Law and Order: Alameda County Edition
Jack McCoy, legal advisor
A month and a half ago, I wrote about the Alameda Sun’s ridiculous “news” article and duplicative front page editorial regarding the signature gatherers collecting ballot signatures for the SunCal initiative. While taking photos of one of the gatherers, an Alameda Sun reporter was yelled at and eventually had his hand (holding the camera) pushed away in a stupid (on the signature gatherers part) attempt to block a photo from being taken.
A criminal complaint was filed by the Sun reporter and I questioned whether the charge of “Criminal Assault” was warranted.
The news story does nothing but recount one side of a story, without asking any questions, providing any background or doing any investigation. I don’t condone behavior (yelling/”pushing away a hand” (which is now apparently “criminal assault”)) of the signature gatherer, but once you read the editorial, you learn she’s lost her job. This issue was quickly dealt with.
It seemed to me that while completely inappropriate, and unfriendly, and just plain wrong, that filing a complaint might have been a bit of an emotional overreaction (hey, we all have them at some point). Thankfully, I had Eric Turowski, intrepid Alameda Sun Publisher and editorialist posing as journalist, to abuse me of the idea that this was over the top. He cited some top notch legal theory in defense of the filing:
And if anyone thinks that the assault (yes, John, criminal assault-you might want to catch some reruns of Law & Order to get at least a little bit familiar with arrestable offenses)
Now personally, I stopped watching Law and Order a long time ago, but last time I watched, I didn’t get the idea that I was getting solid legal advice, just a repetitive formula driven story with the occasional moral quandary thrown in. But chastened, I figured I’d wait a few weeks for charges to be brought and then write an apology for having so clearly missed the obvious criminal assaultiness of the whole endeavor.
Much to my surprise, when I called the Alameda County DA’s office yesterday and inquired about the case, I was told that the DA did not to bring charges. Clearly Jack McCoy doesn’t work in Alameda County. It turns out that in Alameda, pushing someone’s hand away doesn’t rise to criminal assault. It’s just a really unfriendly thing that causes you to lose your job.
A quick side note, I think that reporter Dennis Evanosky has managed to write some fairly balanced articles about the SunCal initiative in the aftermath of this endeavor and I think that’s a great credit to him. It’s something others have noticed as well.
Popularity: 7% [?]
dave
June 3rd, 2009 at 7:13 am
If only he had abused you, instead of disabusing you of a notion…..
Jill
June 7th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
I have been in a situation where an irrational stranger shoved me, and it certainly felt like assault. The fact that you have focused your condescending condemnation on the person who was assaulted speaks volumes about your values.
When a member of the press is assaulted, it is news – first-hand, verifiable news, no less. Local politics have turned ugly, and that is something that needs to be reported.
You lost a fan with this one.
Joe
June 8th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Jill makes it sound like the person “assaulted” had their hand broken or something. When someone wants to have criminal charges for the pushing of a hand, you know politics have turned ugly.
Sure, the press getting assaulted is news, but a hand push is not news, it’s lame news from the Alameda Sun.
Jack Mingo
June 25th, 2009 at 10:52 am
You clearly have never had your hand punched when you’ve had a camera up to your face. But that doesn’t even matter for a charge of assault. Legally, “assault is an act that creates an apprehension in another of an imminent, harmful, or offensive contact.” Battery is “harmful or offensive touching of another.” If the facts are as relayed, the woman is guilty of both assault and battery.