Letters to the Editor
pewella
Published Letters: 81 Editor's Choice: 15
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Make Noise, but Stay Away From the Cyanide
[Read the article: A fellow law student broke my nose and joked about it on Facebook]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I am a 7 year call and a federal criminal law lawyer. I hated every moment of law school, but even in the darkest worst periods (mostly at exam time), none of my colleagues would ever have behaved like that. Drunk or not, this behaviour is inexcusable and criminal.
Step 1 - The Dean of your Faculty, from your description, should step down if he or she is unprepared to deal with this appropriately. Get a lawyer and go to the President of your university.
Step 2 - Then go to the police, with your lawyer in tow and medical records in hand (along with the dossier you prepared for the Dean), and file a police report. The intentional breaking of a nose is aggravated assault and is a very serious charge. Make sure that this guy is CHARGED with the crime. He needs to have a criminal record so that he'll have a hard time getting called to the bar.
Step 3 - Find out where your "frenemy" is planning to article, and give them the dossier.
Step 4 - Contact the Bar Society of the state in which this guy is planning to practice law and let them know of his assault. Ask them to open a file and follow up if he is charged.
Step 5 - try to pass your exams and get out of there.
Step 6 - Go get some counselling to deal with all of the bad feelings that this trauma has caused you. You are the victim of a violent attack. And instead of having the DEAN OF YOUR LAW SCHOOL address the situation, the effects of the attack are compounding by the assailant mocking you in a public forum and the Dean, who in student affairs is supposed to be the arbiter, supposed to come up with a fair solution, ignores you. You are furious because that is how people feel with the system fails them terribly. And your Dean is a terrible terrible Dean. LAW is supposed to be the means through which these types of conflicts are handled. Instead of an offence going unpunished, the LAW is supposed to step in and administer justice. Your Dean is allowing this situation to escalate, instead of dying away as I'm sure he or she is hoping it will.
LW - maybe you are a drama queen, but I can tell you, small town law schools are filled to capacity with stupid drunken frat boys who later go on to become partner in some conservative firm and spend the weekends screwing the secretary. But do not worry if you are rejected by THEM. It's a badge of honour to have hosers like that think you are an outsider.
If you are going to become an advocate for justice as a future lawyer, you need to muster up the strength to advocate for yourself. Call your parents, get a lawyer, create a team whose goal it is to right this wrong. DO NOT let this issue go. If you do, you'll be a door mat for the rest of your life. Take this guy down by using the system. Don't stoop to his level by poisoning his coffee.
Best of luck my friend.
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Response
[Read the article: A fellow law student broke my nose and joked about it on Facebook]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]For an act to constitute a crimanal offence, it must contain two parts - the act itself (the actus reus) and the mental element (the mens rea), or intent. So what that means is that you must INTEND to do the action. So accidentally elbowing a person and breaking their nose when trying to get through a crowd does not constitute intent, so that is not a criminal act.
However, just because the guy did not MEAN to break her nose, does not mean that his actions were not reckless enough to constitute a wanton disregard for her well-being. In Canada, assault is simply "unwanted touching" (but obviously the threshold for harm has to be more than that). The LW said "Don't touch me, you could easily break my nose". She gave him a warning, and told him NOT to touch her....so his acts were an unwanted use of force. He might not have meant to break her nose, but what did he think would happen if he put her in a neck hold and shove her face into a table or bar?
It's the same thing for manslaughter....sometimes guys get into a fight, and one of them will die even though the other guy just punched him once. Now, he didn't mean to kill him, but that was the result. The intent, however, was a criminal use of force (to punch him), but the result was beyond his control. So this intent satisfies the mens rea requirement for manslaughter.
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You need an anonymous option
[Read the article: Salon's new letters registration policy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sometimes a genuine dialogue is only possible behind the veil of anonymity. If one were to discuss personal experiences with sexual abuse, domestic violence, parenting failures, drug and alcohol abuse, etc., sometimes that conversation is only possible when one knows that their private life is not going to be turned into fodder for the Internet machine. I have published anonymously a few times in order to protect my privacy. To lose that option would mute the level of conversation, and I honestly feel that this is one of the best fora on the Internet for honest, intellectually vigorous discussions. In an age where coteries and intellectual circles are pretty much gone, salon fills that need for me. I vote for keepign the option to publish anonymously.
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Did I write that letter and forget doing so?
[Read the article: I still have a job, but I've completely stopped working!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thank you facebook and salon.com for ruining my career.
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Time to bring out the naughty mat
[Read the article: A cheating bully is ruining our racquetball games]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I just came back from being the "Duty Mom" at my son's nursery school, and the answer to the LW's letter is stunningly simple. Just don't play with him. Tell him that playing with him isn't fun, he takes the joy out of the game and he doesn't play by the rules. Don't tolerate it, but don't over-talk it. Just pick up your toys and go home. It's that simple. And then give him a time out on the naughty mat.