Jack Bauer Rams Terrorist, Gets Probation

Jack Bauer's number could have been changed to a "10".

As in 'years in prison'.

A college student repeatedly rammed his car into another man's vehicle, yelling that the man was a terrorist and that he was Jack Bauer, the crack terror-fighting fed on the Fox TV show "24".

"My name is Jack Bowers (Bauer) and I work for the FBI and the Secret Service. My wife and family was kidnapped by the president and terrorist," Edgar Sullivan shouted, according to court documents.

Sullivan was given probation today when the "terrorist" whose car he rammed failed to show for any of the court dates. He faced up to 10 years in prison for second-degree assault for his Jack Bauer impression.

The Howard County State Attorney's Office speculated that Marlon Cantoral "may have been living illegally in the country," and that may have been the reason that he provided a fake address to police at the time of the ramming.

Or, he may have been a terrorist.



Sullivan made a good bid to be Kiefer Sutherland's replacement, should the "24" star need replacing.

He was driving a Ford Escape on I-95 a year ago when he struck Cantoral's van. The van left the highway and was rammed a second time as he tried to drive over the grass median strip.

Cantoral then fled on foot into the lobby of a correctional facility. Bauer...er..Sullivan followed him into the correctional facility and shouted "he's a terrorist and he kidnapped my family".

Officers contacted Sullivan's father who said his son was not married and the family was fine, authorities said. In court Thursday, Sullivan apologized for the incident, telling Howard County Circuit Judge Richard Bernhardt that he has been attending alcohol treatment and plans to graduate in May.

Sullivan, a student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County who pleaded guilty in September to drunken driving, smiled but did not speak as he left the courthouse with his parents.

So maybe Cantoral really was a terrorist.

But Sullivan wasn't really Jack Bauer.

Another career in law enforcement is snuffed out by the hard edge of reality.

by Mondoreb
hat tip: Mean Gene-LGF
images:
* creativeliberty
Source:
* Man Gets Probation after Claiming to be jack Bauer



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

Protesters At Dead Soldier's Funerals: Phelps-Ropers Trial Begins

[pinknews}
by Mondoreb & Little Baby Ginn

A church group that has been turning the funerals of dead servicemen into spectacles is on trial in Baltimore. The issue is whether their picketing and displaying signs with messages such as "Thank God For Dead Soldiers" inflicts distress on the families of the deceased.

The trial of Shirley Phelps-Roper begins. More from the Baltimore Sun:

A member of a Kansas-based anti-gay church told a federal jury Tuesday that America's acceptance of homosexuality spurred her and fellow parishioners to picket a Westminster Marine's funeral, one of the demonstrations by the group that have become so frequent that 22 states have enacted or proposed laws limiting the rights of protesters at memorial services.

Phelps-Roper is a member of Westboro Baptist, a 75-person congregation made up mostly of members of the same family in Topeka, Kan., and known for protesting at the funerals of soldiers. Members of the church also picketed outside several Baltimore religious services last weekend.

An unusual motive for the protests was given by the defendant to the jury.

"When the war started and the soldiers started dying, we saw that the funerals were turned into public spectacles," Phelps-Davis said. "We concluded that we need to go because this nation is proud of its sin."

Is this free speech or intentional infliction of emotional distress? That's the question the jury will have to answer.

Jurors will decide whether Westboro Baptist is liable for an intentional infliction of emotional distress based on the message from its members' signs and whether the family's expectation of privacy at Matthew Snyder's funeral at St. John Roman Catholic Church was violated.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett dismissed two of five counts against the church and three of its leaders, saying in part that their statements amounted to protected speech. Bennett is presiding over the case.

The families of soldiers killed in battle are understandably upset at the turning of their bereavement into a carnival sideshow. The protesters, no matter their stated motives, are taking advantage of another human's misfortune to make a political point. Being members of a church group, they should try to minister to spiritual needs instead of political ones.

Render unto Caesar.




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