By Elliott Brack | What bugged me about the sentencing of the 11 teachers in the Atlanta Public School scandal was relatively minor.
Lots of people got upset about the severity of the sentencing. We figured the judge was sending an important message about their guilt.
Granted, it struck me as odd that those convicted didn’t jump at the opportunity to take a plea bargain and reduced sentence for their admission of guilt. After all, they were convicted by a jury in a somewhat short deliberation. They didn’t seem to want to recognize their guilt, when the jury, the judge and anyone following the case thought what they had done was not only wrong, but illegal.
All that didn’t bother me.
But when the court officers handcuffed the convicted, and not just handcuffed them, but did it with their arms behind their backs, that bothered me.
First thing, it sends shudders up my back to think of how it must feel to be handcuffed behind your back! It’s bad enough to be handcuffed in front of you. It’s not just the uncomfortableness, but for me the squeamishness of being confined in such a manner, that sends my mind a’reeling. Even thinking about it gives me the Willies.
We recognize that policemen hauling in a robber, someone involved in a fight, or tough criminal or even a person involved in a domestic dispute, obviously wants to put these people out of a position to cause even more problems. Handcuffing them in front might allow them to use their two hands to cause trouble. Handcuffing them from behind obviously incapacitates them.
Also granted that once a person is found guilty in a courtroom, this person could snap, become excited, and cause havoc. We see the need to ‘cuff most criminals as they are led away to a lock-up.
Yet it seemed unusual punishment and harassment to handcuff those already-distressed teachers found guilty, especially behind their backs. Some might say that’s the standard process, and think no more about it.
It still sends shivers up my spine.
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Criminal activity via the Internet continues strong. Recently I got the following message in an email, and got to think about when I would go to court. Here is the message:
“Dear Elliott,
“You have to appear in the Court on the April 24. Please, prepare all the documents relating to the case and bring them to Court on the specified date. Note: The case will be heard by the judge in your absence if you do not come. You can find the Court Notice is in the attachment.”
It was signed by a name I had never heard of.
What they wanted, of course, may have been to get me to open the attachment, thereby giving them some info about myself, or putting a bug on my computer. Luckily, I didn’t.
Yet at first, I was preparing to appear in court in Lawrenceville. But note: there is no reference to which court to go to, or a court record, or summons, or anything. You wonder how many people who got a similar message opened that attachment, and may have caused harm to their own personal information, or to their computer.
Why can’t these smart people who think up such gimmicks, put their minds toward something more positive, more useful, more helpful to society?
Be careful. Stay on alert all the time. And never open attachments if you don’t know the person sending it.
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