Commuter Contempt

Because it’s funny, that’s why.

I have watched this 20+ times. It wasn’t until at least the 7th time that I realized there were three dummies in that fucking car. The first guy goes SHOOTING straight up. I’m trying to figure out wear that mofo was sitting. So I never sit in that seat again. The second two dummies looked like they sustained minimal damages and survived. The first one, not so much.

At first I didn’t know what I was looking for. Even the second time I still didn’t really know what to look for. Only when they zoom that shit up so close I couldn’t help but notice, HOLY SHIT, there’s a man sliding from the car. And slide from the car in a beautiful manner he did.

It appears as though he is still on a cell phone when it happens. If that is the case, HOLY SHIT, get this man on the Olympic team…for whatever country this is from.

Just not a good part of the road. And also, all these idiots getting out of their cars and chilling in the breakdown lane, that’s How To Die On A Highway 101 shit right there.

Ever been in car trouble and be forced to stand on the side of the highway? I don’t care how manly you are, that shit is unnerving. The cars seem like they’re going light speed, and you get REALLY fucking nervous that every single one is going to barrel into you. At least I do. I also check behind the shower curtain when I poop to make sure no murders are hiding in there to kill me while I dump.

Cop gets jacked up by a drunk driver. Really just comes out of nowhere. Which is probably the best way for it to happen, if it’s gonna happen.

Listen folks, don’t drink and drive. And if you do, don’t crash into cops head on.

I hope everyone is OK.

Yeah, so there’s a giant pothole in the middle of the road. I’m talking, it’s pretty fucking deep. But some genius city worker put a huge orange, not a traffic cone, a giant sized traffic….”thing”. I don’t know what it’s called, but it’s one of these.

Not a whole assembly of these orange cones, with a visible sign saying “get in the other lane.” Nope. Just one single on of these in the middle of the road. 

So, long story short. I almost hit the fucking thing. It was 6:30am. I was half asleep. Luckily I figure shit out and swerved over in the other lane. I can guarantee you some other poor sap wasn’t so lucky.

Even though it’s a video, your butt still clenches up a bit.

Fake or not, this is fucking awesome. Imagine coming out to see your car dinged up, and just being like FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU. Then to see some heroic bystander called some little cunt out on her dishonest attempt to leave a FAKE NOTE. Goddamn, it’s this type of occurrence that makes me think there’s some sort of higher power.

The store owner sweats nothing. Not even an F150 through the front of his/her business. Like a water off a duck’s back…

Something is wrong with this story. Guy wrecks Porsche, kills two people, doesn’t go to jail. Oh, it’s because his lawyer was in kahoots with the judge.

Hit-and-run killer Ryan LeVin won’t be allowed to lounge around the pool at his parents’ oceanfront Fort Lauderdale condo, but he will be able to hit the exercise room regularly during his two-year house arrest.

He’s no longer allowed to drive, but he will be able to go grocery shopping.

LeVin is subject to drug and alcohol testing, which means he won’t be able to enjoy a nice cabernet with his filet mignon for dinner.

As his attorney David Bogenschutz put it Monday, when I asked if LeVin was free to pick up a case of beer on his weekly supermarket sojourns, “He can buy it, but he can’t drink it.”

What is the world coming to, when a privileged 36-year-old who belatedly takes responsibility for plowing into two pedestrians in his $120,000 Porsche has to spend two whole years sober and cooped up in luxury digs. That is, when he isn’t out exercising, shopping, going to church, or visiting his doctors, therapists and lawyers.

Having LeVin behind bars for 5-10 years, when he could have gotten 20-30 years for two counts of vehicular homicide and fleeing an accident scene, seems reasonable. Having him behind a deadbolt with a monitoring bracelet on his ankle and so much temptation nearby does not.

LeVin’s featherweight sentence of house arrest and 10 years of probation, handed down by Broward Circuit Judge Barbara McCarthy last week, was called “the most outrageous thing I’ve seen in 33 years at the courthouse” by Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein.

“It undermines confidence in the system and makes us all look bad,” Finkelstein said Monday.

I have to agree. Outcomes like this do little to dispel the notion that there are two justice systems in this country, one for the well-off and another for the rest of us.

Bogenschutz and prosecutor Stefanie Newman explained that Judge McCarthy had the legal discretion to give such a light sentence, known as a downward departure, especially because the victims’ families didn’t object.

The widows of British businessmen Craig Elford and Kenneth Watkinson were eager to go along, since it meant they’d receive hefty checks to settle civil suits against LeVin, whose family made a fortune in the jewelry business.

Bogenschutz said the prosecution and victims were anxious for resolution because “the case was starting to fall apart at the edges.” If it went to trial, there might have been plenty of reasonable doubt and an acquittal.

But that doesn’t mean McCarthy had to be so lenient once LeVin copped a plea, even if it would have scuttled the civil settlement. A criminal judge has a duty to be fair to society as a whole, not to facilitate financial security for victims.

The lesson is a disturbing one, and it reminds me of the DUI manslaughter case involving NFL player Donte Stallworth a few years ago in Miami-Dade. Stallworth paid a hefty settlement to his victim’s family, then pleaded guilty in criminal court. With the blessing of his victim’s family, Stallworth got a 30-day jail sentence, far less than the usual four-year minimum.

If LeVin and Stallworth didn’t have money, might their victims’ families have had harder feelings and pressed for tougher sentences?

And because a victim family’s wishes is given considerable weight by prosecutors and judges, that means the wealthy have a better chance of buying their way to sympathy and leniency than the non-wealthy.

“It’s the exact antithesis of what our criminal justice should be,” said Finkelstein.

Bogenschutz said a system that favors restitution over incarceration has been approved by the Legislature and upheld by the Florida courts.

So we’ve got the best justice system that money can buy.

TL;DR 0 this story is fucked.

[Via Sun Sentinel]

A car was hit by a train in CT. Or was the train hit by a car? That’s some trippy shit…:

The driver of a car that was hit by a Metro-North train on Sunday will be billed for damages to the train, a spokeswoman for the commuter railroad said.

“The train was where it was supposed to be, and the car was not,” spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said. “The car caused damage to our train.”

It goes without saying that trains are supposed to be on tracks. And if you are driving on across train tracks, look both motherfucking ways. The onl question I’m left with is, did family members say they heard a horn right before the crash?

Family members said they did not hear a horn before the crash. They said that they have complained about the horn’s not sounding at the crossing in the past.

Metro-North said that according to the preliminary investigation, the horn was sounded.

All parties involved are wrong, in my opinion. Want to talk about victims? Here are the real victims.

After the crash, about 100 passengers were taken back to the Milford Metro-North station, where they boarded a different Waterbury-bound train, arriving some 40 minutes late.

The people aboard the train who were severely inconvenienced in wherever they were going - horn or no horn.

Not only is there a giant semi fucking jackknifed on this bridge, but there are giant letters on the side of it that say INFLAMABLE. Which means it’s fucking flammable. I don’t know why or where people started putting “in” at the front of words where it wouldn’t mean “not”. Like ingenious. It means really fucking smart, but based on simple English, you think it means the opposite. What a stupid fucking language.

Anyways, that’s some hairy shit right thurr. If you see that shit, you immediately pitch up for a bit, pop your trunk to see if you have anything in there that might help pass the time. Like a golf club, horseshoes, or an inflatable doll. Something. Anything, to pass the time.

Where a Smart Car gets creamed by a standard size sedan. I need to know what will happen.

I could see it rolling around completely unaffected like a little ball, but that tiny little can just has to crumble when any amount of force touches it. Let’s just have you rear end someone. I want to see how that would turn out. Hopefully you would be safe, and your car totaled. Just saying.