Posted on 07/06/2011 2:09:59 PM PDT by The Magical Mischief Tour
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - When 18-year-old Tyell Morton put a blow-up sex doll in a bathroom stall on the last day of school, he didn't expect school officials to call a bomb squad or that he'd be facing up to eight years in prison and a possible felony record.
The senior prank gone awry has raised questions of race, prosecutorial zeal and the post-Columbine mindset in a small Indiana town and around the country, The Indianapolis Star reported in its Tuesday editions.
Legal experts question the appropriateness of the charges against Morton, and law professor Jonathan Turley at George Washington University posed a wider question about Morton's case on his legal blog.
"The question is what type of society we are creating when our children have to fear that a prank (could) lead them to jail for almost a decade. What type of citizens are we creating who fear the arbitrary use of criminal charges by their government?"
(Excerpt) Read more at wsmv.com ...
Probably had a sign on it saying principal BLOW ME.
Back in my day, they put a VW Bug in the main hall. If that happened today, there would be all kinda of pants in a wad and people having cows. The amount of trouble people would have caused over a prank would be worse than a bomb going off.
The reason was so that a teen girl could spend more time with her bf, who was going to be leaving on the ferry.
So, she and her friend screwed up hundreds, if not thousands, of peoples plans. Those going home, and those trying to arrive on the Island.
Throw in the parking situation in and around the ferry terminal, airline connections, job responsibilities, economic impacts, etc.
I don't think they were prosecuted.
“So the scenario he presents to the guy is “You can plea bargain to a lesser charge, or you can put me to the trouble of going to trial. If you go to trial, you might get off, or you might get sentenced to 8 years. Do you feel lucky, punk?”
And the correct answer is:
“Naw Suh - I feels I’s gonna be rich!”
OK, this is ridiculous. They come down hard on a prank, but refuse to give real punishment to rapistss, murderers, and rioters assaulting people in the street.
America was destroyed by the Great Society, and Satan’s body servant, LBJ.
Most likely, the early 1970s.
Yeah, felony convictions are a job killer.
We are? When was the last one here? Seems to me they’re to busy getting sent to their porcine hell by our military. The charade we have in this country is merely serf control BS. We could go back to pre 9-11 in an instant and citizen vigilance would suffice, along with occasional sterilization of a religeous site of certain desert dwelling zealots as retaliation for attacks...
So, if you observe a person wearing a hoodie, gloves; sneak into a public building (airport, school, bus stop, hospital - any building where unarmed, innocent lives will soon occupy) with a large wrapped package - what would you do? Go pick up the package? Kick it? Open it and hope it wasn't a bomb? The school did the ONLY thing they could do - with the evidence at hand.
Actually not. In every school in the country every day million of kids walk in the door wearing backpacks - each of which is large enough to hold a bomb or a blow up doll. And in many parts of our nation kids wear hoodies. So by the test of "we saw a person who could have left a bomb behind" because they had a hoodie on and were carrying something that could have contained a bomb, you'd have to evacuate every school in the country every day - or at least every day in the winter when they all have their gloves on.
Real security requires thinking. In this case that was lacking.
He'll just have to become a pro athlete or politician then! /s
It was bought explicitly for the prank no doubt.
Incorrect. I have been charged with many felonies, never convicted. I have a great middle-class professional career.
Try to find one of those jobs in this job climate. They see “yes” checked off and it does not matter what else is on the application/resume. It’s off to the dustbin of forgotten applicants.
I always thought the application said CONVICTED of a felony though.
The fairies are in charge.
http://arlo.net/resources/lyrics/alices.shtml
Sorry.. Sounds like Alice’s restaurant to me.
Or Ron White thrown in to publick.
It was a harmless prank for crying out loud!
Exactly. Breathe a sigh of relief that it wasn't a real problem, call it a good preparedness exercise... and close the books on it.
Bingo. The prosecutor would be a laughing stock if he pushed this to trial.
It was a blow up doll in a toilet stall. It's zero tolerance gone wild. Public school teachers can't handle a blow up doll in a toilet stall? Buncha f'n zombies.
Zero Tolerance precludes ever making an honest mistake.
I hope he demands a jury trial. This is the kind of situation that jury nullification was made for.
Does the school have a policy against wearing hoodies and carrying large packages? If it doesn’t, I don’t see how he violated the rules by doing that. Is he the only person that has been picked up on surveillance cameras in a hoodie with a large package. I’m sure no school athlete has done that with a huge duffel bag or shoulder pads?
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