to protect birds. (The late U.S.statesman Adlai Stevenson, when he was governor of Illinois, once rejected such a law, sayingthat leashing was "against the nature of the cat.")
© 2010 Chuck Shepherd
