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Wednesday, February 26, 2003
 

Protection of property

Family of electrocuted thief gets $75,000  -- The family of a convicted burglar who was electrocuted in 1997 when he tried to break in to a bar in Aurora after-hours and triggered a homemade booby trap has been awarded a $75,000 jury verdict to be paid by the owners of the bar and the property.

Frustrated after three burglaries at his tavern in a month, Jessie Ingram installed the homemade security system in late July 1997. He jury-rigged the inside of the bar's windows so anyone breaking in would get a strong shock, then posted several warning signs outside, including one outside the window Harris broke in through.

Drunk and high on cocaine, Harris, 37, either didn't see or ignored the warnings. He forced open a rear window and crawled in, triggering the homemade, electrified booby trap just five days after it was installed.

Jurors weren't allowed to be told that Harris was drunk and on cocaine, nor that he had served time in prison for two burglary convictions.

The verdict sends a message that property owners can't use lethal security systems to defend their homes and businesses, said John Winters, the Chicago lawyer who represented Harris' mother and brother in the civil case.  "You can't set these type of traps because property isn't worth a human life," Winters said, adding that the booby traps might just as easily have been tripped by firefighters or police officers answering an emergency call at the bar.  (Source: Chicago Sun-Times)

Winters is right, on the law.  A person has the right to proect people with the use of deadly force, but not vacant property.  But what else can a business owner do after three burglaries in one month?


11:28:02 PM    

Snow jobs 

An Akron, Ohio housewife who built a snow-woman with breasts was visited by a police officer who advised that the department had received a call about an "indecent snow figure".  At first, she covered the offending orbs, a la John Ashcroft, but then reconsidered and decided to remove the covering and let 'em shine.  (Source: Akron Beacon Journal - photo included with story)

At Harvard, one or more students destroyed a nine-foot snow penis that other students (whose sex was not disclosed) had, um, erected.  "It was offensive because it was pornographic," said a female student who admitted destroying the work.  "As a feminist, pornography is degrading to women and creates a violent atmosphere."  At a later point, she is quoted thus: "Men think they have the right to force that on you.  It’s a logical extension."  (Source: Harvard Crimson - photo here)

Perhaps it's a good thing that this woman cannot talk in complete or coherent sentences.  Her thought patterns have gone awry. 

A hilarious quote from a Women's Studies lecturer was pointed out (so to speak) by Andrew Sullivan:

"She said the snow penis follows a long line of public phallic symbols, including the Washington Monument and missiles." 

Update -- A similar sculpture has been up at the University of Toronto since January, without any fuss.  We would only note that this one is more missile-like, more obeliskesque, than the Harvard offering.  The Canadians consider it "anatomically correct".  Maybe it is, for them.

Further update -- A commenter at the bust.com Lounge says:

This is kind of like a Celebrity Death Match in a sense that you get to watch two hated figures (in this case the asshole frat-boy and the anal-retentive whining campus bitch) go at it! They could make this into the next reality TV show!

(What is bust.com?  Who knows?  Even after visiting the site, I cannot tell.)


11:07:28 PM    


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