Judge Orders Michigan Man to Scrub Veterans Memorial With Toothbrush

[babylonsister]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,292538,00.html

Judge Orders Michigan Man to Scrub Veterans Memorial With Toothbrush

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

AP/Saginaw News

Aug. 7: Philip Kolinski stands in a downpour after cleaning a war memorial monument in Saginaw, Mich.



A Michigan man scrubbed a monument to U.S. troops with a toothbrush Tuesday while wearing a T-shirt that read "I Stole From Veterans" as part of a punishment for a scam to solicit scrap yards for metal, the Saginaw News reports.

A judge ordered Philip Kolinski, 73, of Carrollton Township, Mich., to wash the veterans monument outside the Saginaw County Governmental Center after he was found guilty of soliciting metal donations for a sculpture dedicated to Iraq War veterans that was never built, the Saginaw News said.

Instead of using the metal for a monument, he sold it and kept the money, the paper reports.

[Maddy McCall]

1. Is he a veteran?

I hate these public scorn types of sentences. I think judges compete to see who can come up with the most cruel, oddest ones.

[Lex1775]

3. What is wrong with a dose of public scorn?

[BlooInBloo]

4. That there are no standards by which to judge whether or not your 8th Amendment rights...

... have been violated.

And without standards, abuse is not merely possible, but guaranteed.

EDIT: That's my only problem with it. The amount of power Americans are willing to cede to The State is really quite amazing. At least has the bittersweet consequence of providing an easy answer to the question: "How did America get the way it is?".

[Lex1775]

6. Hmmmm...

Assuming that this guy had a lawyer... and his lawyer apparently didn't appeal the sentence on the grounds that it violated the 8th Amendment and the guy didn't appeal on his own behalf that it violated his 8th Amendment rights, I'd say that is a standard right there. The two parties (assuming he had a lawyer) with the biggest reason to complain that it violated the 8th didn't.

Plus, what is so cruel about having to clean a Veterans Memorial?

[BlooInBloo]

7. I never said, suggested, or implied that there was anything remotely cruel...

... about that specific punishment. To even ask that question of me indicates a complete misunderstanding of what I said.

I'm very reassured by your non-lawyerly opinion, though. Thanks!

[Olney Blue]

2. Looks like he stole Cheney's T-shirt too.

[MLFerrell]

5. Oh, SNAP!

:evilgrin: