The interrogators at Guantanamo have nothing on a judge in Fort Lupton, Colorado (northeast of Denver) who has fashioned a creative sentence for those who violate the town's noise ordinance.
As these are mostly young people who cruise around the streets of Fort Lupton with "rap" music blaring out their car windows, Judge Paul Sacco has devised a punishment that he says fits the crime:
Manilow.
About four times a year, Judge Sacco has the ordinance violators gather in his courtroom, where they must remain for a full hour while a boombox blares the likes of Barry Manilow, Dolly Parton, Karen Carpenter and Barney (the purple dinosaur). During the full hour of punishment, they are not allowed to chew gum, eat, drink, read or sleep.
Most violators found the first few minutes funny. As time wore on, they weren't laughing anymore.
"When you have a person playing rap at extreme volume all over the city," said the judge, "and they have to sit down and listen for an hour to Barry Manilow, it's horrible punishment."
Adding to the cruel-and-unusual-ness of the punishment, offenders must pay attention during the full hour, and may not sleep, eat, drink, read, or chew gum. Many find the first few minutes comical, but the laughter stops as the torture continues.
Judge Sacco has been imposing the punishment for over ten years, and says there have been very few repeat offenders.
A clear violation of the Eighth Amendment.
From CBS4Denver.
1 comment:
Personally, I think they should have to sit in a very quiet room and read very long legal documents. The court wouldn't see ANY repeat offenders. That would be worse than cruel and unusual punishment.
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