Don’t Slap the Lawyer in the Courtroom

I have joined the ranks of Americans who blog, reducing our nation’s number of nonbloggers to double digits.

[slogan align=]”The law is a ass”
— Mr. Bumble in Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist[/slogan]

Whether or not the law is an ass, its unwise to slap one in a Florida courtroom. Former New England Patriots wide receiver Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson learned that lesson this week.

He was in court in the hope of resolving a probation violation arising from a day-afterwedding- day head-butting of the lucky bride last fall. When Broward County Circuit Court Judge Kathleen McHugh indicated she would accept a plea agreement, Ochocinco did what comes naturally in the NFL: he gave his lawyer a congratulatory smack on the buttocks. The courtroom reacted — and so did the judge:

Too harsh? I thought so… until I saw the clip. Judge McHugh doesn’t strike me as particularly tyrannical. Like almost any judge, she is concerned with courtroom decorum. I predict that Mr. Johnson won’t spend thirty days in the slammer; I think the judge will release him, perhaps after receiving a written apology. This episode was about sending a message, both to Ochocinco and to anyone who might mistake her courtroom for an entertainment venue.

ONE MAN, ONE VOTE — SORT OF
The Ypsilanti, Mich., City Council voted on a resolution that would have required the members always to vote either “yes” or “no” (to thus reduce the recent, annoying number of “abstain” votes). The resolution to ban abstaining failed because three of the seven members… wait for it… abstained.
— Thanks: crisconner.com