"...Then the law, Sir, is an ass."

[unixronin]

Cast your mind back to Hurricane Ivan in 2004, and all the rain it dumped on the Northeast.  Sometime during that rainstorm, a two-year-old kid fell into a raging, flood-swollen stream, was washed away, and drowned.  A watching woman, who had already snagged the kid and taken him back to his father once, could do nothing but scream for the kid's father, because she could not swim.

A jury just convicted her for not jumping in to help ANYWAY, and she has been sentenced to up to 18 months in prison ... for not turning "Two-year-old drowns in flood" to "Two-year-old and would-be-rescuer drown in flood."

This is an utterly idiotic decision.  Even professional rescue swimmers are under no legal obligation to go into the water to rescue a drowning person if, in their judgement, their own lives would be forfeit in the attempt.  But the District Attorney in this case, asserting that she created a legal duty by saving the kid the firsttime, said:

"Common sense dictates someone in that close proximity to a child is obligated to do something," Mr. Gorman said.  "I think anybody in their right mind would jump in."

Someone who can't swim?  Jump into raging floodwaters?

"If the Law supposes that, then the Law, sir, is an ass." -- Samuel Pepys

And I suppose it would also be common sense for someone who'd just watched someone else fall off a cliff to jump off after them to try to catch them.  If this is what passes for "common sense", it's no wonder we, as a society, are in such sorry shape.

Comments

Although I agree with the sentiment

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

I must correct both the attribution of the quote and the quote itself. It comes from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, Chapter 51, and reads as follows: "If the law supposes that," said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, "the law is a ass- a idiot. If that's the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is, that his eye may be opened by experience- by experience."

Re: Although I agree with the sentiment

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I stand corrected. I have always previously seen that attrributed to Pepys.

Re: Although I agree with the sentiment

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

It's not, I suppose, possible that Dickens was paraphrasing Pepys....? My recollection of the exact wording seems quite clear.

It's not in The Diary

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

I'm quite positive it originated with Dickens. You'll need to find your own proof, I'm afraid.

The student of literature learns early

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

always check your attributions! You never know who might be gaining on you!

I did some chasing around earlier this week because of this quote:
Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out.
Thomas Cardinal Wolsey (1471-1530)

To my astonishment, it turned out to be substantially correct. Take out the first "very" and the "ever" and put it back into the original spelling, and it's essentially what's in a contemporary life of Wolsey.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

"If she didn't believe she had a legal duty, then why did she pull the kid back the first time?" Mr. Gorman asked.

What the fuck?

"Because sometimes sane people do things they don't have a legal obligation to do, just because it's the right thing?"

That's the stupidest argument I've ever heard!

-Ogre

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, we live in a society in which people are afraid to try doing anything to help anyone in a tight spot, for fear of being sued by some fathead lawyer should they not succeed. In the UK, there was a presumption that it was your civic duty to stop and render assistance if possible, and it was assumed that as long as you didn't attempt anything you didn't have the ability or skills to do, oh well, you did your best. The US, unfortunately, suffers from a great surfeit of lawyers.

I think there would be a great societal benefit were the top ten percent of lawyers in the US -- the most skilled and knowledgeable, with the least number of frivolous cases to their name -- separated out, and the remaining ninety percent disbarred and sent off to go find something useful to do. Right now, they're screwing up the entire society by constantly running around looking for people to sue for things with little regard for the actual merits of the case. And why? Is it because there's some shortage of lawyers? No, it's pure greed. Ask most people for a list of the five professions most likely to make you rich, and law will be on most people's lists.

[motomuffin.livejournal.com]

Is it because there's some shortage of lawyers?

No. It's because of an overabundance of them!

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah, that was sorta my point. :) There's an overabundance because too many people think becoming a lawyer is a way to get rich quick. And then, there's an overabundance of frivolous lawsuits and of laws, because there's only just so much legitimate legal work to go around among the milling herds of lawyers, so most of them end up having to manufacture cases and new laws.

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

sk most people for a list of the five professions most likely to make you rich, and law will be on most people's lists.

Except for the most part, this is false. Just ask my sister. Patent, senior partners in large corperate firms, and a small percentage of personal injury lawyers are the ones who are raking it in.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Sure. But the perception is that a J.D. is a direct ticket to easy money, and it's the perception that drives people's choice of career and sends so many of them into law school. I'll bet very few of them go to law school with the expectation of spending their lives filing probate paperwork or serving as low-paid public defenders.

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

Aye. Same reason people go to med school.

[nephthys510.livejournal.com]

Isn't this why we have Good Samaritan laws? She tried, she failed, not her fault.

[bfly.livejournal.com]

So Dad gets reckless endangerment in a plea bargain for letting the kid wander off after she'd already returned him once. Sounds like the prosecution really wanted to convict somebody/anybody and weren't sure they could pin it on him. But a ~woman~ who doesn't risk her own life diving into a raging torrent to save a ~baby~, well, that's just ~unnatural~. Any jury'd go for that, right? Man, that is so screwed up in so many ways...

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

Yes, my thoughts exactly.

[jilara.livejournal.com]

When you consider that there are legal rulings that the POLICE are under no legal obligation to prevent a crime from happening, I suppose that means that, by interpolation, if we suppose, say, a stronge swimmer cop watched all this, he would be absolved, while the non-swimmer good samaritan would be criminally culpable.

BTW, I should bring this one up at the next Red Cross training I attend. Because the first thing they teach you is to be assured of your own safety, first.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

If the law is an ass, then it is our duty to kick it. Regardless of who it's quoted by.

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

this is horseshit! i hope she wins the plea bargain and sues the fuck outta the prosecutor!