September 23rd 2010 09:16
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The lawman and the lap dancer
Wyatt Earp would not be pleased
VYOOS EDITORIAL
Unemployment in the United States is close to 10 per cent, a disturbing level for a developed country, and is forecast to rise.
At this level, few people in the country are unaffected. Almost everyone will know someone, quite likely an extended family member, who has lost a job and is desperate for another one. Those who do have some assets may be watching them dissipate - the US dollar, the US sharemarket and property prices are all sliding.
When unemployment hits 10 per cent anywhere, there are hardship stories all around. For those with children and no job, the hardship can be better described as heartbreak.
One man who does have a secure job is William Nolan. He lives in Connecticut and is a state marshal. It's a position that means a lot in the US. Built on the legacy of romantic figures like Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill Hickock, and with an unbroken history of service stretching back to 1789 when the office was created by the Judiciary Act passed by the first US Congress, it's a position of trust.
William Nolan must be a proud man, and one whose hand you'd be happy to shake.
Maybe not.
William Nolan went to work one day recently, and was given the duty of serving a tax warrant on Johnny Kraft, owner of a strip club. The tax warrant was for US$9,800. Nolan, it has been alleged, added 10 per cent to the amount, which was discovered when Kraft paid the bill directly to the city, rather than to Nolan.
Still at the club, having delivered the tax demand to Kraft, Nolan decided to wile away a work hour or two by availing himself of the pleasures of the premises. He hired himself a lap dancer.
Nolan this week appeared before a commission of inquiry, which found "probable cause" that he "unreasonably blurred the lines between professional and personal conduct''.
"I think it was a lack of judgment and I want to put on the record that I apologise to my wife and family and my 87-year-old mother," Nolan told the commissioners, reportedly through tears.
The commission recommended a disciplinary hearing.
If Nolan loses his job, let's hope his replacement appreciates the privilege the position brings.
middletownpress.com
VYOOS EDITORIAL
Sometimes, the best decisions in law are innovative moments of colour splashed on grey areas of inefficacy.
The ideal judicial system is one which protects both the citizens of a community and the rights of those citizens. But the law can be a platform of social justice made of quicksand. It can never cover all eventualities, and if people try to make it do so, the law can be an ass.
An example surfaced in San Juan del Rio in Queretaro state, central Mexico, late last week, when police caught a 13-year-old boy spray-painting graffiti tags on municipal property. They took the boy to a municipal official whose job it was to deal with petty offences.
The official decided that, in this case, a lesson about vandalism and the sanctity of other people's property might be learned if he spray-painted the boy's buttocks.
So he did.
The San Juan del Rio mayor promptly fired the official, saying he should have played it by the book and informed the boy's parents, who would then be responsible for paying for the graffiti to be removed.
In today's carefully sanitised and correct world, the mayor was right. Informing the parents, and forcing them to pay for the damage, was the legally mandated and sensible thing to do. It is interesting, however, that this action would in no obvious way have given the boy a demonstration of why his behaviour was considered unacceptable.
To be fair, the official went too far. You can not pull down the pants of anyone, let alone a 13-year-old, and spray-paint their bum to make a point. But perhaps the point could have been made anecdotally imagine how you would feel if I violated your property, to wit, your bottom, by taking this spray can and ...
If, next weekend, the 13-year-old boy decides after consideration that he is no longer inclined to spray-paint graffiti on municipal property, do you think we will have the mayor, who still has his job, to thank, or the official who no longer has his job?
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