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That American criminal justice system

Cuba Gooding Jr charged in New York over claims he groped woman in bar

OK, good. Allegation made, needs to be tested, court is one of the methods of doing that. We should indeed – fame notwithstanding – be equal in whether we have to face that test of the evidence.

Cuba Gooding Jr. turned himself in

OK, good. Turns up on request to start that testing process. No need to drag him in.

The 51-year-old Oscar-winning star of “Jerry Maguire” denies the allegations and pleaded not guilty to forcible touching and sexual abuse charges at a night court arraignment.

Arraignment. Just getting names and numbers booked into the system so that the testing process can start.

He was released on his own recognizance

“We trust you to turn up again for the next stage.”

Gooding, in a dark blue suit, smiled and waved as he walked into a police station Thursday afternoon to meet with special victims investigators. Inside, they took his fingerprints and a mug shot before leading him out in handcuffs.

Later, Gooding sat on a wooden bench in the front row of an austere courtroom, his hands cuffed behind his back

That’s just ludicrous. Voluntary surrender, released on own – and handcuffs inbetween?

Power mad tossers.

34 thoughts on “That American criminal justice system”

  1. Hm, well, the Septics apparently don’t use secure docks, which we often if not invariably do.

  2. Americans like gloating, it seems, over cuffing, over “perp walks”, and over other jollities thrust on people who haven’t yet been tried. They also, at least on the internet, enjoy salacious speculation about how detained prisoners will suffer anal rape.

    You could almost get the impression that they don’t much like each other.

    Mind you, what sort of treatment is being dished out to Assange at the moment in our own fair land?

  3. ‘special victims’

    Rilly?

    Sounds like a social justice system.

    ‘sexual abuse charges’

    Never heard of that. Must be a New York thang. Or a Telegraph thang.

    Here in the more rational South, “sexual assault” covers it. And our victims aren’t special.

  4. Can’t see the problem, myself. Only a tiny proportion of those appearing are going to be problematic. But you don’t know which ones. So restraints are applied to all. All get treated equally. You can imagine what it would like if they weren’t. The humble would be manacled whilst those with influence & a good lawyer wouldn’t

  5. The process is the punishment. At 51 years old and with no history of violence, Cuba Gooding isn’t about to bust out a gat and pop a cap in anyone’s ass, just as geriatric Dominique Strauss-Kahn was in no danger of whipping out his other rapier and turning into Errol Flynn.

    But Yank prosecutors and cops love their perp walks and power plays.

  6. Putting people in cuffs when they’re supposedly innocent and have given no indication of violence or escaping custody is complete overreach. Cuffs should not be the norm if one believes that people are innocent until proven guilty. But then nobody of intelligence would become a copper so it’s no great surprise that they cannot treat people decently.

  7. Dennis the Peasant

    Good to see everyone jumping in with an uninformed opinion. Makes me feel right at home.

    Anyway, Tim, you have the sequence confused…

    1) Arrest warrant issued.
    2) Surrender at jail.
    3) Arrested.
    4) Booked into holding facility or jail.
    5) Transported to court.
    6) Pleas not guilty.
    7) Judge accepts plea.
    8) Judge remands to jail without bail, sets bail or releases.
    9) Prisoner returns to jail or is released.

    Gooding was in handcuffs because he was under arrest and being transported to the court. That’s standard operating procedure for any prisoner who has yet to see a judge. The cuffs came off in court when he pleaded (cuffs coming off is at the discretion of the court). Once the judge had made the decision to release him on his own recognizance, he walked out of the court with his lawyer.

    Prisoners who are under arrest are treated as such and are usually restrained for the safety of the lawyers, judge, bailiffs, etc. Gooding might not decide to get violent, or attempt escape, but that doesn’t mean others won’t.

    Don’t ask how I know this, but I do know it as fact.

  8. Dennis the Peasant

    And at this time, the last thing any Brit should be doing is bashing septics over law enforcement. Between grooming gangs in Rotherham and knife wars in London, British law enforcement has proven itself to be a complete joke. A very bad, complete joke.

    Yeah, we’re far from perfect at it over here, but you aren’t in a position to either judge or lecture.

  9. BWTM.

    If Gamecock chats up a lady in a bar, AND SHE COMES ON TO ME, I might touch her breast.

    She goes, “Ooooo,” or “HEY, STOP THAT!”

    Gamecock responds according to her wishes.

    In this case, ‘A 29-year-old woman told police that Gooding place* his hand on her breast and squeezed it without her consent Sunday night.’

    Not, “HEY, STOP THAT!”

    No, she calls the police. And her pettifogger. And the press.

    She sprang her trap. She expects to come out of this with some big bucks.

    The Mysoginist’s Guide to Life says this is completely fake. Reason #783 not to trust women: They’ll trick you with false positive responses.

    *sic. Bad verb tense in a major publication. Embarrassing.

  10. Standard operating procedure or not, it’s still a load of bollocks for people who are supposedly innocent. Quite bizarre in a country that prides itself on upholding the freedom of the individual. Cuffs should only be for those who have demonstrated that they need them and should definitely not be used when a suspect has shown full cooperation.

  11. Dennis the Peasant

    DocBud –

    So you’d have opposed cuffing Charles Bronson or the Kray Twins at the time of arrest… as they were yet to be proved guilty?

    You sound like SJW snowflake who will never have to actually deal with the practical realities of the criminal justice system in any country.

    At best you’re being deliberately naive, at worse you’re being stupid.

  12. Dennis the Peasant

    In this case, ‘A 29-year-old woman told police that Gooding place* his hand on her breast and squeezed it without her consent Sunday night.’

    Not, “HEY, STOP THAT!”

    No, she calls the police. And her pettifogger. And the press.

    The lesson in this for Gooding and all men is simple: Don’t put your paws on the breasts of anyone you don’t know really well.

    Kind of like the lesson being learned by the Lloyds of London moron: There are consequences for being stupid. The fact that those consequences may be disproportionate to the stupidity in question isn’t the issue.

  13. I’d like to see the video. Not the alleged touching. But the conversation leading up to it. Was it congenial? How long was it?

    Did the cops look at it before they arrested him, or did they just take her word for it?

    Sexual assault laws are for guys grabbing girls. Not guys chatting up women in bars. I’d love to see Gooding turn this around as a 29-year-old woman filing a false police report, and him suing HER.

    “That’s standard operating procedure for any prisoner who has yet to see a judge.”

    If you are saying celebrities aren’t treated differently, I don’t believe you. Jussie Smollett wasn’t just not handcuffed, he was let off.

  14. What I am, DtP, is someone who believes in the presumption of innocence. Handcuffs are a means of restraint which should be used when there is a reasonable belief that restraint is required. The use of handcuffs is not routine procedure in the UK, the following is from the guidance given to police officers in the UK on the use of handcuffs:

    Any intentional application of force to the person of another is an assault. The use of handcuffs amounts to such an assault and is unlawful unless it can be justified. Justification is achieved through establishing not only a legal right to use handcuffs, but also good objective grounds for doing so in order to show that what the officer or member of police staff did was a reasonable, necessary and proportionate use of force.

    Handcuffing someone who has voluntarily presented themselves to a police station and is then released on bail would likely lead to action against the police in the UK.

    If believing that individuals need protection from the excesses of the state makes me a snowflake then I guess I am one, and have been all my adult life, even before I was assaulted and wrongfully arrested by the filth.

  15. Dennis the Peasant

    Gamecock –

    Smollett was indicted but never charged, as the plea deal was reached before filing. No arrest warrant was issued.

  16. Name calling is the best you’ve got in response to a comment that makes it clear that the law in the UK expects the police to use their judgment as to when to use handcuffs? It’s precisely because I’m neither naive or stupid that I do not trust the police to behave appropriately to innocent people without laws to restrain them.

  17. Docbud,
    You should consider yourself lucky.
    The plod in America have a tendency to shoot your pets for no reason, and that’s if they don’t come out and shoot you.
    Read up about that Australian woman who had called 911 to report an assault and was shot by the responding officer.
    And DTP, I’m well aware that we have enough issues with law enforcement over here too.
    I think there is a general erosion of society on both sides of the pond which has eaten away at the trust and respect between the state and the citizen.

  18. DtP–As yet NO evidence has been presented that he touched her anything.

    The moral is of course don’t talk to unknown women. Which is what marx-femmis have wanted all along. Both causing trouble for individual men and overall making as many obstacles as possible to the creation of a stable family.

    Bluebottles all around the planet contain scum while if not corrupt are full of arrogance, egotism and love of their own swaggering “authority”. Special units need to be formed to gather clandestine audio-visual evidence of said faults and then deliver a surprise shit-bashing to the Plod in question. The first offence would carry no loss of job or pension . But knowing that Officer “I’mGod” is enjoying a week or two in hospital as a result of his bad habits will have a sobering effect on the rest of them. Esp if they might be next.

  19. Dennis the Peasant

    Elks –

    You can’t get an arrest warrant without probable cause. There was enough evidence to meet that threshold.

    DocBud –

    There is difference between pointing out the obvious and name calling.

  20. “And at this time, the last thing any Brit should be doing is bashing septics over law enforcement. Between grooming gangs in Rotherham and knife wars in London, British law enforcement has proven itself to be a complete joke. A very bad, complete joke.”

    Yes Dennis, I think we would have to concede that

  21. Yeah, we’re far from perfect at it over here, but you aren’t in a position to either judge or lecture.

    I’ve used almost exactly those words to address your feeble blusters. I will continue to decline to judge all Americans based on tossers like you.

  22. Dennis the Peasant

    I wonder if they’ll cuff the ad men and prep walk them to the station. Can’t be too careful with gender stereotypers, ya know.

    A nation of clowns, plain and simple.

  23. DtP,

    It’s still name calling if you’re incapable of explaining why you think it is obvious.

    I think your case that cuffing should be standard procedure in Western democracies that believe in the presumption of innocence is decidedly weak. I do concede that its primary premise that cops are too dumb to exercise judgement in such, or any, matters is valid, but that is not a good reason to accept the violation of innocent people.

  24. “I wonder if they’ll cuff the ad men and prep walk them to the station.”

    If you are going to impugn a nation, at least proof read.

  25. Allow this Texan to nip this fledgling international incident in the bud:

    Both our countries are driving off a cliff, the particular speed and direction is less important than reversing the motion.

  26. @ DtP
    The moron wasn’t a Lloyd’s underwriter – he was employed by an AMERICAN insurance broker.

  27. “Both our countries are driving off a cliff”

    But at least we are driving on the right side.

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