Sunday, March 7, 2004

This is SO cool (1 of 2)

(OK, it's only cool because I'm a lawyer, but, I must admit, my Inner Nerdy Lawyer is really impressed.)

I ended up back at the internet place in London -- doing a quick email read before I find some carry-out -- and (for my viewing pleasure) I got to watch a guy get arrested by London police! 

(Well, I'm sure it wasn't arranged just to let me see this particular part of the British Criminal Justice System in action.  But really, darned thoughtful of them.)

I hadn't witnessed anything that led up to it (also a darn shame, 'cause wouldn't it have been nifty if I had to come back to testify?) but it appears that some people believed the chap about five computers away from me tried to remove the monitor from the wall (and thereby damaged it).  Enter the police.

Now, you really can't cue up the "Bad boy, bad boy, whatcha gonna do?" music here.  Because this entire encounter was so soft-voiced, so polite, so ... English, it would most definitely have ended up on the "Cops" cutting room floor.

The officers surrounded the soon-to-be-arrestee and told him what he was claimed to have done.  He tried to interrupt with protestations of innocence; they told him to wait and he'd be given a chance to explain once they finished telling him what they had.  He waited, they gave him a chance to explain.  One of the cops remained with him while another then went to speak to the witnesses.  When the cop returned, he (again politely) told the fellow that he was being put under arrest for attempted theft, because several witnesses said they'd seen him trying to remove the screen.

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