I read this article this morning in hard copy over breakfast! Interesting!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-2545841,00.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-2545841,00.html
British Professor's bruising time in Atlanta!
- Thread starter Tez3
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OP
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- #3
It says there's to be an inquiry but he reckons it would be better to to issue orders to remind the police that visitors from abroad don't always know the local laws! To be honest I didn't know and i would have crossed the road the same as he did!
I read this story yesterday and I am still shocked by what allegedly happened. (arrest and reported beating) In my experience I have never seen or heard of someone being beaten for jay walking across a busy street. Now I have been to Atlanta and I do understand that they take their jay walking seriously but beating someone. I would like to hear all sides story before I rush to judgement on this one.
bydand
Senior Master
I would suspect there is a bit more to the story myself. You don't get beat up and arrested for jaywalking. A ticket maybe, and that is a big maybe. I have never seen a ticket for jaywalking and have never heard of somebody getting one. Arrested? Not just for that. I would like to hear the rest of the story.
All the other people in lockup with him were kindly, gentle souls? What a bunch of Horse crap! Go to a big city lockup and take a good long look. As for the rest of his fellow inmates and their minor infractions, everybody in jail is innocent you know, just ask them, it is "The Man" who is keeping them down. Father of four outside smoking pot, wow maybe we shouold build him a garage so he can smoke his ILLEGAL weed in that; if you are stupid enough to fire up a fat-one on your front yard, you need to be arrested, period. Stopped with no money or ID and arrested, well that is called driving without a license and is illegal everywhere I can think of. Can you drive in London, Glasgow, Paris, Rome, or anywhere over there without a proper license (really asking as I don't know, but would like to.) The other one who was arrested for being in an empty building to look for a place to sleep, I have no good reason for that given the few details we are given.
Just saying there is much more to this I'll bet. Did he get lippy with an officer? Did he continue on his way when asked to stop? Did he tear up a ticket in front of the cop? We'll never know because we were not there. Plus I have to take the story with a great big grain of salt basied on the other articles referenced in the same section: "Saddam was my Father" "Lord Louch - Sex King of Chiantishire" "Nobody Neets this lazy lot any more" "Come on Then, we need a political Punch-up" "Last Man Standing - I survived Saddam" Jeeze what paper is this from, sounds like "The Weekly World News" or some tabloid.
As for being a media frenzy, it must have been huge...<-----<< read with a sarcastic tone. Never made it to any news program, paper, or webpage I've seen.
All the other people in lockup with him were kindly, gentle souls? What a bunch of Horse crap! Go to a big city lockup and take a good long look. As for the rest of his fellow inmates and their minor infractions, everybody in jail is innocent you know, just ask them, it is "The Man" who is keeping them down. Father of four outside smoking pot, wow maybe we shouold build him a garage so he can smoke his ILLEGAL weed in that; if you are stupid enough to fire up a fat-one on your front yard, you need to be arrested, period. Stopped with no money or ID and arrested, well that is called driving without a license and is illegal everywhere I can think of. Can you drive in London, Glasgow, Paris, Rome, or anywhere over there without a proper license (really asking as I don't know, but would like to.) The other one who was arrested for being in an empty building to look for a place to sleep, I have no good reason for that given the few details we are given.
Just saying there is much more to this I'll bet. Did he get lippy with an officer? Did he continue on his way when asked to stop? Did he tear up a ticket in front of the cop? We'll never know because we were not there. Plus I have to take the story with a great big grain of salt basied on the other articles referenced in the same section: "Saddam was my Father" "Lord Louch - Sex King of Chiantishire" "Nobody Neets this lazy lot any more" "Come on Then, we need a political Punch-up" "Last Man Standing - I survived Saddam" Jeeze what paper is this from, sounds like "The Weekly World News" or some tabloid.
As for being a media frenzy, it must have been huge...<-----<< read with a sarcastic tone. Never made it to any news program, paper, or webpage I've seen.
Heard comments from the arresting officer on a daytime talk radio show the other day. I think it was Boortz (hey, i'm a trucker and get reeeeeaaallly bored). The officer was working a convention on his off time to enforce the jaywalking law in effect there as they'd had other pedestrians hit at that venue. He called out to the prof to cross at the cross walk before he crossed the road and was ignored. After the prof crossed he had a conversation with him about why what he had done was wrong (while standing under a "cross at cross walk" sign.) The prof responded "Thanks for the suggestion." Cop responds "That's not a suggestion it's the law" Cop asks for ID, prof asks cop for his ID. Cop decides a citation is now in order for the jaywalking due to the attitude. Prof tries to walk away, cop reaches out to grab profs shoulder, prof turns and grabs cop, cop takes him down. That's pretty much the long and short of the cops side of the story as I remember it. I've always thought there were 3 sides to every story...Side A, Side B and the truth.
That's a reasonable summary of the various accounts I've seen...
Except I have little sympathy for the professor. He's trying to play the "I didn't know it was the guy was a cop; they don't look like that in England!" game. One little detail's been glossed over, though... The guy's been in the US for a while! He's undoubtedly seen police uniforms on TV, and in real life. At the very least, he should have recognized that SOMEONE in a uniform (with a gunbelt!) was talking to him.
OH... And, I do believe that there ARE indeed British police officers who wear uniforms that aren't terribly dissimilar...
I'm not saying the cop was 100% right, or couldn't have handled things better. But the professor sure does seem to be enjoying the attention...
His "account" is more than a little suspect... Not just from his description of the behavior of other prisoners (I have a hard time buying them politely inquiring, with good grammar, how he came to find himself enjoying the city's hospitality)... But simply because he talks about having spoken to a female prisoner. Most (if not all) jails strictly segregate males and females as early in the process as they can; unless he was hanging out in booking, he wouldn't have had an opportunity to speak to a female!
OP
- Thread Starter
- #9
I'm laughing at the idea of "The Times" being a tabloid newspaper. It's one of the most serious and oldest newspapers in the world lol! it really was Saddams daughter inreviewed in the paper and the Lord Louche was an article about a well known british person. I suggest you click on and read before passing judgement on the newpaper!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times
With no disrepect to American professors, British ones are notorious for their otherworldiness and their eccentricites. The Academic world here encourages little notice to be taken of the outside world! It's quite likely the professor was telling the truth but probably shouldn't be allowed to travel too far from his university!the absent minded prof maybe a cliches but I've met enough of them here to say it's more the norm than sharp ones! the older Universities such as Oxford and Cambridge etc are very old fashioned places still, some have just let women in! On the issue of police uniforms, many private security firms have American style police uniforms.Our police ones are always blue and look the same apart from Northern Ireland who have green.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times
With no disrepect to American professors, British ones are notorious for their otherworldiness and their eccentricites. The Academic world here encourages little notice to be taken of the outside world! It's quite likely the professor was telling the truth but probably shouldn't be allowed to travel too far from his university!the absent minded prof maybe a cliches but I've met enough of them here to say it's more the norm than sharp ones! the older Universities such as Oxford and Cambridge etc are very old fashioned places still, some have just let women in! On the issue of police uniforms, many private security firms have American style police uniforms.Our police ones are always blue and look the same apart from Northern Ireland who have green.
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Tez3, if you ever visit the United States some day, I would encourage you to speak with some urban area law enforcement folks about their experiences. Most of them will tell you right away, that the people that are in a downtown jail are not going to be nice people at all. In fact, if you did a bit of a background check on such denizens, you would probably find that many of them are repeat offenders.
The story can pretty much be chalked up to someone who is merely trying to cry for attention, while trying to deflect responsibility for his own actions.
The story can pretty much be chalked up to someone who is merely trying to cry for attention, while trying to deflect responsibility for his own actions.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #11
Being a LEO myelf I can well imagine what these guys are like but I've also seen a member of the British aristocracy being treated like a pet in a British prison known for its hard inmates beacause he was something quite exotic to the usual inmates! It amused them to see that he was quite unfazed by the whole situation, as he said, he'd gone through the British public school system (Prep school, boarding at 7, then Eton) and everything that was thrown at him there, cold showers, bullying, fagging (not what you think! it's acting as a servant for older boys but yes there is also what you think!) he was unfailingly polite, never condescending and very likeable. He was popular with everyone!
CoryKS
Senior Master
It's curious that despite the attention given to describing his "gangly, frizzy-haired" cellmates, he didn't describe the encounter beyond the statement above. I'm guessing that a "middle-aged, middle-class, mild-mannered, old-fashioned professor, of feeble build and studious disposition" probably has quaint notions of what constitutes a beating.
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Most of the college professors I have spoken to here, take notice of the outside world, but tend to ignore the realities of it in favor of the opinions they have formed from THEIR professors and their time at the university... so I would buy that argument.
The Master
Bow Before Me.
Every college professor I've known has has a serious disconnect with the outside world. One insisted in the 80's that Microsoft wouldn't last the decade, and that BASIC would be the programming language of the future.
On the OS, that's Atlanta for you.
On the OS, that's Atlanta for you.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #15
Read Tom Sharpe's "Porterhouse Blue", apart from being wickedly funny it's an accurate view of Academia in the UK. For the same on British Aristocracy read his "Blott on the Landscape".
Dammit, I try to be otherworldly and eccentric, I really dobut no one around these parts will let me!
Tom Lehrer, one of his songs, has this wonderful reference to `ivy-covered professors in ivy-covered halls'...
CoryKS
Senior Master
On the other hand, the fact that this "eccentric and otherwordly" professor was able to describe himself in such precise and accurate terms seems to give lie to the stereotype of absent-mindedness. Perhaps that is nothing but a carefully cultivated pose?
rutherford
Master Black Belt
"a sandwich of evil aspect"
That's a beautiful turn of phrase.
That's a beautiful turn of phrase.
OP
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- #19
Ah but our hallowed halls of ancient learning are full of posers! From the students to the dons! All the little rituals of dining and having bulldogs ( not canines)sub fusc and strange names for the terms etc is all about posing designed to make non members feel inferior!
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