Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Handling crimes

Today, we find two articles that deal with criminal proceedings in an interesting way. In our first, a man decides that he will return a number of stolen possessions provided that his victim beat him in a fight. In the second, we learn that skipping jury duty to drink might not be the wisest choice in a DWI trial.

Looking at the first story a little more clearly, we find it very interesting on multiple levels. First off, the crook and the victim apparently know each other, or at least know of each other. While plenty of crimes tend to happen within acquaintances, we can't imagine deciding to hold a "winner take all" fight between friends. At least, not after one has robbed the other. We would think that the thief might have proposed such an endeavor prior to the crime, but not once the deed had already been done. Secondly, we're a bit shocked to find that both men are over 50. Sure, it would be easy pickings to challenge most 60-year-old men to fights for their belongings, but that advantage is practically nullified by the advanced age of the burglar. And yes, we do believe that the fight will begin with both old men shouting, "Warriors, get off my lawn!"

Meanwhile, in the other story, our 50-year-old potential juror thought that drinking heavily would keep him out of court. He apparently forgot other tips like claiming to be prejudiced against everything, and being certifiably insane. It's also entirely possible that the man thought he was being asked to be a juror for the OJ Simpson trial, and was still trying to figure out what driving had to do with the mess.

Our lesson for today? Don't mess with old people. A good number of them are insane.

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