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Showing results for tags 'laws'.
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Because of all the trial by media, usually of athletes, celebrities, or young, attractive, white females, and the media coverage of frivolous, multi-million dollar lawsuits, the whole world knows our legal system is sexist, racist, lazy, and completely f'd up. Sometimes they get it right, but other times, we can only wonder what they hell the judge or jury was thinking, or if the prosecution even cared to put up more than a half-assed case. And, sometimes the laws already in place are stupid to begin with, and the judge has no choice but to rule according to them. Aside from stuff heavily covered in the media, what are some outrageous cases you've heard of? Here are a few I've heard of: -My former boss' nephew was shot to death; he was not the intended target, though the guy shooting was intending to kill someone. The guy only got three years in prison, with credit for time served. -A friend with a taste for losers was screwing around with a guy who was in jail more often than not for failing to pay child support for one child. How can the court expect a guy to find a job when he's incarcerated? -At a seminar I attended while I was in the banking industry, I learned of a woman getting sixteen years in prison for bad checks. -A friend of my brother's was jumping on a backyard trampoline with a group of other 13 and 14 year olds and fell on a girl. Her parents attempted to have him criminally prosecuted for sexual assault, and also tried to sue his family for the girl's "emotional trauma and mental distress". And, my personal ones: -My first ex-husband beat our son the first time I left him alone with the baby, for less than an hour, and nearly killed him. He got three years in prison, and I spent the next four or five months leaping through family court's hoops to get my CFS case closed and my parental rights reinstated. I found out later that the max he could have gotten was five years, as they felt they could not prove attempted murder. He also would have faced more severe charges if it had been my other son, the one that was not his, that he'd beaten. He went on to repeat the crime on another baby he had with a woman ten years later, and was charged on two counts of the same, since the abuse had happened on separate days. The DA pointed out the nearly identical pattern of injuries to those he'd inflicted upon my son ten years prior. But due to the restrictions in place by law, again, just three years on each count, the only justice the judge could grant was that he serve them consecutively rather than concurrently. I honestly believe that if the DA had tried, he could have proven attempted murder in the second case, and I believe that it was. I believe it was with my son, too, and always have. You may be able to say you lost your temper with a crying baby at the age of 18 and get away with it, but not at 28, and not after doing it once (possibly more, as he did remarry and have a kids with a second woman) before. Now that he's out again, I worry that it's going to happen again, and this time, he may succeed. I feel bad enough not trying to prevent it from happening, but I don't know how to go about it without seeming like a weirdo. -When I was a homeowner, someone called the city on me because my garage was an eyesore. An inspector came out and gave me a list of everything on my property that had to be fixed. The list on the garage was so huge it may have well said "tear it down". I did not disagree with the fact the garage was kind of crappy, it hadn't changed from the time I'd bought the property in 2005, whereas I'd made improvements to the house. I'd always planned on dealing with the garage when I had the money to, but I didn't have the money yet, not even to do the teardown. I explained it, but they just kept on sending out inspectors every month, and adding $350 a month to my tax bill. Then, they took me to court and fined me $1000, which I had to pay to avoid going to jail. After that, there was a grace period for me to complete the work, but I was still broke, so the cycle began all over again. Without having to pay that fine, I could have paid to rent a dumpster, get the necessary permits, and enlisted friends and family to help me rip the garage down.