Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Walking the Sign

Walking the Sign

Today in Vidalia Georgia, where I am visiting my son-in-law, daughter and grandchildren, I drove down to the donut shop, which is across the parking lot from the Municipal Building.

As I walked back to the car I noticed someone walking with a sign alongside the highway. My first impression was that somebody was on strike. As I drove past I noticed instead that the sign said words to the effect… “I was DUI and this is part of my punishment.” (To me this was an innovative twist on requiring a person to do public service)

When I drove by later he was joined by a second sign carrier and this one said words to the effect, “I was convicted of Disorderly Conduct and this is a part of my punishment. (He was found guilty of urinating in a parking lot.) In this instance there was a photo journal crew interviewing the two sign carriers. I was intrigued and asked the woman who headed the crew if this was a new procedure that had just been put into effect?

She replied that she didn’t know and was driving by with her crew and saw the two sentence servers walking with their signs. I was interested in finding out who she represented and what view on the political spectrum she represented, conservative, liberal or moderate.

Anyway she asked if she could interview me and when she said she was an anthropologist and represented a moderate point of view I was willing to take her at her word.

“What do you think of this,” she asked.

“I think it’s great,” I responded.

“Don’t you think this punishment is a bit severe? The only thing that one guy did was take a wiz in the parking lot.”

“I think it’s a very mild form of sanction, “ I replied. “ I congratulate the city of Vidalia for giving a judge recourse to such an intermediate and sensible step to enforce the law.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because today in our families, schools and communities there seem to be only two options of dealing with lawbreakers. The first is to do noting, the second is the nuclear option… some form of lockup.

“I see.”

“A community has to have standards. Most of us try and follow a higher moral and that keeps us from getting in trouble with the law. The law is a very low standard below which society will not suffer its citizens to behave. The normal progression is that a young person’s behavior is overlooked and ignored and it gets progressively worse until a law is broken which carries with it a serious sanction and the convict is sent off to state prison.

“ So you favor this type of penalty?”

“Think about it. While some ACLU lawyer might consider it cruel and unusual all sanctions have an element of cruelty and if this considered unusual its only because we don’t see more of it. In my view it is a great tool for a judge to have on hand. If the offense isn’t that terrible, this punishment gives the perpetrator time to reflect on his misdeed, be embarrassed, deter him from doing it again while at the same time reminding those who drive by what the consequence of such miss-deeds are. It serves as an appropriate form of social remediation that lies somewhere between doing nothing and more drastic measures where a convict is locked in a cell for a long period, with hardened criminals who introduce the rookie to a whole new meaning of CRUEL and UNUSUAL.”

I walked up and took a picture with my cell phone and the Photo Journalist thanked me for expressing my viewpoint.