Be careful not to touch anyone in the US unless you get hauled off by the police...

Uiler · Feb 17, 2006

Wow, I never realised that touching someone on the shoulder was considered criminal assault in America...I find it somewhat ironic that this occured in Texas, gun capital of America and right-wing conservative stronghold.

http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,18166164%5E1702,00.html

AN Australian woman charged with assault after trying to shush an American movie goer who was on a mobile phone has been fined $176.

Pauline Clayton was in Texas on holidays when she decided to catch Australian actor Heath Ledger's movie Brokeback Mountain last week.

Halfway through the picture, a woman film patron took a mobile phone call, and began talking.

Annoyed by the disruption, Ms Clayton, a former Sunshine Coast councillor, put her finger to her mouth, signalling to the woman to shush, then touched her on the shoulder twice.

The other woman then stood up and started shouting expletives at Ms Clayton before storming out of the cinema.

Police arrived and escorted Ms Clayton out of the theatre.

The maligned woman told officers Ms Clayton had been "invading her private space" and accused the Australian of assault.

Police subsequently arrested Ms Clayton and charged her with assault.

Ms Clayton was fined $176, the Seven Network reported today.

Seven showed vision of a smiling Ms Clayton leaving what appeared to be a court building but it was unclear whether she had paid the fine.

"If I don't have a traffic violation or touch anyone again in 90 days, there's no conviction," she said.

EDIT: Here's a picture of the lady in question.

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,18166509^661,00.html

Looks like a typical middle-class middle-aged white female.

Birdjaguar · Feb 17, 2006

Stupid Americans.

SuperBeaverInc. · Feb 17, 2006

Absolutely ridiculous

h4ppy · Feb 17, 2006

That is so wrong.

Kozmos · Feb 17, 2006

I have nothing to say except:http://darthno.ytmnd.com/

Stylesjl · Feb 17, 2006

Touching someone has always been criminal assualt, no matter how lightly you touch them

He should not have touched her in the first place, however i think punishing him like that when no harm was done is wrong

Alpine Trooper · Feb 17, 2006

Are you kidding me?

"Oh my God, someone touched me on the shoulder. blah blah blhdjksahdjksahdksad"

Then I TKO her. Chuck style.

Sahkuhnder · Feb 18, 2006

That lady looks like a dangerous career criminal to me. I bet she has led a life of these kind of assaults, touching other human beings for years prior to these malicious attacks (she touched twice!). It's good to see her crime spree finally brought to a halt by the authorities in Texas. I for one will sleep better tonight. :dubious:

ironduck · Feb 18, 2006

Genocidicbunny · Feb 18, 2006

I would have punched the lady who was talking on the phone after she yelled the explicit words just to justify the fine...
We all live in Amerika ( rammstein if anyone recognizes)...and we can sue anyone up the tuchis for just about anything

Meleager · Feb 18, 2006

Stylesjl said:
Touching someone has always been criminal assualt, no matter how lightly you touch them

He should not have touched her in the first place, however i think punishing him like that when no harm was done is wrong

Its "she" and "her".

Do you think that its right that she was charged (since I already know you stance on the punishment)?

Elrohir · Feb 18, 2006

Pretty stupid ruling.

general_kill · Feb 18, 2006

If some lady pressed her dirty finger to my mouth, I'd be pissed off too. But if I were in a movie theater and someone was talking on the phone near me, I would drop my bucket of popcorn on his/her head. I think both parties are at fault of provoking the other.

Genocidicbunny · Feb 18, 2006

Elrohir said:
Pretty stupid ruling.

Pretty does not begin to describe it. I have seen stories of many of these kind of rulings. Like the one about aguy robbing a house and getting locked in the car garage for 2 weeks. He sued the homeowners for mental and physical anguish. And he survived on THEIR dog food and THEIR pepsi. Funny thing is that the garage door had a manual open handle. Oh, btw-he won 500,000 $ or so.

Meleager · Feb 18, 2006

general_kill said:
If some lady pressed her dirty finger to my mouth, I'd be pissed off too.

Your mouth is on your shoulder?

Chairman Meow · Feb 18, 2006

She should have destroyed the cell phone. The fewer of those things there are in the world, the better.

Stylesjl · Feb 18, 2006

Meleager said:
Its "she" and "her".

Do you think that its right that she was charged (since I already know you stance on the punishment)?

I don't think she should have been charged for the touching but she should have been aware that touching someone even like that is a criminal offence

Elrohir · Feb 18, 2006

stickciv said:
Pretty does not begin to describe it. I have seen stories of many of these kind of rulings. Like the one about aguy robbing a house and getting locked in the car garage for 2 weeks. He sued the homeowners for mental and physical anguish. And he survived on THEIR dog food and THEIR pepsi. Funny thing is that the garage door had a manual open handle. Oh, btw-he won 500,000 $ or so.

Someone that stupid should be shot or at the very least castrated to prevent them from passing on their stupidity and further diluting the human gene pool.

I'm only half joking here, people like that are so stupid it is beyond words.

Genocidicbunny · Feb 18, 2006

Elrohir said:
Someone that stupid should be shot or at the very least castrated to prevent them from passing on their stupidity and further diluting the human gene pool.

I'm only half joking here, people like that are so stupid it is beyond words.

no kiddin

Speedo · Feb 18, 2006

Just one more reason to amend laws so that annoying cell phone users can be shot on sight.

Be careful not to touch anyone in the US unless you get hauled off by the police...

Emperor

Hanafubuki

Groucho

You sir, pineapple?

Jew Detective

SOS Brigade Member

AllCiv

Delusions of grandeur

Deity

Bug squasher

Stoned as a Statue

RELATIONAL VALORIZATION

Deity

Bug squasher

Stoned as a Statue

Class IV

SOS Brigade Member

RELATIONAL VALORIZATION

Bug squasher

Esse Quam Videri

Similar threads