"I told him to have a seat in the jury box. He sat down for 15 to 20 seconds, then stood up and ran."...right out of the courthouse, in fact. Which turned into a foot chase with Rusty the Bailiff through downtown Lafayette, and was therefore big enough doin's for several column inches in the city paper.
(What kind of logic makes someone facing a misdemeanor conviction decide to just up and turn it into "Escape", which is a felony?)
19 comments:
Ignorance?
Why did they make him sit in the jury box? Maybe he thought he had been selected for jury duty and was running from that.
Bag of weed in the pocket?
I swear on the ghost of Patrick Ferguson, the captcha is POTOKE.
It's the same logic that makes the kid say "Wasn't me!" despite the broken cookie jar behind him and the crumbs all over his chin. Some people, unfortunately, never grow out of that instinct.
There was a certain lack of critical thinking skills being manifested.
If he had an abundance of critical thinking skills, he wouldn't have been in the courtroom in the first place, most likely... ;)
I knew a guy once who did the exact same thing - made it maybe 50 ft out of the courthouse before being tackled. Not the brightest bulb in the light string and rarely operated beyond a "fight or flight" response.
Tam,
I have experinced thia with a number of individuals over the last 25 years, on foot and in vehicles. Usually they are running from some kind of minor infraction and turn it into major felony doings during the attempted escape.
I cannot resist asking them upon capture "What the hell were you thinking". Most cannot explain in any coherent way what thought process lead them to think something like this was a good idea.
Ebenezar blinked at me, then snorted. "Stupid, Hoss. Every time. Only so many blackhearted villains in the world, and they only get uppity on occasion. Stupid's everywhere, every day."
Yup.
Same poor impulse control that got them there in the first place.
As they said in Zombieland, "Cardio".
I also get the sense from reading it that the judge was in the courtroom without an officer or deputy. Where I come from, that's nigh on crazy.
Judges make lots o' enemies and they see the same people week after week. I'm always amazed when everyday, some guy comes in shackled up and he and the judge exchange pleasantries and catch up and stuff before getting down to business.
I once knew a fella in TX that stripped naked, and then jumped into a cactus. I asked him the same question.
What did he say?
He said it seemed like a good idea at the time.
"Stupid is as Stupid Does..." BAM, first Forrest Gump quote of the day.
I will always love you - even if i have to always love you from no closer than 300 feet
Happy made up holiday
Tam and Kristopher hit it: criminals just ain't too smart. That's a big reason that they are criminals in the first place. I mean, really: what person with an IQ above that of a rutabaga thinks that it's a good idea to risk years in prison by knocking over a quickie mart to score fifty bucks out of the cash register???
When quite young I concluded that a life of crime was not for me. Not due to any real moral scruples (a disinclination to victimize others came much later) but simply because it seemed too much trouble for meager returns. Not breaking the law and simply garnering money by, oh, earning it, seemed much more straightforward and definitely much less risky.
That way you don't have to keep an escape route ready, keep looking over your shoulder, keep track of whatever was the last lie you told a specific person, worry about various people meeting up and comparing notes, or maintain constant surveillance of your surroundings to avoid unexpected confrontations with past victims.
And then, as here, there's the fact that you're not likely to be recreating a Benny Hill skit minus the Yakety Sax.
There are lots of critters that run whenever they see the cops. I haven't researched Indiana, but in Texas, just running away from the police before you're caught is a misdemeanor. And until two years ago, it was only a Class B misdemeanor (just one charge up from a ticket); only lately is it a Class A, risking up to a year in jail.
So you get some career criminals that just have in their head to run when they can. The thing is, Evading is one thing, while Escape is another. Welcome to FelonyLand, where the bars are closed year-round.
Probably similar to the late sod near here who was drinking in a bar (busting his parole) when an armed argument broke out in the street. The now-deceased tried to flee, the cops tried to stop him, most likely as a witness, and he probably panicked and hit the gas pedal with an occifer standing in front of the vehicle. The late sod is now, well, late.
In aviation we call it SLOJ ("slow-jay") for Sudden Loss of Judgement.
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