Well Done

[talon]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/20/walmart.trial/index.htmlUnder the agreement -- reached after the jury received the case for deliberations -- Heather Ellis will plead guilty to disturbing the peace and resisting arrest. She will serve a year of unsupervised probation, attend an anger management course and serve four days in jail before the end of the year.

The sentence stipulates that if Ellis stays out of trouble for a year, the charges will be sealed and the arrest won't be on her permanent record.

Good.

The woman didn't deserve prison time for her actions.

I'm glad the police dropped the assaulting a police officer charges [1] . I'm glad she acknowledged that she started the series of events that led to her arrest and that she's the responsible party.

I'm glad the charges were kept to the misdemeanor level, where they belonged. Even if I feel cutting in line is a terrible offense, it isn't a serious crime. Probation and anger management are good outcomes from this - I worry about her teaching children if she's willing to descend into fisticuffs over something as trivial as a check-out line.

Her lawyers have not brought up race as a contributing factor in the incident.

Also good.

Race was not a contributing factor - her actions were. There is video evidence of her behavior - not enough to document it thoroughly but enough to incontrovertibly prove she was the instigator and the one at fault, and that's just supporting the fact that she admitted to joining her cousin in a faster moving line because she was too impatient to stay in her own line and felt she was more important than those already in line behind her cousin. Race was not the contributing factor [2], although it was brought up in the heat of the moment by all parties concerned [3], and the lawyers were right not to bring it up during the trial.

Not everything unpleasant that happens can be chalked up to race.

And let me tell you, I don't care what your skin color is [4], how old you are [5], how many squalling kids are clinging to you, or how much more important than I am you think you are, if I don't offer to let you cut in line [6] and/or you don't ask to go before me, then you better not try it. I will flash my temper at you and you will be found to be in the wrong.

So there.

No cutting in line.

[1] it is, after all, their job to expect some resistance in breaking up a heated argument
[2] her behavior was

[3] a sad state of affairs, where have manners gone?

[4] mine's "red"

[5] oddly enough I may actually be older than you; looks can be so deceiving

[6] I'm a soft touch, I usually do offer.