How close we were to total dictatorship? I’m not speaking of the latest decree of the Obama administration, rather a simple court case, where yet another lawyer proves, without a doubt, that if the human race were a body, Democrat lawyers are where you would put the enema.
The charge alleged Rieseberg put attorney Ryan Russman in fear by “entering” Russman’s “personal space,” yelling and raising his hands “in a manner which appeared to nearly strike (Russman) in the face.”
Based on evidence presented by New Castle Police Chief James Murphy during a Friday trial, the judge ruled Murphy did not prove Rieseberg acted with criminal intent, as required for a conviction.
During Friday’s trial, the judge dismissed a companion charge of disorderly conduct, which alleged Rieseberg called Russman a “f-ing a******.”
Why did Rieseberg use the ol’ double expletive?
… on Election Day, Nov. 4, 2008, a New Hampshire property owner was removing Democratic political signs someone else had planted on his property, when some busybody walking his dog verbally accosted him with the words, “What are you doing? You can’t do that. Who do you think you are?”
To which the property owner, quite reasonably, responded, “Who the (F-bomb) are you?”
At which point the dog owner, who turns out to be a professional busybody, a.k.a. lawyer,* sought to impress the property owner with that fact by presenting his business card. The property owner looked it over, and announced, “Ryan Russman, you are a (F-bombing) (expletive).”
Instead of walking away with a hard-learned lesson in minding his own business, said lawyer decided to charge the person he accosted in the first place for using their right to free speech. Granted, Riesberg wasn’t in the friendliest of spirits, but would you be if you were having to clean up your yard than get yelled at for it?
Crittenden leaves us with this gem:
The Portsmouth Herald report is silent on whether the ruling by Judge DeVries … champion of American freedom, defender of the (F-bombing) rights of red-blooded American (mofos) … addressed the issue of whether or not Ryan Russman is in fact an (F-bombing) (expletive). That does not appear to have been a point of dispute, though it is conceivable it might be relevant for defense counsel to establish the fact for a jury of Rieseberg’s peers, in the event they weren’t able to figure it out for themselves.
H/T: The inimitable Tim Blair.
Print
Digg
StumbleUpon
del.icio.us
Facebook
Yahoo! Buzz
Twitter
Google Bookmarks
Google Buzz
LinkedIn
MSN Reporter
MySpace
Orkut
Ping.fm
Reddit
RSS
Slashdot
Technorati
Tumblr
Webnews.de
“Judge upholds right to call Democrats f****** a*******”
That’s only because (as yet) there’s no law against being redundant.
I would’ve filed trespassing charges on the Dem lawyer.
because kicking his ass — as good as that would feel… just ain’t worth jail time.
Isn’t it too bad that you can’t just kick the poo out of f***ing A**H***s. There are just people who have azz’z that are in sore need of kicking.
And now I can’t get the Paul Schaeffer character in “Spinal Tap” out of my mind.
Awesome Artie Fufkin reference, Stosh! Second only to “Weird Science’s” Chet Donnelly in Rufus’ pantheon of grossly underappreciated cinematic performances; “How would you like a nice, greasy pork chop served in a dirty ashtray? He pukes, you die.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZHLgpVEtoc
It just hasn’t hit the Ninth Circus….I mean Circuit yet.
To steal an old joke:
Man #1: All Democrats are assholes!
Man #2: I find that offensive.
Man #1: Why? Are you a Democrat?
Man #2: No, I’m an asshole.
Hey G-Man, I think you mean the Ninth Circle, as in of hell.
It seems every comment here is an attack on a guy who felt legitimately threatened. Why exactly do you feel a need to hit someone when they feel they’ve already been hit? Is it because Ryan Russman is a lawyer? I happen to know he has done quite a bit of good for people just like you. Let’s see how inclined you are to attack when you need his help.
It seems every comment here is an attack on a guy who felt legitimately threatened.
And if he chose to defend himself in the heat of the moment, then you might have grounds to argue that. Instead, this lawyer, having had no violence done to him, attempted to bring criminal charges against the man after the fact. Looking at the facts of the incident, I would note it was the lawyer who first approached the property owner. Setting aside the possibility that it was a heated exchange where both men might have gotten in each other’s faces–the lawyer certainly showed a degree of agitation for the outset–waouldn’t the property owner be as justified in bringing the same charges (or even a charge of trespassing) against the lawyer, perhaps feeling threatened by the lawyer’s agitation while he was pulling up the signs on his property?
Why exactly do you feel a need to hit someone when they feel they’ve already been hit?
This question is is asked with the assumption that the lawyer was not being douchebag by attempting to bring charges, which is not an assumption shared by the previous commenters. Having failed to sufficiently justify the premise of his non-douchbaggery, the question is moot.
Is it because Ryan Russman is a lawyer?
Never heard of him before.
I happen to know he has done quite a bit of good for people just like you.
That’s great. Doesn’t change his actions in this case or our opinion of them. If he has done good, then he deserves all due credit, just not in this case.
Let’s see how inclined you are to attack when you need his help.
You seem to not have noticed the great degree of sarcasm in the above comments. And one of of the bloggers on this site, who is a commenter on this thread, is a law professor.
To add: Outside of the swearing, no verbal threats were made. There’s no indication that fists were balled. No hand signals (finger across the throat, for example) to indicate physical violence. No weapons were withdrawn. Every indication is that it was a heated exchange and nothing more. So, either arguing for the legitimacy of self-defense or the charge in question, all the the usual types of threats, instruments for instilling fear or indicating an escalation to imminent physical harm, are absent.
Don-
Speaking only for myself, it’s because he appeared to be someone with the intelligence of an Obama voter.
Being called a f***ing a****** may suck, but it doesn’t constitute physical violence. I’m sure he would have charged him with a hate crime if he could.
This wasn’t two guys arguing politics in a bar. But this guy approached him in his own yard, chastised him for removing junk from his own property. Lets see, you just had your own property littered and your own political opinion spat on, just to have some holier-than-thou ass whip out his business card like your supposed to be impressed and concede all independent thought.
There used to be a thing called respect. Hell, I might have punched him.
The Firefly compound is in a prominent are of our section of Threedonia. There is a section of our property that is an ideal spot to place signs; you can be assured your message will be seen by all in the area if you put your sign there. As with most property, the section near the street is technically an easement owned by the city.
Shortly after moving in someone who lived about 5 houses from ours decided to sell his house by owner and one morning I awoke to see a sign pointing to his house in front of my house. I wasn’t thrilled, but it seemed like he was having an Open House that day and I assumed he’d take the annoying arrow down when it was over. I still found it difficult to understand why he hadn’t bothered with the courtesy of asking first, but I like to be nice to my neighbors… The sign did not come down that day. Nor the next. Nor the next. Nor that week.
I was irritated and told Mrs. Firefly I was going to go to the neighbor’s house with the sign, ask him if he would mind if I put things in his yard without his permission, and then give him a creative suggestion on a new location he could place his sign. Mrs. Firefly thought that would be rude of me and asked me to ignore it. Another week went by. Then another. I told Mrs. Firefly I had had it and I was going to let the guy know how rude he was. She begged me not to say anything so I agreed to write him a polite letter, rather than confront him face to face. Prior to writing the letter I decided to call the city to ensure I was in my right. The lady at City Hall told me that the city owned that land (it was in the easement), and they do not allow such signs under any circumstances and would I please give her my address so the city could send a policeman over to yank the sign off their property. I told her I would handle the situation myself and they needn’t bother.
I wrote the guy a very polite letter saying that if he had asked my wife and I would have gladly let him put his sign on our property on days when he had an open house, as long as he removed it when the open houses were over. I also informed him that the sign was technically on city property and the city does not allow such signs and I had to promise the city I would manage this to avoid them sending over a policeman to write him a fine. A taped the letter to the back of the sign and put the sign in his yard.
A few weeks later I saw the guy and politely approached him and reiterated that my wife and I have no problem with him putting the sign in our yard when he has open houses. The guy went absolutely apesh*t. He started calling me all kinds of names. My kids were nearby so I remained polite. I said, “Let me get this straight? You put a sign in my yard for 3 weeks without asking my permission and you’re yelling at me?” The guy continued to go apesh*t. He is about 20 years older than me and so I calmly (my kids were near) said to him, “Listen Buddy, the way you are speaking to me usually leads to more than conversation, and I’m about this close to forgetting that my wife and kids are nearby and I don’t want them to have to see me do anything to you so I’m going to walk away and I withdraw the offer for you to ever use my yard for any purpose again.”
One of the weirdest things I’d ever seen. Dude put a sign in my yard without asking and I didn’t say a word for three weeks, and then I politely offered to let him do it when he had open houses and the guy treated me like I’d just poisoned his dog. I know exactly how the home owner in this case felt and if that attorney would have said the same to me and my family were not within view I would have followed JohnFN’s suggestion.
Wow. What a story.
I once had an upstairs neighbor who got it into his head he didn’t like me. Don’t know why. He was a loner, very obese balding guy. Seemed like he had an unhappy life. He played guitar and out practice loudly. Then he took to calling the landlord, saying I was throwing “drug parties” (having some people over and drinking wine). At that point I went upstairs and told him if he did anything like that again, I’d be back with more than talk. He slammed the door in my face. But he stopped.
Strange indeed.
My neighbor let’s his 12-year old kid move is car sometimes. The kid hit a brick wall between our houses — I should say my brick wall. I didn’t even notice it at first since I usually leave early and get back after dark, but then I caught him “repairing” about a week ago it by slapping some mortar across the wall. I went over to ask what he was doing when I finally noticed the damage. Of course — “he no speak English”. Apparently my tone of voice translates directly into Vietnamese because his English-speaking daughter was over the next day. I’m in the process of getting estimates now. Bastard.
Now I have to watch him. He would’ve let it slide. Bastard.
John… you have to goad him into punching first.
You know I heard my favorite writer yesterday say his Dad raised him to believe that no one is greater or more important than anyone else. As in we are all created equal. Had I been the one removing that crap from my lawn and idiot showed up, started in bitching and then produced his business card I would probably shoved it down his throat…what an assjack. Any one of us can look Barack Obama in the eye and tell him what we think because we are his equal. He is our employee. Period.