Is it incredibly stupid that Brian Downing, the Alabama fan who teabagged an LSU fan in Krystal, faces years in prison for the act?
Yes.
Is it incredibly stupid for his lawyers to release a letter yesterday afternoon that says the murder rate is too high to prosecute a sexual assault?
Yes, yes, it is.
Yet yesterday his two lawyers released a letter to the press stating "it boggles the mind that with the New Orleans murder rate disturbingly high" that the teabagger would be prosecuted.
What's more, the only reason we are aware this crime occurred according to the teabagger's lawyers: "The eighteen year old victim was never physically harmed and, in fact, was so intoxicated that he would have had no recollection of the incident, but for a video posted online," the lawyers wrote. "Any 'harm' is entirely post hoc and amplified by media more concerned with ratings and sensationlism than covering substantive news."
If a girl is raped while she's intoxicated and only finds out about it because there's a video isn't this "entirely post hoc" too?
I mean, this entire letter is a joke. Just keep your mouth shut and negotiate on behalf of your client.
Deadspin linked the entire letter here.
The irony of releasing a letter that provokes more media coverage of the incident while claiming to decry the amount of media coverage is astounding. This, my friends, proves that the teabagger's lawyers are idiots. Which, let's be honest, isn't that big of a surprise.
First, you don't taunt the district attorney's office and the police department about the unsolved murder rate. It's just not in the best interests of your client.
Second, do you expect for the police department and district attorney's office to not prosecute crimes when there are victims? Go look at the roster of criminal convictions in any city, an awful lot of them don't really protect us from murder.
Third, are the teabagger's lawyers aware that it has been proven that the best way to decrease serious crime is to prosecute all crimes, including petty vandalism?
This was the entire basis behind New York City's stunning reduction in overall crime, murder and otherwise.
Way to teabag your own client.
